Language Teaching and Learning

Why Study Language Teaching and Learning?

Language Teaching and 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 and Learning at UTM offers three programs:

• Major Program: Teaching/Learning French
• Major Program: Teaching/Learning Italian
• Specialist Program: 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 and 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 and 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, psychology, where the contribution of linguistics is increasingly recognized as important.