March 2012

Making connections inside and outside the foreign language classroom
By Jean W. LeLoup USAF Academy & FLTEACH

The topic of Connections is one of great importance in the foreign language (FL) teaching field.  One of the National Standards (2006) goal areas, the concept of making connections, networking, and linking is pervasive in our profession.  Think about all the ways we language teachers need to and do connect in our daily professional and personal lives.

Connecting with research and with researchers
Teachers need continually to refresh their own FL skills and knowledge about how languages are learned. We must keep current in the field by reading second language acquisition (SLA) research to inform our own teaching practices.  Engaging in action research is another powerful way to make connections between theory and classroom practice. 

Connecting with FL colleagues
We should be making connections with colleagues – as often as we can.  We need fresh ideas, inspiration, and good role models. Making these connections – call it networking – is so important for our own professional development and that of our colleagues. How do we do this?  A few suggestions:

• Join professional organizations at all levels and participate – go to conferences, meet others who do what you do and/or who do things differently from you and learn from them.
• Participate in FLTEACH, the Foreign Language Teaching Forum online, or any other forum that meets your needs.  Many folks out there share an interest in improving language teaching and learning – you just need to find them and then connect with them. 
• Establish lunch round tables in your own department – meet once a week or bi-weekly to share ideas, activities and/or have a language immersion opportunity.

Connecting with the target language in the classroom
It is crucial for FL teachers to follow the guidance of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Position Paper on target language (TL) use published in May of 2010:  “ACTFL therefore recommends that language educators and their students use the target language as exclusively as possible (90% plus) at all levels of instruction during instructional time and, when feasible, beyond the classroom.”  Please note that this is everyone:  teachers and students alike. We have to model this use . . . and our students will follow suit. 

Connecting with students
Connecting personally with our students is the most important thing we can do in our classroom.  A few suggestions from our colleagues in the field:

• Learn students’ names quickly and accurately.  Use name cards on their desk, photos on your roster, collect information cards with personal data/interests on each student the very first day. Incorporate this information in your lessons.
• Keep current on TL music, singers, film stars, etc.  Play the music regularly; many students will seek out more on their own when hooked.
• Show that you enjoy what you are doing.
• Think of the teachers that influenced you the most and figure out/analyze “why.”  Then emulate them. 
• Be approachable, be available, be accessible, make students feel important, show them respect, make them believe that they can learn.
• Be human, make mistakes, and let your students make mistakes.
• Make it clear in lots of ways that you really do care about them and their education.
• Share with students that you are still a learner too.   

Connecting with your own language learning experience
Much research shows that we teach as we were taught (Britzman, 1991; Lortie, 1975).  Think back for a moment to your initial and subsequent experiences as second language (L2) learners. Were these positive experiences? Negative ones? Mixed?  How each and every one of us learned our L2(s) does influence how we make connections to our own classrooms, our students, our teaching. Make a conscientious effort to mirror the positive aspects you recall. 

Connecting with the real world
We need to make connections between the FL we are teaching and our students’ world.  We must show them the relevance of learning this language; learning a FL must be bigger and better than just studying another subject matter in school.  Our students want to know the practical application of the knowledge we teachers are asking them to absorb, and in today’s world that is a legitimate question.  Demonstrating the importance of the TL we teach to our students is the key.   Below are a few suggestions to incorporate:

• Relate stories of graduates from your school who use the TL in their lives.
• Read classified ads in area newspapers that seek bilingual employees.
• Bring in TL speakers from the community.
• Read an article in a newspaper from a TL country that focuses on the same topic addressed in your community’s newspaper.

Connecting with other cultures
Connecting to other cultures in this global economy and world is necessary for a variety of reasons.  Learning an FL and studying the concomitant cultures related to it is a basic skill in the 21st century (Partnership, 2011).  We can so easily travel all around the world; we can work in the U.S. but connect to countries all over the globe in our job; we have need of linguists for national security purposes. It behooves us to embrace a polyglot status and abandon the monolingual stance of much of the United States population. 

