The development of both research and teaching
skills is stressed in the Department. Most of its graduate students
receive financial support in the form of teaching assistantships.
Teaching skills are developed in many ways. After a week-long pre-teaching
orientation, teaching assistants meet weekly within the framework
of GER 653, The Scholarship of Teaching German, a one-credit-hour
course that is repeated for four semesters. The course has both a
theoretical and a practical aim in that it acquaints the students
with recent pedagogical research as well as allowing students to integrate
this research into classroom practice. A capstone experience for the
teaching assistants revolves around designing and implementing their
own pedagogical research project. Designed to provide a forum for
open inquiry into a range of educational issues beyond the teaching
of foreign-language skills, this course is structured so as to advance
the education of teaching assistants from rote technique to purposeful
inquiry, from pragmatic preparation to reasoned education, from technical
training to the making of a professional.
Teaching assistants usually teach three four-credit classes of Basic
German over two semesters. In their first semester they complete the
course GER 553 Methods of Teaching German, a course designed
to introduce students to the linguistic and psychological theories
relevant to foreign-language teaching in addition to methods for teaching
the four language skills. All teaching assistants are visited on a
regular basis by their supervisor as an aid to refining teaching skills.
As they progress in our program they assume ever increasing autonomy
for the design of their courses within the general framework of an
articulated sequence.
Teaching assistants are expected to carry a full-time course load,
which consists of at least nine credit hours during the semester they
teach one section, and at least six credit hours during the semester
they teach two sections. |
