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:
- to provide students with a solid theoretical base founded on extant knowledge in the field; and
- 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.