2019 PATHWAYS TO PARADIGM CHANGE: CRITICAL EXAMINATIONS OF PREVAILING DISCOURSES AND IDEOLOGIES IN SECOND LANGUAGE EDUCATION
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ItemProfessional (re)visions of language teaching for interculturality(Cengage, 2019-01-01)The profession has generated many theories of intercultural competence as well as curricular models and practical guidelines aimed at cultivating it in modern language classrooms, and yet we do not see significant shifts in classroom practice with regard to intercultural dimensions of language teaching or widespread adoption of innovative curricular models and approaches. To better understand this overall stasis in the face of available alternatives, this chapter introduces the theory of professional vision and its tools for analyzing professional practice. The theory simultaneously supplies the analytic means for examining why desired change in the practice of language education has not transpired while also suggesting paths forward. Specifically, professional vision has inspired an approach to teacher preparation called a core practices pedagogy; examples from the implementation of this approach in one institution are shared to illustrate the potential of the approach and what it might yield in terms of tools for the profession, more meaningful teacher learning and possibly broader scale change.
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ItemSecond language education and service-learning: Disrupting discourses of disempowerment(Cengage, 2019-01-01)In this chapter, we extend our previous work and research at the intersection of language education and service-learning to analyze the institutional discourses that describe community-based service-learning (CBSL) partnerships. Employing multimodal discourse analytical tools, we document how three texts produced at different points in time and disseminated through different media contribute to an overall narrative that favorably weighs the contributions of university actors in relation to community partners. Our findings highlight the ways in which the language of service-learning and community-based learning can be problematic in achieving desired reciprocity. A major implication of these findings entails developing an alternative vocabulary and discourse through which university students, administrators, program coordinators, community partners, and faculty describe their community involvement forming conscious strategies for ethical practice; in the conclusion of this chapter, we demonstrate a way forward.
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ItemL2 academic and disciplinary discourse socialization in a short-term study abroad context: An autoethnographic inquiry(Cengage, 2019-01-01)In this qualitative study, I scrutinize my second language (L2) academic and disciplinary discourse socialization (ADS) as a U.S.-based language educator leading a study abroad (SA) program in Germany in the context of an interview interaction with Meike, a language educator and coordinator of the host site’s summer language course. I recruit a reflexive approach to the examination of the interview and a reflexive researcher identity memo that I wrote immediately afterward (Maxwell, 1998). The macroanalysis shows that I experience significant affective responses around three themes: Auslandsgermanistik (i.e., international German studies), L2 pronunciation in SA, and SA as “entertainment.” The microanalysis shows that instead of revealing my affective reactions, I cooperate structurally, or facilitate the relevant interactional roles (e.g., interview and interviewee), with Meike when these themes emerge in the interview interaction. Taken together, the results reveal that my emotions enter into the interview interaction in very minimal ways because I pursue the maintenance of my role as interviewer and my/our SA program’s partnership with Meike/the host site. The results of this project remind us that interviewers are situated, socializing agents who make coordinated choices with their participants due to the need to negotiate multiple identities and expertise. This project lends strong support to scholarship that understands interviewers as non-neutral bodies (McGregor & Fernández, 2019; Prior, 2017; Talmy, 2011) and compels practitioners to consider the consequences of their ongoing L2 ADS for their students as well as their own language teaching and programs.
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ItemLanguages for all: World languages for meaning-making and intercultural citizenship(Cengage, 2019-01-01)As world language (WL) instructors and program coordinators, our primary goals for our students include developing their target language (TL) proficiency; using this proficiency in a variety of real-world contexts; and developing richer, plurilingual identities. Although many resources are available to help educators reach these goals, balancing linguistic and intercultural objectives is not easy to do in everyday teaching practice. Thus, in this chapter, we outline how WL educators can make informed decisions about classroom practices to support the simultaneous development of TL proficiency, intercultural competence, and plurilingual identities while building bridges between the target language/cultures and students’ existing languages and heritages. We do this by first drawing on theoretical frameworks in symbolic competence (Kramsch, 2009, 2011), intercultural competence and citizenship (Byram, 1997, 2008), translanguaging (García & Li Wei, 2014; Flores, 2016), and language education for social justice (e.g., Nieto, 2000; Osborn, 2006; Reagan & Osborn, 2001; Wesely, Glynn, & Wassell, 2016). We then present findings from interventions we have conducted, which offer concrete strategies for situating a meaning-making approach within the current framework of WL education while still supporting the goals of TL acquisition and communication. Finally, we explore what information and skills are needed to promote teaching languages for intercultural dialogue and discuss implications for P-16 WL instructors and language program directors. Specifically, we outline how we can apply existing research and theory to classroom practices that draw upon a variety of linguistic and cultural resources to develop meaningful relationships and language proficiency grounded in relevant social action.
