WEBVTT

00:00:00.230 --> 00:00:03.540 
>>Well, first and foremost, I
think, in once the notion even

00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:06.920 
of becoming a language
teacher comes to the fore,

00:00:06.920 --> 00:00:08.080 
the first thing I look at is

00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.560 
so do you have the
language competence.

00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:13.070 
Because I find one of
the problems that arises

00:00:13.070 --> 00:00:16.920 
in our profession is
the immediate lack

00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:18.760 
of professional ability

00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:21.690 
within the language itself
before we even get to the notion

00:00:21.690 --> 00:00:25.010 
of are you professionalized
as an instructor, a teacher,

00:00:25.010 --> 00:00:29.030 
a teacher of teachers, a
trainer of other teachers.

00:00:29.030 --> 00:00:31.410 
So, linguistic competence,
first and foremost,

00:00:31.410 --> 00:00:33.240 
I think if really,
really important.

00:00:33.240 --> 00:00:37.170 
The second thing I talk to
them about is good grounding

00:00:37.170 --> 00:00:41.290 
in general linguistics
whether they have it already

00:00:41.290 --> 00:00:42.980 
or whether this is something
they want to develop.

00:00:42.980 --> 00:00:46.970 
It's just simply a notion of
how languages are put together.

00:00:46.970 --> 00:00:48.890 
Most of them find this
really helpful, by the way.

00:00:48.890 --> 00:00:52.640 
I've mentioned this only
because students often see it

00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:56.840 
as ancillary to knowledge
and teaching

00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:59.140 
about Spanish or
Russian or French.

00:00:59.140 --> 00:01:01.200 
But once they actually
take the course work,

00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:03.280 
they actually now
find that they know

00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:07.240 
and understand a great deal more
about what they simply intuited

00:01:07.240 --> 00:01:08.830 
over the years of their
study of the language.

00:01:08.830 --> 00:01:10.970 
So, I think linguistic
knowledge is a good one.

00:01:10.970 --> 00:01:14.730 
And then finally, probably, most
important from the perspective

00:01:14.730 --> 00:01:19.790 
of preparing teachers now is
work in pedagogy and to me

00:01:19.790 --> 00:01:22.800 
that falls into two categories:
one, pedagogy general

00:01:22.800 --> 00:01:26.170 
about what teaching is
about, what the difference

00:01:26.170 --> 00:01:29.510 
between teaching and
learning are all about,

00:01:29.510 --> 00:01:31.900 
different methodologies and
methods that have come to us

00:01:31.900 --> 00:01:35.590 
over the years of how languages
might be presented to students,

00:01:35.590 --> 00:01:40.940 
differences in the types of
learners that we're going

00:01:40.940 --> 00:01:42.670 
to get; public school
age children

00:01:42.670 --> 00:01:46.440 
versus university students
and so forth, adult learners.

00:01:46.440 --> 00:01:49.760 
All of that, the kind of
background that one needs

00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.490 
in a sense of general
pedagogy, before getting then

00:01:52.490 --> 00:01:56.320 
to the specific pedagogy of
each individual language.

00:01:56.320 --> 00:01:58.530 
And that, I think, is
important from the perspective

00:01:58.530 --> 00:02:02.590 
of as a university
teacher a more or less,

00:02:02.590 --> 00:02:06.710 
homogeneous classroom of English
as a native language speakers,

00:02:06.710 --> 00:02:10.870 
learning X language, what
are the particular problems

00:02:10.870 --> 00:02:13.590 
that group will probably face.

00:02:13.590 --> 00:02:17.440 
That will be as they say "likely
problems" or "likely obstacles"

00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:19.860 
or "likely issues" as
they begin the study

00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:22.240 
of the target language
whether it's Russian

00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:24.610 
or Arabic or French or Persian.

00:02:24.610 --> 00:02:29.800 
That to me - thats the kind of tripartite I
that I look at so knowledge

00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:32.090 
of the language, knowledge
of general linguistics

00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:36.330 
and then the applied portion
both general to any pedagogy

00:02:36.330 --> 00:02:37.720
and specific to the language.