Alan S. Rosenthal
Associate Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
UMBC Presidential Teaching Professor, 2003-2006

Countless UMBC students have benefited from Presidential Teaching Professor Alan Rosenthal’s innovative teaching style. His contributions to the field of language pedagogy, however, resonate far beyond the confines of Hilltop Circle.

Rosenthal’s enthusiasm for his subject matter and concern for his students and their progress is legendary among colleagues and former students alike. “From the month I arrived at UMBC in 1979 I have heard the students praise his clarity, his careful preparation, and his concern for learning,” says Thomas Field, director of the Center for the Humanities and professor of modern languages and linguistics. “Alan Rosenthal sees his students, not his course material, as the focus of his work, and for this reason he is one of the most sought-after advisors in the department.”

Rosenthal’s research in the field of language pedagogy has also brought UMBC national recognition. During the 1980s, under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he designed and developed new curriculum for first-year coursework in French using communicative competence training, an approach based on listening comprehension that teaches grammar through subject matter. In 1993, Rosenthal and colleagues Claud Duverlie and Marie Deverneil published Objectif France, one of the first textbooks to use this communicative approach to language instruction. Over the years, Rosenthal’s efforts have helped lead to over $1 million in funding for projects in language pedagogy.

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