Who is this site for?
This site is for foreign language
educators who are considering offering language courses via
distance education technology.
Why is this a hot topic?
The use of interactive television (ITV)
is on the rise in the foreign language teaching field, bringing
previously unavailable educational opportunities to
geographically dispersed foreign language learners.
In more commonly taught languages such as Spanish and French,
usually enough students are in one place to enable the offering
of classes in a traditional classroom setting at a single
location. But in the case of less commonly taught languages
(LCTLs) such as Chinese, populations of learners are often widely
dispersed across large areas. For this reason, distance
education, which serves to bring previously unavailable
educational opportunities to dispersed populations by
consolidating low enrollments at diverse locations, has been on
the rise in the LCTL field. ITV is a favorable medium for the
delivery of live, real-time instruction to learners at multiple
sites.
This site offers an introduction to
some aspects of teaching foreign languages on ITV, giving
specific examples from classes in Chinese language at the
University of Hawai`i. Browse the menu items in the frame at left
to learn more.
Although this site is aimed primarily at teachers using ITV to
teach LCTLs in the US, it may prove useful to teachers of other
subjects on ITV or to language teachers in traditional
classrooms. Email with
your comments or questions is always appreciated.
©1999 Stephen Fleming, NFLRC, University of Hawaii.All
rights reserved.