Dr. Robert Peckham, Nationally Recognized Advocate for Foreign Language Encourages Educators and Embraces Technology at Workshop

Posted by: admin on September 19, 2012, No Comments

East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Modern Languages filled Lower Dansbury Lounge last Saturday when the department held its fifth annual workshop for foreign language instructors.  The workshop provided insight into the use of Internet tools for foreign language learning and explored program advocacy for modern and classical language learning at both the high school and university levels. The event’s speaker was Dr. Robert Peckham, professor of French at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

The first half of the day-long workshop focused on the productive use of Internet tools in today’s foreign-language classrooms. The second half of the workshop was a broad-based examination of program advocacy for the teaching of modern and classical languages, from the elementary-school level to the university level.

Dr. Peckham’s presentation, entitled “The New Normal for Modern Language Teachers: Internet Tools and Program Advocacy,” encouraged educators in the Pocono and Lehigh Valley regions to reach out to the local communities to help them understand the importance of modern language in the schools. Peckham is the director of University of Tennessee at Martin’s media center for language learning, and he also chairs the advocacy committee of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF).

“Robert Peckham is a nationally known figure,” said ESU Assistant Professor of Modern Languages Dr. Paul Creamer. “Besides being a French professor, he is the webmaster of an Internet site that has been up since 1995 and that contains some 10,000 links related to the French and Francophone world.  He was there at the beginning.  I was contacted by people, career teaching professionals, who have long followed Dr. Peckham’s career and were thrilled he would visit campus.”  According to Creamer, teachers who attended the workshop were able to interact with peers from around the region, and work with a nationally recognized figure in both the use of the Internet technology in the classroom and in advocacy for modern languages.

For further information about ESU’s Department of Modern Languages, contact Dr. Creamer at (570) 422-3318.