LILT: Linguistics Institute for Language Teachers

at The Ohio State University
July 6-10, 2009

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LILT is a weeklong summer program designed specifically for teachers of foreign languages. The goal is to provide language teachers with greater linguistic awareness and understanding, with the ability to think critically about language, and with a deeper appreciation for all aspects of language and language study. The program is not a general introduction to language, nor is it an introduction to linguistics, nor is it about second language pedagogy. Rather, the philosophy behind the program is that language teachers and learners can be well served by knowledge that offers them insight into the structure and use of their own language, so that they will be able to see more clearly how the language that they are teaching or learning differs from it and be able to profit from this understanding. In short, the objective is to provide the teacher/learner with what s/he needs to know about language in general in order to study a particular language more effectively.

Throughout the week, participants will learn about the sounds of language, the grammatical structure of language, how language is used in social interaction, and central aspects of the psychology of first and second language learning and use. Participants will

• become familiar with how languages are similar and different in terms of their basic elements, including sounds, words, and sentence structure;
• learn about causes of typical mistakes that language learners make, and how to avoid them;
• learn ways that cultural differences are expressed in language;
• learn about brain training and the differences between first and second language learning.

The instructors will assist attendees in creating language-specific modules that can be incorporated into their own instructional materials.

If you are interested in receiving CEUs for the program, contact Beth Hume at ehume@ling.osu.edu.