Pathways to Paradigm Change: Critical Examinations of Prevailing Discourses and Ideologies in Second Language Education

Editors: Beatrice Dupuy (U Arizona), Kristen Michelson (Texas Tech U)

ISBN: 9780357437988

Calls for teaching language and culture as integrated and situated practices have recurred for over two decades. We understand situated practices as learning how to become an effective member of a community by gaining familiarity and some degree of control over its relevant social processes and practices, including processes of oral and written textual production and interpretation, with recognition of the social, cultural, and historical embeddedness of texts. However, whereas curricular responses to such appeals for change have been successful in specific, localized instructional contexts, large-scale paradigm change has not yet occurred, and traditional ideologies and practices continue to pervade the field of L2 education. Furthermore, methods course materials and practices continue to foreground historical perspectives and eclecticism, rather than guide future teachers in systematic, in-depth exploration of a single, principled approach that aligns with notions of language learning and use as situated communication practices. This volume focuses on the current discursive landscape around L2 teaching and learning with particular attention to describing prevailing ideologies as well as proposing ways of moving the dominant discursive needle forward. Our intention is to awaken the field to the urgency of reasserting the relevance of L2 education in individual learning endeavors and institutional practices. 

Understanding Vocabulary Learning and Teaching: Implications for Language Program Development 

Editors: Peter Ecke (U Arizona) Susanne Rott, U Illinois-Chicago

ISBN: 9780357106686 

Vocabulary acquisition is an indispensable part of second language acquisition and teaching. It is crucial to the development of overall language proficiency and subskills such as listening, reading, speaking, and writing. This book presents theoretical frameworks and research findings to a broad audience that extends beyond researchers who work in the field of vocabulary acquisition. The nine chapters in the collection provide insights into vocabulary learning mechanisms and discuss how these are relevant for effective language learning and teaching, material and textbook design, and curriculum development. They are intended to spark reflection and discussion among researchers, language program directors, teachers, and graduate students and thereby contribute to the implementation of research-informed practices in curriculum design, material development, and the teaching and learning of second language vocabulary.

Engaging the World: Social Pedagogies and Language Learning

Editors: Sébastien Dubreuil (Carnegie Mellon U) and Steve Thorne (Portland State U)

ISBN-13: 978-1337554497

The Interconnected Language Curriculum: Critical Transitions and Interfaces in Articulated K-16 Contexts

INTRODUCTION

Beyond the Collegiate Foreign Language Department: Horizontal and Vertical Transitions for 21st Century Learners (Per Urlaub, University of Texas-Austin, and Johanna Watzinger-Tharp, University of Utah)

PART I: HORIZONTAL ARTICULATION

• Internationalizing the Curriculum at Home: Transcultural Exploration in a French-German Course (Sébastien Dubreil & Maria Stehle)
  
• The Shared Course Initiative: Curricular Collaborations Across Institutions (Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl & Stephane Charitos)
  
• Connection-Making in Foreign Language Learning: Structured Reflection in a Collegiate German Program (Cori Crane)
  
• High School Students’ Perceptions of Language Learning in a Spanish Immersion Program (Lucy Johnson)
  

PART II: VERTICAL ARTICULATION

• Implications of the AP World Language Tenets for University Programs (Christina Frei, Glenn Levine, Heather Willis Allen, & Bridget Swanson)
  
• A Proficiency-based Articulation Project between Postsecondary Institutions (Jane Hacking & Fernando Rubio)
  
• The Roadmap to Mainstreaming Dual Language Immersion in Rhode Island (Sigrid Berka & Erin Papa)
  
• Confronting Literacy in Chinese as a Foreign Language (Michael Everson)
  

Integrating the Arts: Creative Thinking about Foreign Language Curricula and Language Program Direction

Editors: Lisa Parkes (Harvard U) and Colleen M. Ryan (Indiana U)

Integrating the arts in foreign language curricula enables us to connect language to other semiotic spaces and cultural productions such as theater, the fine arts, art history, architecture, music, museum cultures, and literature. By embracing the notion of "texts" as socially, historically, and culturally situated practices, of which the written text is but one product, we can conjoin the basic literacy of reading and writing with a broader range of visual, aural, and spatial signifying acts. Understood in this way, the arts become a source and stimulus for not only textual analysis and communicative exchange, but also subjective response and emotional experience. In other words, by interacting with art--evaluating, interpreting, experiencing, embodying, and even producing it, in any one of its many forms--learners can understand culture as a process in which they are motivated to participate as subjects. This process can deepen the cognitive, social, aesthetic, and subjective dimensions of language learning. While many new instructors have interest or expertise in the use of one or more art forms, we cannot assume that they know how to incorporate the arts in their lesson plans. Our teacher training programs, therefore, have the potential to be transformative sites, where the concept of foreign language literacy and literacies takes shape through effectively varied pedagogical practices. This volume will not only provide a concrete vision for approaches to materials and learning goals, but also suggest directions for teacher training and long-term professional development for integrating the arts.

