Teaching

Italian

I taught beginning Italian (Ital 1001-1002) for two years at the University of Minnesota. This was a lot of work with preparing lessons, correcting homework, quizzes, exams, etc., but also very rewarding and a lot of fun. There are far fewer teaching materials available for Italian than for other European languages such as Spanish, French, and German, so I was forced to create many of my in-class materials from scratch (which I did, relying heavily on the Simpsons). I taught mostly in Italian, in a communicative style, using both whole-class and small-group activities, with the occasional relapse into English to clarify grammatical points.

In teaching others to speak a foreign language, the biggest obstacle, for my students and for myself, is that they have something definite to say and wish to express themselves but lack the means to do so. This can be extremely frustrating for students, especially at the beginning, since, as one of my instructors put it, “it’s like being a 2-year old again”. It is then my responsibility as an instructor to use my intuition, to figure out what they are trying to say, and help them say it.

This is the philosophy I use in teaching in general. My job is to understand every question or idea that comes my way, re-state it clearly and coherently, and then engage it and challenge it.

Phonetics/Phonology

In the Spring of 2006 I was a TA for Arto Anttila’s Ling 110: Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. This is an undergraduate class that goes over the basics articulatory and acoustic phonetics as well as features, rules, and representations.

Syntax

In the Fall of 2007 I was a TA for Tom Wasow's Ling 120: Introduction to Syntax. This is an undergraduate introduction to HPSG.

Athabaskan

In my pedagogical work, I am applying what I have learned in linguistics and in the teaching of Italian to put together communicatively-oriented teaching materials for speakers of Dene languages in Yellowknife. The materials I make are, broadly speaking, in the style of the natural approach, that is, building on authentic materials to produce communicative activities suitable for classroom use.