Could you tell us a little bit about your connection to the LTS program? 

I became connected to the LTS program while being the Director of French Language Instruction in the Department of Romance Languages at the U of O.  My academic background is in French and language education, so I wanted to find additional opportunities to work with students and faculty dedicated to language pedagogy. My profile is somewhat different from most other LTS faculty members as I bring a perspective of an experienced language educator working in the field of FL instruction (French) within the United States. Currently, I am the Director of the First-Year Language Program in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at Indiana State University.  I teach first- through third-year French courses, supervise graduate students teaching first and second semester courses for all languages (German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, etc.), and teach in the graduate program in linguistics. I have remained involved with LTS from a distance by working with students’ final projects and teaching the summer capstone seminar (LT 610) in some years.

Could you briefly describe the course(s) you teach?

I have taught two different courses in the LTS program. The first is LT 536 Second Language Teaching.  This course gives students a solid foundation in developing lessons plans for their particular teaching contexts.  The culminating assignment is quite practical as it requires students to design a unit of at least three sequenced lesson plans that is grounded in current pedagogical theory and practice; this is a task that future teachers will encounter in the classroom.  The second course is LT 610 Language Teaching Seminar in Summer terms.  This 4-week seminar is taught with variable topics.  My class has been organized with three modules focusing on learning styles and strategies: (a) exposure to different learning styles and strategies and their classifications, (b) frameworks for Styles- and Strategies- Based Instruction and how to incorporate this approach to your lesson plans, and (c) teacher action research through collection of style and/or strategy data from students.

What do you like best about working with LTS students?  

[note: despite the background, no wine was consumed during the making of this video]