This LA program for World Languages was launched in fall 2014 first only in German, funded by a grant from the GW University Teaching and Learning Center. Now expanded to include Arabic, Russian, and American Sign Language, it shares the mission and goals of GW's STEM LA programs while striving to find the most effective approach for LAs to support active and collaborative learning in smaller (non-lecture) humanities courses.
The Language LA Program: Overall Concept
Advanced undergraduate students proficient in the language assist in introductory language classes once a week. Some of these students will have completed the same into language class; others will have taken it elsewhere, but all LAs have the appropriate language proficiency, and all have lived in a country where the language is spoken.
Program-specific Goals
The Language Learning Assistant Program aims to
- give students with advanced language proficiency the opportunity to put their skills to use to assist beginning learners;
- enhance beginning language students’ learning experience through interaction with “near-peers” who can provide a different point of view from the instructors’;
- encourage active and collaborative learning in language classrooms;
- foster more interaction between upper and lower level students in the language program;
- create a community of upper level students engaged in assisting with language learning.
Preparation for Language LAs
All Language LAs are enrolled in the Second Language Acquisition & Pedagogy course, taught by program leader Prof. Margaret Gonglewski.
The primary goal of this course is to support students in their work as Learning Assistants by helping them
- learn about adult second language acquisition theory and potential pedagogical applications;
- connect concepts learned in the course directly to their work as Learning Assistants;
- develop a confident and competent classroom presence;
- reflect critically on the readings and their own classroom experience;
- understand and appreciate the value of service-learning.
Service-learning is central to this course: Students apply knowledge and skills gained in this course directly to their involvement in the language classes. They also actively and regularly reflect on the entirety of their experience, synthesizing what they have learned in this course with their service in the language-learning classroom. Topics addressed in readings and discussions include perspectives/theories on second language acquisition and the teaching methods that stem from them; affective factors in language learning; error correction strategies; and more.