From
Novice
to
Emerging
Professional:
the Final Steps.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Wilkommen, bien venu, bienvenido, and welcome to the special methods homepage for the 2012-2013 MAT cohort for teaching world languages.

As members of the 2012-2013 cohort, you have begun the third and final semester of your intensive masters program in teaching. This course, CIED 5062, is also the third and final methods course of the program.

Methods One focused on the foundational principles of teaching another language, including second language acquisition, the history of foreign language teaching methods, and the standards of teaching and learning another language.

Methods Two examined more practical matters: curricular design, assessment, and becoming a professional in the field.

Methods Three will continue the exploration of instructional strategies with a focus on integrating technology into classroom instruction and designing differentiated lessons to meet the needs of all learners. Interns will also apply their professional knowledge to an evaluation of textbooks to determine how well they address the Five Cs of Foreign Language Learning.

One of the philosophical premises underlying the MAT program stresses the importance of your development as a reflective practitioner. To encourage reflection, you will continue to draw connections between praxis and theory by submitting "E-flections" (electronic reflections) based on the Seven Tenets of the Scholar-Practitioner Framework and Bi-Weekly Reports from your internship.

Be prepared for an intensive and rewarding final semester as you progress from novice to emerging professional in the field of language education.

Viel Glück, bon chance, buen suerte, and good luck!

 
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