Connecting in the 5Cs sense
Connections in the 5 Cs sense stresses connecting to other disciplines.  Knowing a FL opens up all sorts of possibilities that are simply unavailable to monolinguals.  One’s access to information is exponentially greater the more language(s) one knows and can use.  The Connections Standard also underscores a linkage to perspectives unavailable to us here in the U.S. if we do not know another language.  If you want to know what people in Uruguay think of event “X” in the U.S., then you need to read about it in El Observador de Montevideo and not in your local newspaper. Giving students access to viewpoints in the TL cultures they are studying can be a real eye-opener and can greatly expand their horizons. 

Connecting to products (tangibles), practices (behaviors), and perspectives of the TL culture. 
Language learning that excludes a study of the TL culture is simply incomplete.  We need to address culture, and we need to make connections whenever possible between our students’ culture and the TL culture.  Concentrating on making associations that show similarities, rather than stark differences, helps our students better understand the perspectives behind a TL product or practice. Rather than the “ew, that’s weird” reaction, we are after the “oh, that’s sort of like when we . . . ”  response.  This also addresses affect as well, which figured prominently above in ways to connect with your students. 

Conclusion
We have touched on many different kinds of connections here . . . connections that enrich our professional lives, our knowledge, our foundations of teaching, our relationships with students, and our grounding in the TLs we teach.  Making these connections is a vital process we need to engage in on a regular basis in order to optimize our teaching and maximize our students’ learning.  These connections, invariably involving language and culture, will facilitate communication in the FL classroom and will move our language learners along their interlanguage continuum to increased TL proficiency. 

References

Britzman, D. (1991). Practice makes practice:  A critical study of learning to teach. Albany: State University of New York press.
Lortie, D. (1975). Schoolteacher:  A sociological study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project (NSFLEP). (2006). Standards for foreign language learning in the 21st century (3rd ed.). Lawrence, KS: Allen Press, Inc.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills.  (2011).  Framework for 21st Century Learning.  Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/overview on February 6, 2012. 

January 2012

Escaping from a Cultural Cocoon
Patricia M. Thornton
Director of Summer Programs
Concordia Language Villages

Culture is like water for the fish: We are in it and a part of it but we do not see
it…Implicit or subjective culture is invisible, but it is the dimension of culture
 that is most likely to affect human interaction.  The values, beliefs, attitudes,
behavioral patterns and role relationships that different cultures hold dear are
difficult to detect by members of each culture as well as by those who are alien.
~Felipe Korzenny

Most Americans who have had the fortune to travel, live, and work in and around the world have, at some point, been faced with the sad fact that we Americans are tongue-tied and continent-bound. That is, the sheer geographic size of our country coupled with the economic hegemony of the US economy has, perhaps, created a lessened sense of national urgency about the teaching of language and culture in our schools. Yet, those of us who have left to live abroad as exchange students or international workers come to understand the power of language as an avenue into the soul of a people and their culture.  Then later, as teachers, we come to understand that this is what education is really about: helping students to understand other ways of meeting and seeing human needs.

There is no better vantage point to teach students about the other than from the foreign language classroom.    Direct teaching of a new language improves the fluency capabilities of students, but through the vehicle of a language curriculum, we affect what our students come to understand about the world.  When we pay express attention to the teaching of culture in the foreign language classroom, we help our students understand that there are many paths to developing a world-view, and that there are unique approaches that each group of people employs to do so. 

Increasing competence in another language and culture helps students to look beyond their comfort borders and, as a bonus, to develop insights into their own language and culture.  The question is how to bring the target language culture(s) into the language classroom?  What is it that American youth want to know and are ready to know about the target culture(s) represented in their world language classroom and how do teachers make that come alive?  This means, as a classroom teacher we strive to give all students a feel for other cultural possibilities, other ways of knowing.  Margaret Mead said, “ …the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who never left his own doorstep…”  Of course, we can’t take all kids beyond the shore, so bringing to them what is beyond the shore is the next best thing. 

At the Language Villages, we have the advantage of 24-hour contact with students for an extended period of time. But, many of the cultural components of a Village program are possible to duplicate in the classroom. The best way to do that is to think like a young learner—what interests a 10, 12 or 17-year old?

• Music: is one of the most obvious entrées into another culture. Whether it is pop music, the latest Parisian dance, or traditional folk instruments, students love to have a regular music (and dance) segment in the foreign language curriculum week.
• Food: Not all food units need to involve the time-consuming and tedious work of cooking with students; instead, students can glean valuable culture and communication information from authentic recipes and gain tremendous insight into food diet and tastes. Alternatively, practicing target culture dining customs and rituals with even store-bought American food at a French table set upon desks is an excellent way to enrich learners’ understanding of a new practice.
• Habits: How are students greeted at the classroom door?  How do they conduct themselves in the classroom? Is every possible use of target language customs employed? The bow in the Japanese classroom, the appropriate form of address to the teacher in German, the authentic conclusion for the Chinese class?  When invoked in the classroom, each of these small habits imbues the students’ conscious or unconscious mind with a perspective other than their own, and helps to open the mind to other ways of being.
• Realia: Filling the classroom with cultural artifacts of the language being studied, those artifacts that represent worldviews and ways of doing, gives learners the feel of the cultures and helps work toward the insider’s perspective.  Realia turns the space of a classroom into a place where culture happens.
• Simulations: It may seem too long and involved for a class hour, but a true simulation can be as short and simple as a trip to the train station (fabricated in the classroom), or bartering at the fruit market, or inquiring about a pizza delivery on the classroom phone. The bonus for each of these short and simple simulations is they promote student-to-student language production and can be used as authentic assessments.

In truth, culture is a cocoon and everything that comes into our consciousness is mediated through it.  And while a cocoon serves the purpose of making the occupant feel warm and cozy, it also limits the vision.  This is an important metaphor for our students to understand.  As members of one culture, we tend to make judgments, or at least assumptions, about another through the obscured vision from inside our cocoon—a perspective that stops at the walls that surround us and keep us comfortable.  We know what we know, and cannot see past that without an intentional look.  This is the power of foreign language instruction—it provides the “look.”  Students who have the good fortune to be involved in language learning over an extended period of time and to develop communicative and receptive fluency get more than a look—they get the insider’s perspective. 

In its ideal state, foreign language teaching allows students an entrée into a new way of knowing the world and an understanding of how important it is to pull back the cocoon and step outside to take a look around—if even briefly.  This will ultimately affect and deepen human interaction and understanding, and in the end, that’s all that counts.  

July 2011

World Language Teacher Shortage and Program Sustainability
Is Teacher Shortage Really the Issue?
Jacqueline Bott Van Houten, Ph.D. - Kentucky Department of Education
Ruta Couet - South Carolina Department of Education

Each year the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education issues a nationwide list of specific teacher shortage areas. From 1990 to 2012 Foreign Language has consistently been identified as an area of high need, along with bilingual education, reading specialists, science, mathematics and special education. Numerous state and national efforts have attempted to analyze and address this issue, but perhaps teacher shortage is not the central issue and recruiting more teachers not the only solution.

 Important factors are
1)  changing trends in language and program popularity
2)  pre-service and inservice training of language teachers
3)  administrative issues of scheduling and funding, and, most importantly,
4)  the emphasis on learning vs teaching.
5) equal access to language learning.

