Foreign Language Teaching Methods, part of UT Texas Language Technology Center, is a great online methods course for us to take a look at as an extension of our methods class by Dr. Sardegna or for any foreign language teachers to get some pedagogical tips and ideas. The most interesting thing of the site is that it contains a series of videos of lectures and interviews on L2 different aspects of foreign language education. We can watch other actual methods classes held at UT and also hear actual voices from teacher students and professors through interview videos. For example, some foreign language professors share their own teaching methods on how to teach a language during the first few weeks for true beginners or how to teach keyboarding in a foreign language. In Vocabulary section, student teachers in an interview video confirms that how to teach vocabulary was rarely taught in their methods classes. Another video which I find very impressive is one on Culture by Professor Garza. He says, about 720 hours of instruction are required for an average student to get advanced proficiency in Russian and UT offers only 345 hours to a student if the student takes all the available courses for 4 years, finally suggesting an idea of encouraging students to experience the TL and increase cultural competence through the Internet space.
I found this website at Will Slade's blog.
