Fundamentals of Language Teaching

This course is intended to prepare graduate students to teach Russian as a second language. It will provide students with the essential foundations of adult language teaching from neurocognition and the social underpinnings of language acquisition to the principles of curriculum development, classroom management, and assessment. Students will complete this course with the knowledge necessary to becoming confident and effective language teachers and develop a solid understanding of the Western and Russian schools of language teaching methodology. Special attention will be given to the core tenets of language immersion that underlie the operations of the Middlebury Language Schools. In addition to reading and reflecting on various theories and approaches to Russian language teaching, students will have the opportunity to observe Russian classes taught at the Russian School and develop lesson plans and activities for their professional teaching portfolio