Changing Trends
The playing field constantly changes and the teaching profession responds by playing a no-win game of catch-up to meet the ever-shifting demand. Example of this are:
• the high demand for Spanish teachers in the 80's and 90's
• the urgent need for Chinese and Arabic teachers following the National Security Language Initiative report
• the lack of teachers of a specific language in a particular geographical area
• the shortage of urban and rural language teachers
• the demand for elementary school vs. high school language teachers
• the recent demands for immersion teachers in certain states and districts

Local districts and states have diffused many crises with stop gap measures, such as:
-- hiring foreign nationals to teach world languages through various ministries of education,
   educational organizations and for profit companies
-- tapping heritage and business communities for native speakers, and
-- creating alternative routes toward certification,
while at the same time, taking years to build capacity to meet the need before it changes once, again.

Training of Language Teachers
An upgrade of teacher preparation programs is long overdue. Far too prevalent are programs designed to replicate teaching and learning principles from 50 years ago. Too often teachers enter the profession without the high levels of language proficiency required to prepare students for jobs in international business, diplomacy, military intelligence, healthcare, law enforcement, to mention a few areas of employment. 

Too long the focus of language teacher training programs has been at the secondary level where graduation requirements are minimal or non-existent. There are too few programs for elementary language teachers, particularly for immersion programs. More often than not, middle and high schools are ill prepared to offer immersion graduates the courses they need to continue their language journeys.

The issue is not a shortage of teachers but rather the changing needs for teachers in the field and/or for alternative delivery methods of instruction to promote language learning.

Funding and Scheduling
School administrators and local and state boards of education often use teacher shortage as an argument against instituting new world language programs and/or graduation requirements, while funding may be at the root of their concern. And, with many districts laying off large numbers of teachers, one might ask, "what teacher shortage?" All indications are that the budget cuts at federal and state levels are unlikely to turn around any time soon. Grants for language programs are likely to be fewer and highly competitive, and even then, sustainability will remain the fiscal responsibility of the local districts.  The funding issue is also why some ill-informed decision-makers are turning to software programs as the sole medium of instruction.

Learning vs Teaching
Given the changing nature of political and economic influences on educational trends and the increasing demand for language learning beginning in elementary school and reaching high levels of proficiency, we will never have a sufficient number of qualified teachers to meet the need in the traditional school system as we know it. So the question becomes, not how do we solve the teacher shortage, but rather, how do we meet the learning needs of students--a very different matter altogether.

Many states are already refocusing the attention on credit for proficiency instead of seat time, and a few are allowing, if not encouraging, learning to take place any time and anywhere. More and more, students are being provided with oportunities to become autonomous learners, setting their own goals and demonstrating their progress against benchmarks. Technology, too, plays a supportive role by providing equitable opportunities for blended instruction, as well as for personal, self-directed learning and language practice in authentic contexts.

All of this suggests an emerging role for teachers (as well as students) as versatile learning coaches and facilitators, who focus on the individual needs of their learners rather than follow the program model. Also suggested is an evolving system of education that self-examines and identifies its limitation and barriers to learning. The shortage is perhaps, not one of teachers, but of vision to imagine how learning can occur, progress, and be documented beyond the traditional school model.

Equal Access
The question is how can we provide all learners with equitable access to learning the languages of their choice for whatever purposes are meaningful to them? Equitable access to language learning should not depend on where learners live, what their districts can afford, or what decisions administrators make.  The market needs to shift to meet their needs, not the needs of the education establishment.  We can no longer limit ourselves to what the current system imposes.

Resources:
www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/pol/tsa.pdf

July 2011

The Power of Observations: What you can learn from watching others
Dr. Maria F. Still
Coordinator, World Languages
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
NADSFL Teacher of the Year, 2006

In a K-12 educational setting, formative and summative observations are announced or unannounced visits by on-site administrators, and these are admittedly only snapshots of the learning and teaching process. Teachers take administrative feedback very seriously because it generally has a bearing on their evaluations. Actually some teachers may become frustrated with the feedback from observers who are not versed in the goals and objectives of world languages. However, teachers may be more willing to accept feedback in general if they have participated in collegial or peer observations. They then are able to recall their roles as observers and know that meaningful feedback and discussion can emanate from classroom visits. Collegial or peer observations can be the impetus for improving the learning and teaching process already in place as well as a vehicle for validation of a job well done.

