Languages from a Distance

Hi, I’m John Krueger and I don’t know everything…

And that’s in spite of that I’ve been teaching German a long time now: for many years in the public schools in Lexington, Kentucky and last year in Fairfax County, Virginia. I’ve also taught in university settings at the University of Kentucky, the University of Massachusetts, and in Germany at the Technische Univerisität Dresden, where I taught English. I taught English at many other private and evening schools in Germany as well.

This year I have been fortunate enough to be offered a job at Kentucky Educational Television teaching German through Distance Learning. The program at KET is long established. Last year they had nearly 400 students taking German in Kentucky and ten other states. Nevertheless, though the program is large and has flourished because of the pioneering work of many outstanding educators through the years, there is an urgent sense that we need to reevaluate things.

The landscape has changed.

First of all, the pedagogy behind second-language learning has undergone nothing short of a revolution in the last ten years with a focus now on whole language performance rather than isolated skills like verb conjugation. And then the dizzying rate with which technology continues to transform itself and everything in its path is a phenomenon that only the youngest and brightest –our students—seem able to keep up with. Clearly if we want to provide as many opportunities to our students as we possibly can, then we must respond to this very different educational setting.

And so I begin the journey. And because I do not know everything, I write these pages. They are my attempt at thinking things through out loud.

—– —–
Oh…the bridge in the photo above is the Viaduc de Millau in Millau France–the tallest bridge in the world!!!

—– —–

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are the sole responsibility of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of KET.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS