department of foreign languages :: david o'dell neville, ph.d., m.s

instructional approach

I rely on a variety of instructional methods to promote student learning through meaningful engagement with the subject matter. In my language acquisition courses, I utilize a contextualized grammar-based approach that seeks to situate the process of language learning within contemporary sociocultural contexts of German-speaking countries. Specific approaches I have employed in the past include a semester-long project-based learning experience that allows students to produce non-player character (NPC) dialogue for a 3D adventure computer game currently in development, the creation of scenario-based synthetic dialogues using digital audio editing software, the scripting of film dialogues with Web-based movie editing software, and digital game-based learning environments that allow students to navigate and interact with representations of real-world spaces. In addition, I regularly make use of Web-based learning objects I have created as a means of assisting and directing student thought processes. These learning objects provide students with portable, self-contained, and on-demand instructional resources that can be used in support of individual learning styles.

In the literature and theory courses I teach, my instructional approach is informed primarily by theories of situated cognition, which emphasize the role that cognitive apprenticeships and learning communities play in the process of knowledge creation. I favor problem- or project-based learning environments that model topic-specific reasoning processes and research skills and that also place increasing responsibility on students as joint constituents in the learning process. Multimedia technologies frequently play an important role in these environments as a vehicle for focusing student engagement.

teaching interests

German language and culture, all levels. Current and emerging digital technologies as instructional platforms; game studies; instructional design and learning sciences. Operatic, cinematic, and theatrical interpretations of medieval German texts and themes. Medieval courtly culture; medieval mysticism; Middle High German love-lyric; the heroic and courtly epic; women in the Middle Ages.