FLTA Workshop: Teaching Less Commonly Taught Langauges Tuesday 8/16/11 Syracuse University Professor Erika Haber

Learning Outcomes  To understand the concept of LCTL  To identify your target audience and its needs  To learn how to choose suitable pedagogical practices  To learn to prepare a lesson plan with appropriate content and pacing  To discuss the use of technology  To explore useful websites for teaching Russian & Turkish

“Approximately 91% of Americans who study foreign languages in our schools, colleges, and universities choose French, German, Italian, or Spanish; while only 9% choose languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Swahili and the other languages spoken by the overwhelming majority of people around the world.” ”  (*National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL):

Less Commonly Taught Languages  Less well-known both linguistically and culturally  Dispelling the myths/stereotypes/prejudices  Generally smaller enrollments; few study in high school  First contact with the language, alphabet, etc.

Goals of Teaching LCTL Remember your audience!  Two-year programs vs. majors  Fluency often not a possibility  Not a career path, but often a needed skill set  Adults in the role of children  Heritage speakers

Pedagogical Approaches  Grammar-based approaches -Cyclical teaching/learning  Communicative approach -Using Photographs in the LCTL class  Task-based learning -Using Menus in the LCTL class

Creating Daily Lesson Plans  Understanding your particular students & group dynamic of the class  Creating conducive atmosphere: seating, visual access, emotional comfort  Choosing names and identities  Small talk  The “difficult” alphabet

Creating Daily Lesson Plans, cont.  Brief grammar explanations & Exercises  Readings, videos, music, websites, cartoons, YouTube  Cultural topics (big and small C)  Specifically communicative tasks  Allow time for questions/discussion/student input

The Use of Technology & Space  Blackboard  SCOLA  PowerPoint  YouTube, itunes U podcasts, blogs, Skype  Prepare and test everything ahead of time!  Always have a Plan B  Seating and Walking  Interacting and board work

Websites for Resources and Ideas  Cyrillic with pronunciation: partners.org/oldfriends/language/russian-alphabet.htmlhttp:// partners.org/oldfriends/language/russian-alphabet.html  How to write Cyrillic and more pronunciation help:  Russian Names:  Russian Word of the Day:  Russian Language Learning Resources:  Russian grammar, dictionaries and games:

Resources, continued  Beard's Interactive Russian grammar:  Teacher Resource Center:  Why study Russian:  Interactive Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian:  School of Russian and Asian Studies Resources: and  Duke Univ. Slavic and East European Language Resource Center: SEELRC/Russian:

Resources, continued II  UCLA Language Materials Project: (Provides language profiles and information on teaching materials for most less commonly taught languages as well as lessons on how to use authentic materials in the classroom.)  Center for Applied Linguistics page for Less Commonly Taught Languages: s/lctl.html (Resources for journals, books and websites) s/lctl.html

Turkish Resources  Princeton Turkish Language resources:  Columbia’s Turkish language sites: urkey.html urkey.html  University of Oregon Turkish lessons:  About Turkish:  UCLA Language Materials Project: