2011 EDUCATING THE FUTURE FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFESSORATE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

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    Introduction: Foreign language graduate student professional development-past, present and future
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Willis Allen, Heather ; Maxim, Hiram H.
    The effectiveness of professional development for future foreign language (FL) professors is more salient than ever, given the significant role played by graduate student instructors (GSIs) in undergraduate education and recent calls for change in the collegiate FL curriculum requiring sophisticated understandings of integrating the teaching of language, literature, and culture. Taking a sociocultural theory perspective, this chapter reports on a study of five FL GSIs’ experiences learning to teach that sought to determine how participation in an advanced pedagogy seminar influenced GSIs’ notions of literacy as a framing construct for collegiate FL curricula. Findings showed that through involvement in the seminar, participants progressed toward a more theoretically based definition of literacy and an awareness of its cognitive and sociocultural dimensions. However, after the seminar, not all participants demonstrated alignment in constructing their teaching practices through conceptual and pedagogical tools of literacy.
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    Video reflection in the foreign language teacher development
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Scida, Emilia E. ; Firdyiwek, Yitna
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    Investigating foreign language graduate student instructors' perceptions and use of technology in the classroom
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Thoms, Joshua J.
    This study investigates how graduate student instructors (GSIs) in several universities across the United States perceive and make use of technology to teach foreign language (FL) courses. Results indicate that while the majority of GSIs receive some kind of CALL training upon entering their programs, much of the training focuses on technologies that are not Web 2.0 tools (e.g., wikis, blogs, social networking sites). Specifically, participants indicate that they use PowerPoint, grammatical and lexical websites, and discussion boards most often in teaching. Survey results also suggest that lack of planning time, limited online exercises that accompany their textbook, and teaching in a classroom without media were significant factors impeding their use of technology in their courses. Suggestions are offered regarding how CALL training can be improved for GSIs to better prepare them for their future careers in academia.
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    Evolving notions of literacy-based foreign language teaching: A qualitative study of graduate student instructors
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Willis Allen, Heather ; Dupuy, Beatrice
    The effectiveness of professional development for future foreign language (FL) professors is more salient than ever, given the significant role played by graduate student instructors (GSIs) in undergraduate education and recent calls for change in the collegiate FL curriculum requiring sophisticated understandings of integrating the teaching of language, literature, and culture. Taking a sociocultural theory perspective, this chapter reports on a study of five FL GSIs’ experiences learning to teach that sought to determine how participation in an advanced pedagogy seminar influenced GSIs’ notions of literacy as a framing construct for collegiate FL curricula. Findings showed that through involvement in the seminar, participants progressed toward a more theoretically based definition of literacy and an awareness of its cognitive and sociocultural dimensions. However, after the seminar, not all participants demonstrated alignment in constructing their teaching practices through conceptual and pedagogical tools of literacy.
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    The relevance of cultural linguistics to foreign language graduate education: From "language and culture" to "language as culture"
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Blyth, Carl
    This essay recounts the impact of the 2007 MLA Report on the development of a graduate course in linguistics. Blending anthropology’s traditional concern for the cultural context with cognitive linguistics’ emphasis on abstract models of knowledge, cultural linguistics provides an integrative framework for analyzing the intersection of language, culture and cognition. In particular, this essay demonstrates four pedagogical activities that help graduate students understand differences in “meaning, mentality, and worldview” between the L1 and the L2. It is argued that the application of cultural linguistics to foreign language courses is likely to foster greater “meta-cultural awareness” of language, that is, an understanding of how language is used to create meaning in cultural communities.
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    The Acceso project and foreign language graduate student professional development
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Rossomondo, Amy
    This chapter describes how the Acceso project affords graduate student instructors (GSIs) unique opportunities for professional and pedagogic development. Through guided collaboration, the GSIs contribute to curricular development for the foundational levels of language studies in a way that answers the 2007 MLA Report’s call for curricular reform via integration of content exploration and form-focused study. To this end, the University of Kansas has created the open access, Web-based Acceso platform, which structures the content of a critical cultural inquiry- based curriculum developed for intermediate-level learners of Spanish. Graduate student perception of their own professional growth as a result of collaborating in the design and implementation of the initial phase of the project is explored through the analysis of an anonymous open-ended questionnaire completed by a subset of the project’s participants (n=17). The participants’ reflections reveal that the Acceso project provided opportunities for pedagogic and professional development and suggest directions for improvement in subsequent stages.
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    Beyond the methods course: Using exploratory practice for graduate student teacher development
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Crane, Cori ; Sadler, Misumi ; Ha, Jeeyoung Ahn ; Otiato Ojiambo, Peter
    A qualitative analysis of graduate student teachers’ shared experiences in a teacher support group is presented. The analysis focuses on how the reflective teaching framework of exploratory practice can benefit more experienced graduate student teachers and provide a potential interdisciplinary model for professional development beyond the first-year teaching methods course in collegiate foreign language programs. Drawing on individual written reflections and transcripts from four collaborative group meetings over a two-month period, the authors show how a teacher support group made up of graduate students and language program coordinators enabled three experienced graduate student teachers to develop personally meaningful insights on their classrooms and learners. Findings from the study point to opportunities afforded for the graduate student teachers in understanding three interrelated areas of their teaching: (1) that reflection about teaching must involve learners, (2) that teaching is an inherently complex and dynamic process, and (3) that teaching communities promote deep understanding of classroom teaching.
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    Preparing graduate student teachers for advanced content-based instruction: Exploring content through grammatical matter
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Ryshina-Pankova, Marianna
    The challenge of integrating language and content instruction, especially at the advanced proficiency levels, has been central for the profession and is described as such in the 2007 MLA Report and in other recent publications. Graduate students who, as practice shows, have not really experienced integrated instruction themselves need to be equipped with the knowledge and tools to implement it. This paper reports on the preparation of graduate student instructors to teach content- and language-integrated courses by introducing them to the notion of grammatical metaphor as particularly important for meaning making in advanced literacy texts. Specifically, this chapter presents materials for exploring the form and function of grammatical metaphor with graduate students and illustrates how they successfully utilize the concept in an independent materials development project for a unit on German history in an upper-level course.
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    A literacy-based approach to foreigh language teacher development
    (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011-01-01) Paesani, Kate
    The purpose of this chapter is twofold: (1) to investigate connections between the reform of bifurcated foreign language (FL) programs, as proposed in the 2007 MLA Report, and FL teacher development; and (2) to explore what types of methods courses establish this connection. To meet these goals, the author first summarizes current limitations of collegiate FL teacher development in the bifurcated system and identifies key issues related to rethinking this development for the twenty-first century. Next, she presents an alternative to FL teacher development that addresses the recommendations of the MLA Report. Specifically, she argues in favor of training in literacy-based pedagogy and provides an example of a literacy- based methods course, supported by data that illustrate its efficacy. Finally, she discusses the benefits and limitations of the literacy-based methods course, its implications for FL teacher development, and its potential contribution to the reform of bifurcated programs.