Editor: Virginia M. Scott, Vanderbilt University

Series Editor: Carl Blyth, University of Texas at Austin

1.  Title

Principles and Practices of the Standards in College Foreign Language Education

2.  Scope and Focus

There has been limited attention given to the role of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21^st Century in college-level foreign language (FL) teaching and learning.  Although preparation of K-12 teachers generally requires familiarity with both national and state standards documents, college-level teachers are often unaware of or uninformed about them.  Moreover, graduate students preparing for college-level teaching often encounter only superficial mention of the Standards in their methods courses and supervised teaching.  Given that a decade has passed since the publication of the Standards, and given that the Standards shape professional discourse progressively more each year, we consider this topic particularly timely. 

In this volume we want to focus on the theoretical underpinnings and application of the Standards at the college level, particularly among language program coordinators, language and literature teachers, and graduate teaching assistants.  In keeping with the mission of AAUSC, we will seek a wide variety of languages and perspectives, and a broad range of scholars and practitioners.  We are especially interested in co-authored papers that reflect collaborative work among colleagues with different kinds of responsibilities, such as language and literature teachers, or language supervisors and graduate teaching assistants. 

3.  Suggestions for Possible Topics

(a) The conceptual orientation of the Standards

• Is the theoretical framework conceptualized in such a way that it addresses the needs of college-level FL study?  Are any of the 5 Cs more or less relevant to the college level?  Do the Standards have a role to play in responding to the June 2007 MLA report entitled “Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World”?
• Implications of the Standards for language and literature classes; for the FL major

(b) In what ways can the Standards serve to bridge the gap between language and literature teachers / courses?  What role do the Standards play in courses for special purposes, such as Spanish for business or medical French? How can the Standards inform / shape the goals of the FL major? 

• Preparation of graduate students who plan to teach at the college level

(c) How do/did language supervisors and methods teachers learn about the Standards—from some kind of orientation workshop or by reading and interpreting them on their own?  What is being done in FL methods courses?  How do current methods textbooks address the goals of the Standards?  What strategies might be effective in helping graduate teaching assistants and novice teachers understand and implement the goals of the Standards.

• The role of the Standards for programmatic as well as for classroom assessment

(d) What kinds of Standards-based assessments might be used in evaluating FL programs?  FL teachers?  Do the skills-based ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines have a role to play in a Standards-based curriculum? 

4.  Timeline

The deadline for abstracts for the 2009 volume is March 1, 2008.  Abstracts should not exceed 350 words. Potential contributors will receive feedback on their abstracts by April 15, 2008.  Full-length manuscripts will be due by September 1, 2008; authors will receive reviewers’ comments by November 1, 2008.  Final manuscripts accepted for the volume will be due on February 15, 2009.  We encourage authors to consider presenting their papers at the 2008 ACTFL conference, November 20-23, in Orlando, FL.  

Please direct all inquiries to Virginia M. Scott.