Associate Professor of French and Spanish
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University Hall 3123
(205) 934-4652

Research and Teaching Interests: Spanish, French, Foreign Cultures, Foreign Language Pedagogy, Foreign Language Methods (Classroom Instruction), Teacher Development, Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom

Office Hours: By appointment

• BS, University of Alabama, Secondary Education
• MA, University of Alabama, Romance Languages
• PhD, University of Alabama, Foreign Language Education

Get to know Krista Chambless.

I am a native Alabamian, having grown up in Huntsville, and now live in Tuscaloosa with my husband and three children. I began my study of foreign languages as a French student at Grissom High School and have never stopped learning. Along the way, I studied in France, Spain, Mexico, Panama, Quebec, and Vermont, and ultimately obtained my PhD in foreign language education from the University of Alabama. I have worked and developed foreign language programs as a graduate teaching assistant, pre-school teacher, elementary school teacher, high school teacher, and college professor teaching both French and Spanish language courses, as well as teaching foreign language methodologies to pre-service teachers.

I believe that it is especially important for foreign language teachers to continue to study, develop, and improve their language proficiency and cultural understanding. As such, I travel extensively and immerse myself in the languages and cultures I teach. This has led me from Central America to Canada and from the Mexican Pacific to Europe, engaging with native speakers in all manner of environments. I remain engaged with foreign language educators and regularly attend professional conferences and seminars around the world. Finally, I am engaged in extensive research into the various pedagogical theories of foreign language education in order to identify superior practices and implement them in my courses.

Through my observations, research, and personal learning experiences, I have developed a multifaceted philosophy of teaching centered on four basic principles:

1. foreign languages are for everyone
2. students should be the focus of the classroom
3. classroom communication should be meaningful and purpose-driven, and
4. culture is the heart of foreign language learning.

My courses allow students to use language to interpret and express real-life messages and to communicate using all four skill areas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. I also believe that language learning is about more than vocabulary and grammar instruction — to fully understand and communicate in a foreign language, students must understand the culture and be able to make comparisons between their own culture (and language) and the target culture. Students also need to see how the language connects to other disciplines and other peoples and how making these connections can foster relationships with the target language community in their cities.

To do this I seek to incorporate all “five C’s” of the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning in my instruction: Communication, Connections, Comparisons, Communities, and Cultures. This, I believe, creates a unity of identity between my students and native speakers that creates within my students a much stronger internal motivation to learn another language.