Language Teaching & Learning

Why Study Language Teaching & Learning?

Language Teaching & Learning programs offer students the opportunity to explore how languages are learned and how they are most-effectively taught. These programs allow students to consider questions such as the following:

  • What theoretical issues underlie the teaching and learning of language?
  • What teaching practices and choices arise from various frameworks of language?
  • How are first language acquisition and second language learning similar and different?
  • What does it mean to learn a second language simultaneously or successively?
  • What are the main psychological factors influencing second language acquisition?
  • What role should grammar instruction play in the teaching and learning of language?
  • How can language learners develop the skills needed to express identity and intentions in the target language?
  • How can language learners become more effective cross-cultural communicators?
  • How are regional varieties of language learned and what is their place in the classroom context?
  • How do learning styles and strategies impact the teaching and learning of language?
  • How can engagement in theatre and other pedagogical artistic activities develop written and oral skills in a second language?
  • What are the roles of the teacher in the language classroom?
  • How have language teaching methods evolved to reflect changes in society and larger schools of thought?
  • What are the most effective ways to teach language learners how to speak, listen, read, and write?
  • How can culture be most effectively integrated into the language curriculum?
  • In what ways can teachers’ and learners’ plurilingual resources support language teaching and learning?
  • In what ways can technology facilitate the process of language teaching and learning?
  • How are classroom assessment and standardized tests used in the teaching and learning of languages?

Language Teaching & Learning at UTM offers three programs:

  • Major Program: Language Teaching & Learning: French
  • Major Program: Language Teaching & Learning: Italian
  • Specialist Program: Language Teaching & Learning: French & Italian.

Courses in these programs serve a dual purpose:

  1. to provide students with a solid theoretical base founded on extant knowledge in the field; and
  2. to generate and maintain student interest in practical applications of this knowledge.

Language Teaching & Learning at UTM also offers students opportunities to be involved in faculty research projects through Independent Study courses and through Research Opportunity Program (ROP) courses.

 

Language Teaching & Learning is a valuable component of an undergraduate liberal arts education that can be the first step along the path to numerous opportunities:

  • Language teaching (in a Kindergarten to Grade 12 school, in adult education, or in community-based programs)
  • Rehabilitative medicine, such as audiology or speech therapy special education
  • Training and development
  • Continued academic studies in education, language studies, or other related disciplines such as applied linguistics, communication, and psychology, where the contribution of linguistics is increasingly recognized as important.