Special Methods III
Spring Semester 2012

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Guten Tag and Hola,

Congratulations, Interns! You are now fully engaged in the final semester of the MAT program. You are also moving forward smartly with your final methods course for foreign language instruction. We are concentrating our studies on two themes this semester: differentiation of instruction for all students and the use of technology to enhance language acquisition.

Your are making excellent progress on your major assignment, which is devoted to developing your professionalism through a comprehensive textbook evaluation project. Your comparison-contrast analysis of three textbooks on the same level of instruction helps you develop a deeper understanding of the “Five Cs” of foreign language learning: Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. Your conclusions about which of the three texts best fits your classroom instructional goals and philosophy will reveal much about how you approach your teaching responsibilities.

Keep in mind that you may be asked to serve on a textbook evaluation committee at your school when the state decides to adopt new books, so this task prepares you for a critical examination of the pros and cons of a book you would choose for instruction.

We continue our year-long study of the Shrum and Glisan text and have added the Blaz book on Differentiating Instruction: A Guide for Foreign Language Teachers as we progress through the last semester of the MAT program.

Graduation is just around the corner! You are well on your way to becoming an emerging professional.

Wilkommen and Bien venidos! 

 
Dr. Bowles

Freddie A. Bowles
Assistant Professor of Foreign Language Education
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
College of Education and Health Professions
Peabody Hall 312
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR 72701
Office: 479-575-3035
fbowles@uark.edu

Different languages — I mean the actual vocabularies, the idioms — have worked out certain mechanisms of communication and registration. No one language is complete. A master may be continually expanding his own tongue, rendering it fit to bear some charge hitherto borne only by some other alien tongue, but the process does not stop with any one man. While Proust is learning Henry James, preparatory to breaking through certain French paste-board partitions, the whole American speech is churning and chugging, and every other tongue doing likewise.
     — Ezra Pound, "How to Read," 1929