Adventures in Teaching: Helping Language Teachers Discover the Joy of Teaching with Technology

Today's foreign language teachers are obliged to wear many hats. In addition to the skills they must possess in teaching language, literature, and culture, they are often also expected to be competent in the use of new technologies. Innovative technologies and media are important vehicles for increasing access to information and entertainment in a foreign language, providing interaction with speakers of other languages, and improving foreign language teaching in the classroom. Thus, one increasingly vital aspect of foreign language teacher education is training in the effective use of instructional technology. However, though most educators agree on the value and importance of instructional technology, many foreign language faculty, whether new to the profession or full professors, have not received adequate training in its use, nor do they have sufficient opportunities to gain such training and experience. Though mostteachereducation programs include some instruction in the area of educational technology, there is simply often not enough time, with all of the other requirements for teacher certification, to offer a detailed examination of the technologies and their effective pedagogical use. Generally, instructional technology is not even the topic of an entire course, but rather is relegated to a brief glimpse as part of an educational methods class, and those schools that do offer complete courses on the topic are seldom able to focus on subject-specific applications of the technologies.