Innovation and Accountability in Language Program Evaluation

Individual Differences, L2 Development, and Language Program Administration: From Theory to Application

ISBN-13: 9781285760582

The democratization of schooling and greater access to higher education, together with the implementation of language requirements in colleges and universities across the United States, has led to a higher degree of diversity in language classrooms. One usually thinks of gender, ethnic, racial, or social diversity, but individual differences, including learning disabilities and special needs, also contribute to diversity and have an impact on assessment, placement, and curriculum. In their role as administrators and teacher educators, Language Program Directors (LPDs) seek to integrate current practices and research in applied linguistics into program design and administration, including assessment. To make individual differences a theoretically grounded integral component of their decision-making processes, LPDs need resources that provide cutting-edge primary and secondary research on the conceptualization, measurement, and consequences of individual differences on language development in the classroom. This volume provides LPDs with the means to transmit information to their instructors in effective ways so that the instructors develop a sophisticated understanding of individual differences, including learning disabilities, special needs, and strategies for dealing with diverse student populations. In addition, this volume creates a forum for reflections about and solutions to challenges related to diversity as it relates to individual differences.

Hybrid Language Teaching and Learning: Exploring Theoretical, Pedagogical and Curricular Issues

Editors: Fernando Rubio (U Utah) and Joshua J. Thoms (Utah State University)

ISBN-13: 978-1285174679

Hybrid language teaching and learning, also referred to as blended learning, has become an increasingly popular model for the delivery of foreign language (FL) courses at the college level in the United States. HYBRID LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING: EXPLORING THEORETICAL, PEDAGOGICAL AND CURRICULAR ISSUES addresses a number of theoretical and applied topics related to hybrid/blended contexts. The volume is useful for readers unfamiliar with hybrid approaches, as several chapters highlight practical concerns and contain suggestions from authors who have experience implementing and maintaining college-level hybrid FL courses. In addition, the volume serves to disseminate empirical work that focuses on the linguistic outcomes of learners in hybrid FL learning contexts. Finally, the issue of open educational resources/open access is discussed in the context of hybrid FL courses.

Educating the Future Foreign Language Professorate for the 21st Century

Editors: Heather Willis Allen (U Wisconsin-Madison) and Hiram Maxim (Emory U)
ISBN-13: 978-1133312789

Emphasizing the importance of educating the future professoriate for the foreign language profession, this volume presents pedagogical and theoretical frameworks for graduate student development that respond to the changing landscape in the field. Specifically, the volume advances professional development models and practices that take into account the longitudinal nature of teacher education. In doing so, it questions existing educational paradigms that have not prepared graduate students adequately to address the challenges of becoming successful teacher-scholars. The volume provides the reader with specific examples from the field that explore the implications of the latest research on language use, literacy, instructional technology, and curriculum design for graduate student teacher development and gives concrete suggestions for implementing a sustainable and coherent approach to teacher education that addresses the complex components of foreign language study in higher education.

Critical and Intercultural Theory and Language Pedagogy

Principles and Practices of the Standards in College Foreign Language Education

Conceptions of L2 Grammar: Theoretical Approaches and their Application in the L2 Classroom

Editors: Stacey Katz and Johanna Watzinger-Tharp (University of Utah)
ISBN 13: 9781428231498

The volume focuses on theoretical approaches to grammar and how they relate to the teaching and learning of grammar and to language program development. Practice includes, but is not limited to, articulation, assessment, classroom culture, curriculum and materials development, and teacher education. In keeping with the mission of AAUSC, it is our goal to present a wide variety of languages and perspectives, and a broad range of scholars and practitioners.

From Thought to Action: Exploring Beliefs and Outcomes in the Foreign Language Program

Editor: H. Jay Siskin (Cabrillo College)
ISBN 13: 9781428230118

This volume contains thirteen authoritative articles that offer multiple strategies for eliciting and articulating beliefs and expectations from both professors and students in foreign language instruction. The original articles examine the topic from five perspectives: Historical Perspectives, Curriculum Development, Student Beliefs and Learning, Beliefs and TA Training, and Administration and Assessment. This volume sheds light on differing perspectives of the methods, contents and goals in the foreign language classroom in the hopes that it will diminish the discordance between teacher and student expectations, thus eliminating a source of common frustration in the class experience.

Insights from Study Abroad for Language Programs

Internet-mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education

Editors: Julie A. Belz and Steven L. Thorne (The Pennsylvania State University)
ISBN 13: 9781413029925

This volume explores the "intercultural perspective" on foreign language education. From this viewpoint, the focus of language learning is redefined in terms of intercultural rather than communicative competence. Internet-mediation is a praxiological reflex of this conceptual shift in that it affords the embedding of foreign language learning and instruction in the sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts of language use and development in the form of classroom-based intercultural collaborations between internationally dispersed representatives of the languacultures under study. The contributions to the volume examine the pedagogy, processes, and outcomes of NS-NNS Internet-mediated language and culture learning partnerships in French, German, Spanish, EFL, and Russian from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, including model learning, reflective practice, learner corpus analysis, cultural studies, ethnography, interactionism, and critical theory.

Language Program Articulation: Developing a Theoretical Foundation

Advanced Foreign-Language Instruction

The Sociolinguistics of Foreign Language Classrooms: Contributions of the Native, the Near-native and the Non-native Speaker

SLA and the Literature Classroom: Fostering Dialogues

Mentoring Foreign Language TA's, Lecturers, and Adjunct Faculty

Form and Meaning - Multiple Perspectives

Research Issues and Language Program Direction

New Ways of Learning and Teaching: Focus on Technology and Foreign Language Education

Patterns & Policies: The Changing Demographics of Foreign Language Instruction

Redefining the Boundaries of Language Study

Faces in a Crowd: The Individual Learner in Multisection Courses

Editor:  Carol Klee

The Dynamics of Language Program Direction

Development and Supervision of Teaching Assistants in Foreign Languages

Assessing Foreign Language Proficiency of Undergraduates

Challenges in the 1990s for College Foreign Language Programs