Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article presents a qualitative study of integrating target language (TL) materials and activities within a world language (WL) teacher preparation program at a large, Midwestern public university. Based on document and interview data, I analyze how teacher candidates engaged with curricular materials written in the respective TL, how they interacted with their peers in the TL about those materials, and how they described the effect of both on their learning. As the analysis demonstrates, candidates reported that these experiences integrating language and language-teacher learning helped them extend their TL proficiency into pedagogical and professional domains. Moreover, they reported that this work helped them more fully understand the complexities of teaching.

Keywords

accountability curriculum preservice teacher education proficiency testing world languages

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (2012). ACTFL proficiency guidelines 2012. Alexandria, VA: Author. Retrieved from http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/public/ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines2012_FINAL.pdf

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, & Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. (2013). ACTFL/CAEP standards for the preparation of foreign language teachers. Alexandria, VA: ACTFL. Retrieved from http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/ACTFLCAEPStandards2013princnohighlight15Apr2015.pdf

(2008). Unequal by design: High-stakes testing and the standardization of inequality. New York, NY: Routledge.

Bale

(2012). Linguistic justice at school. In Bale

Knopp

(Eds.), Education and capitalism: Struggles for learning and liberation (pp. 77-107). Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.

Bale

(2014). Heritage language education policy and the “national interest.” Review of Research in Education, 38, 166-188.

Bernhardt

Hammadou

(1987). A decade of research in foreign language teacher education. Modern Language Journal, 71, 289-299.

Blake

Kramsch

(2007). Perspectives. Modern Language Journal, 91, 247-283.

Brookfield

(1998). Critically reflective practice. The Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 18, 197-205.

Brown

C. P.

(2010). Children of reform: The impact of high-stakes education reform on preservice teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 61, 477-491.

10.

Burke

B. M.

(2013). Looking into a crystal ball: Is requiring high-stakes language proficiency tests really going to improve world language education? Modern Language Journal, 97, 531-534.

11.

Burns

Richards

J. C.

(2009). The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

12.

Byrnes

(2004). Perspectives. Modern Language Journal, 88, 266-291.

13.

Byrnes

(2005). Perspectives. Modern Language Journal, 89, 582-616.

14.

Byrnes

(2008). Perspectives. Modern Language Journal, 92, 614-631.

15.

Chamblass

K. S.

(2012). Teachers’ oral proficiency in the target language: Research and its role in language teaching and learning. Foreign Language Annals, 45, S141-S162.

16.

Charmaz

(2004). Grounded theory. In Hesse-Biber

Leavy

(Eds.), Approaches to qualitative research: A reader on theory and practice (pp. 496-521). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

17.

Cullen

(1994). Incorporating a language improvement component in teacher training programmes. ELT Journal, 48, 162-172.

18.

Darling–Hammond

Holtzman

D. J.

Gatlin

S. J.

Vasquez Heilig

(2005). Does teacher preparation matter? Evidence about teacher certification, Teach for America, and teacher effectiveness. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13, 1-48.

19.

Dittrich

Shrum

J. L.

Stewart

(2001). Pedagogical knowledge: The perspective of classroom teachers. In Terry

R. M.

(Ed.), Agents of change in a changing age (pp. 47-78). Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.

20.

Fraga–Cañadas

C. P.

(2010). Beyond the classroom: Maintaining and improving teachers’ language proficiency. Foreign Language Annals, 43, 395-421.

21.

Freeman

(2000). Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

22.

Freeman

(2002). The hidden side of the work: Teacher knowledge and learning to teach: A perspective from North American educational research on teacher education in English language teaching. Language Teaching, 35, 1-13.

23.

Freeman

Johnson

K. E.

(1998). Reconceptualizing the knowledge-base of language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 32, 397-417.

24.

Fuller

E. J.

(2013). Shaky methods, shaky motives: A critique of the National Council of Teacher Quality’s review of teacher preparation programs. Journal of Teacher Education, 65, 63-77.

25.

Glaser

B. G.

Strauss

A. L.

(1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago, IL: Aldine.

26.

Glisan

E. W.

(2013). On keeping the target language in language teaching: A bottom-up effort to protect the public and students. Modern Language Journal, 97, 541-544.

27.

Hall

J. K.

(2001). Methods for teaching foreign languages: Creating a community of learners in the classroom. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

28.

Hursh

(2008). High-stakes testing and the decline of teaching and learning: The real crisis in education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

29.

Ingold

C. W.

Wang

S. C.

(2010). The teachers we need: Transforming world language education in the United States. College Park: National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. Retrieved from http://www.nflc.org/publications/the_teachers_we_need.pdf

30.

Johnson

K. E.

(2006). The sociocultural turn and its challenges for second language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 235-257.

31.

Johnson

K. E.

(2015). Reclaiming the relevance of L2 teacher education. Modern Language Journal, 99, 515-528.

32.