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ItemDesigning foreign language curricula and pedagogy in terms of meaning-making: The application of languaculture and designs of meaning(Cengage, 2019-01-01)This autobiographical chapter describes the challenges of designing and teaching courses that construe language learning in terms of intercultural meaning-making. In particular, the chapter recounts how a foreign language specialist applied the concepts of languaculture (Agar, 1994; Risager, 2006, 2007) and Designs of Meaning (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, 2015; New London Group, 1996; Paesani, Allen, & Dupuy, 2016) to the development and implementation of an undergraduate course in French linguistics and a graduate course in applied linguistics. The concept of languaculture helped the educator to adopt a transnational frame that allowed his undergraduate students to “operate between languages” while the concept of Designs of Meaning helped him to teach “differences in meaning, mentality, and worldview…” (MLA Report, 2007, p. 4) as a process of designing and redesigning texts. These same concepts proved instrumental in helping him develop a new graduate course in applied linguistics that emphasized language as social practice. The chapter ends with a discussion of the three main challenges that face educators who wish to adopt post-structuralist, meaning-based approaches to languages and cultures: (1) the continued reliance on grammar as the major organizing principle for language curricula; (2) the widespread use of commercially produced materials that perpetuate structuralist conceptions of language and culture; and (3) the need for the creation and curation of more meaning-based materials.
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ItemEmerging discourses and practices in language eduaction: Who is driving change?(Cengage, 2019-01-01)How do institutional discourses that promote internationalization, crosscultural understanding, diversity, and a commitment to service affect language teaching and learning? How can language programs contribute to redefining educational priorities, replacing a language-as-skill approach by a view of language as situated and integrated social practice? A Task Force charged with reexamining Princeton University’s general education requirements for undergraduate students published a report in October 2016 recommending that all students take at least one course with international content and one course that explores the intersections of culture, identity, power, and service. The report also issued a proposal to expand the language requirement so that more students reach advanced proficiency. We argue that these recommendations reflect an ideological shift that is being felt university-wide. Language departments in particular are at the forefront of current efforts to promote among our students an intentional and critically engaged examination of a sociopolitical world characterized by increased mobility, interconnection, multilingualism, and multiculturalism. This chapter explores the dynamics between institutional statements and proposals like the aforementioned report and concrete initiatives by language departments to either respond to instructional goals set by university stakeholders or to initiate a paradigmatic change themselves. More specifically, we discuss programmatic reforms that aim to expand our course offerings to areas of inquiry and focus oriented around international study, culture, identity, and service. We also look at the ways in which existing courses have been redesigned with these educational priorities in mind. Ultimately, we posit that a sustainable change of paradigm requires both institutional commitment and support, and renewed pedagogical models and practices that blend language learning with critical social and cultural awareness.
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ItemReframing monolingual ideologies in the language classroom: Evidence from Arabic study abroad and telecollaboration(Cengage, 2019-01-01)There have been calls in the field of applied linguistics for a reconceptualization of language learning using plurilingual ideologies rather than monolingual ones originating with the European nation state (Cenoz & Gorter, 2015; May, 2014; Ortega, 2013). Although plurilingual ideologies of language learning have long existed in highly multilingual contexts (Makalela, 2017), they have gained little traction in U.S. second language classrooms (Anya, 2017; Kramsch & Huffmaster, 2015; Levine, 2011). This chapter analyzes U.S.-Arabic language learners participating in telecollaboration and study abroad contexts to demonstrate how monolingual ideologies of language shaped learner expectations for monolingual immersion in these environments. However, these expectations were not met in the plurilingual reality of these contexts, where translanguaging practices prevailed, causing students to express shame and frustration at their failure to be monolingual. I argue that it is necessary for language programs to adopt plurilingual pedagogies that recognize translanguaging practices as the norm to prepare learners to engage in plurilingual environments outside of the classroom.
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ItemUnderstanding teacher discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy(Cengage, 2019-01-01)Numerous scholars have called for a paradigm shift in lower-level postsecondary language programs from a focus on communicative language teaching and oral language development to curriculum and instruction grounded in text-based teaching and learning through multiliteracies pedagogy. Empirical research provides insights into the feasibility, linguistic outcomes, and perceptions of multiliteracies approaches, yet few studies have investigated how teachers learn about and implement multiliteracies pedagogy. This year-long case study examines the discourse of three nontenure-track Spanish faculty to understand the nature of their discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy and whether that discourse reflects prevailing ideologies (i.e., conventionalized ways of enacting beliefs and practices) about communicative language teaching. Through multi-cycle, descriptive coding of six course-level meetings and two sets of interviews with each participant, the concepts from communicative language teaching and multiliteracies pedagogy manifested in the data were identified and analyzed in relation to each participant’s personal history. Results reveal that prevailing ideologies from communicative language teaching were present in all three participants’ discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy, although in different ways that reflected their personal and formal learning experiences with both approaches. Findings are discussed in light of previous research on teacher development, and implications for language program direction are identified.
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ItemRethinking and shifting discourses and practices of "Testing": From accuracy to engagement with situated contexts(Cengage, 2019-01-01)This chapter presents a reflective analysis of the discourse and practices regarding the written test in three coordinated introductory/intermediate language programs (French, German, and Spanish) at a large public university. Written tests that students complete in class are specifically targeted because this type of assessment tends to reflect traditional ideologies and practices, focused on measuring accuracy and declarative knowledge, at odds with calls for teaching (and assessing) language and culture as integrated and situated practices (Kramsch, 2014; MLA, 2007; National Standards, 2015). This chapter examines how the collective imagined conceptualizations of paper-based written tests affect discourse, design, and Graduate Teaching Assistants’ professional development. The analysis starts by considering the terminology used in each program, as it conveys specific ideologies about testing. To evaluate how successful the programs’ written tests are in reflecting the pedagogical approach, their role and position are examined, followed by a comparative analysis of three recent tests. The contribution then goes on to describe the current procedures for written test development and offers both a reflection on the challenges encountered and possibilities for written tests in coordinated language programs going forward. The chapter concludes with general recommendations to engage into a rethinking and reframing of what testing language in the classroom means.
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ItemBeyond the idealized native speaker in L2 Spanish contexts: Standard language ideology, authenticity, and consequences for learner identity construction(Cengage, 2019-01-01)Previous studies have been critical of standard language ideologies in universitylevel L2 Spanish instruction for their role in contributing to the power of hegemonic groups through their language varieties, for example, Castilian and Latin American norma culta (Milroy, 2001; Pomerantz, 2002; Valdés et al., 2003). The notion of a “standard” language has been identified as an abstract construct by many scholars who have argued that it promotes an image of an idealized native speaker that is not reflective of authentic conversational contexts (Ortega, 1999; Pomerantz, 2002; Train, 2003). Therefore, reinforcing standard language ideology in L2 curricula not only contributes to the power of hegemonic groups while marginalizing others, it also leaves students unprepared for the linguistic diversity found in authentic conversational contexts. This study examines the ideological underpinnings of how sociolinguistic variation in Spanish is presented in beginning and intermediate-level Spanish as Foreign Language (SFL) and Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) curricula at a large, Southwestern university. Textbooks were analyzed and focus groups from both SFL and SHL courses were conducted. This study centers on the focus group interview data, and findings include evidence of a reinforcement of standard language ideology and particular stigmatization of U.S. varieties of Spanish in both SFL and SHL courses. It is argued that, at times, this stigmatization points to an ideology of racialization of Spanish-speakers in the United States (Cobas, Duany, & Feagin, 2009). In addition, the findings indicate that the ideology of Spanish as an exclusively “foreign” language is perpetuated, a claim that has been disputed in regard to the United States, since it is one of the world’s top Spanish-speaking countries (Train, 2009). Pedagogical suggestions for program directors and instructors seeking to enact paradigm changes that resist the discourses of standard language ideology are discussed.