Foreign Language Teaching Methods: Introduction

The online course is designed to give you the virtual experience of participating in the methods course alongside a diverse group of beginning foreign language teachers. A rich, interactive experience is facilitated by multimedia content, including

• footage of the actual methods course,
• videos of actual foreign language classrooms,
• self-correcting exercises,
• portfolios of sample activities, and
• interviews with beginning teachers.

The site is divided into 12 modules, each focusing on one important aspect of language teaching, and each based primarily on a single class within the methods course. Within each module, the sequencing of content mirrors the real-life class—as you progress through the module, you are presented with the same material, looking at the same examples, completing the same tasks, and "sitting in" on the classroom discussions of the material. Take a moment to go on a virtual tour of the site to familiarize yourself with the structure and features.

Each module ends by showing how the beginning teachers put into practice what they learned by creating real activities and lesson plans. The design of this course gives you the opportunity to compare your own ideas to those of other teachers with an ultimate goal of bringing new methods and teaching practices back into your own classroom.