Johnston

Irujo

(2001). Introduction: Voices from the field. In Johnston

Irujo

(Eds.), Research and practice in language teacher education: Voices from the field (CARLA Working Paper No. 19; pp. 1-13). Minneapolis: Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota. Retrieved from http://www.carla.umn.edu/resources/working-papers/

33.

Kubota

Austin

(2007). Critical approaches to world language education in the United States: An introduction. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 4, 73-83.

34.

Kumashiro

K. K.

(2010). Seeing the bigger picture: Troubling movements to end teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 61, 56-65.

35.

Liskin-Gasparro

(1999). Preparing a nation’s teachers: Models for English and foreign language programs. In Franklin

Lawrence

Welles

(Eds.), Preparing a nation’s teachers (pp. 284-316). New York, NY: The Modern Language Association of America.

36.

Lortie

D. C.

(1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

37.

Meier

Kohn

Darling–Hammond

Sizer

T. R.

Wood

(2004). Many children left behind: How the No Child Left Behind Act is damaging our children and our schools. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

38.

Merriam

S. B.

(2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

39.

Morain

(1993). A view from the top of the tree. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 50, 101-106.

40.

Nichols

S. L.

Berliner

D. C.

(2007). Collateral damage: How high-stakes testing corrupts America’s schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

41.

Pasternak

Bailey

K. M.

(2004). Preparing nonnative and native English-speaking teachers: Issues of professionalism and proficiency. In Kamhi-Stein

L. D.

(Ed.), Learning and teaching from experience: Perspectives on nonnative English-speaking professionals (pp. 155-175). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

42.

Pearson

Fonseca–Greber

Foell

(2006). Advanced proficiency for foreign language teacher candidates: What can we do to help them achieve this goal? Foreign Language Annals, 39, 507-519.

43.

Ravitch

(2010). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. New York, NY: Basic Books.

44.

Richards

J. C.

(1998). Beyond training. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

45.

Russom

(2012). Obama’s neoliberal agenda for public education. In Bale

Knopp

(Eds.), Education and capitalism: Struggles for learning and liberation (pp. 109-134). Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.

46.

Salvatori

M. J.

(2007). Learning, discerning and yearning: The development of language proficiency of non-native speaker French as a second language teachers in Ontario (Doctoral thesis). Available from Proquest Dissertations and Thesis Database. (UMI No. NR39438)

47.

Schiefflin

B. B.

(1990). The give and take of everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

48.

Schulz

R. A.

(2000). Foreign language teacher development: MLJ perspectives, 1916–1999. Modern Language Journal, 84, 495-522.

49.

Shulman

(1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.

50.

Sleeter

(2008). Equity, democracy, and neoliberal assaults and teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 1947-1957.

51.

Tarone

(2013). Perspectives. Modern Language Journal, 97, 528-530.

52.

Tedick

D. J.

(2009). K-12 language teacher preparation: Problems and possibilities. Modern Language Journal, 93, 263-267.

53.

Tedick

D. J.

(2013). Embracing proficiency and program standards and rising to the challenge: A response to Burke. Modern Language Journal, 97, 535-538.

54.

Tedick

D. J.

Walker

C. L.

(1995). From theory to practice: How do we prepare teachers for second language classrooms?. Foreign Language Annals, 28, 499-517.

55.

Valdés

(2001). Heritage language students: Profiles and possibilities. In Peyton

J. K.

Ranard

D. A.

McGinnis

(Eds.), Heritage languages in America: Preserving a national resource (pp. 37-80). Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems.

56.

Vélez–Réndon

(2002). Second language teacher education: A review of the literature. Foreign Language Annals, 35, 457-467.

57.

Wang

S. C.

Jackson

F. H.

Mana

Liau

Evans

(2010). Resource guide to developing linguistic and cultural competency in the United States. College Park: National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. Retrieved from http://www.nflc.org/publications/

58.

Watzke

J. L.

(2003). Lasting change in foreign language education: A historical case for change in national policy. Westport, CT: Praeger.

59.

Watzke

J. L.

(2007). Foreign language pedagogical knowledge: Toward a developmental theory of beginning teacher practices. Modern Language Journal, 91, 63-82.

60.

Wilbur

M. L.

(2005). How foreign language teachers get taught: Methods of teaching the methods course (Unpublished dissertation). University of Georgia, Athens, GA.

61.

Wilbur

M. L.

(2007). How foreign language teachers get taught: Methods of teaching the methods course. Foreign Language Annals, 40, 79-101.

62.

Wilson

S. M.

Floden

R. E.

Ferrini-Mundy

(2002). Teacher preparation research: An insider’s view from the outside. Journal of Teacher Education, 53, 190-204.

63.

Zeichner

(2010). Competition, economic rationalization, increased surveillance, and attacks on diversity: Neo-liberalism and the transformation of teacher education in the U.S. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1544-1552.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB

0.08 MB

0.01 MB

Language Proficiency in an Era of Accountability

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material