Admittedly, making the arrangements for collegial observations can be challenging. Nevertheless, teachers can set the tone for beneficial outcomes when they approach their administrators with a plan for successful collegial observations. Following are possible objectives for a plan that includes a spiraling process of pre-dialogues, multiple and sequential visits to the classroom, and post-dialogues:  

• Improve teaching and learning.
• Identify elements of a balanced assessment system.
• Focus on the needs of all students.
• Provide feedback on the learning and teaching process.
• Determine how to integrate technology in a way that supports language use in context.
• Reflect on the relationship between effective classroom procedures and successful learning experiences.

Collegial observation teams may consider the following suggestions:

• Have pre- and post-dialogues where both participants can express their own visions of successes and concerns.
• Work on issues of trust and invoke the need for confidentiality when needed.
• Plan for multiple and sequential observations to see how the learning process spirals and moves forward.
• Provide a learning plan that has objectives that are specific, measurable, observable, realistic, and attainable.
• Ensure that instructional procedures will assist students to meet their daily objectives.
• Focus on the issues discussed during the pre-dialogues, e.g., classroom management, introduction of new information, use of higher order thinking, etc.
• Consider using a flip camera from time to time.
• Reflect on the observation experience as colleagues and not as evaluators.
• Avoid using words such as “should,” need to,” and “ought to.”
• Commit to having uninterrupted pre- and post-dialogues that occur in a timely manner.

Using the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century as a guide for meaningful language use, one acknowledges that students need to develop a proficiency in the languages that they are studying commensurate with the amount of time that they spend on task. It is not difficult to extrapolate from this reality that the classroom scenario should be performance-based and proficiency-oriented. Therefore, the collegial observation team may want to ensure that

• the assessments have been developed for the unit before teaching and learning proceeds.
• the assessments align with goals and objectives that are proficiency-oriented.
• a balanced assessment system includes performance-based assessments for unrehearsed speaking and writing.

Assessments that are developed before instruction begins offer insight for the teacher to select appropriate strategies and activities.

During the instructional time, the observer may want to determine if students are required only to use low-level thinking skills. There are certain student behaviors in this kind of learning environment. Students

• Memorize the vocabulary using English to check understanding.
• Depend on translation to check understanding
• Use the text, workbook, and/or handouts to practice vocabulary and grammar.
• Complete written work without much oral practice.
• Learn about the grammar of the target language in place of using the grammar in context.
• Respond orally mostly at the word or phrase level.
• Respond at the sentence level if information is memorized, read, or previously stated.
• Respond only to teacher-made questions in the target language.
• Ask questions if they can read them or use the ones that the teacher develops.
• Fill in text/workbook exercises and handouts rather than practicing and applying the target language first orally for meaningful purposes.

On the other hand, the observer may want to determine if students are required to use all levels of thinking skills. There are certain student behaviors in this kind of learning environment. Students

• Use familiar information in context with higher order thinking skills orally and in writing.
• Re-enter familiar information orally that connects to new vocabulary or new grammatical structures.
• Pronounce new vocabulary in a variety of ways (antonyms, synonyms, definitions, analogies, etc.) until it becomes routine and familiar to them.
• Identify the meaning of new vocabulary and use of new grammatical structures orally in the context of visuals and inductive teaching techniques to avoid translation.
• Practice and apply new vocabulary and new grammatical structures orally in many ways before reinforcing them with writing.

Form simple sentences orally with new and familiar information.

• Form longer sentences orally with new and familiar information. (Incorporating answers to selected question words help to make sentences longer.)
• Create and ask yes/no questions orally with new and familiar information.
• Respond orally to yes/no questions developed by peers.
• Create and ask peers questions orally that require question words.
• Respond orally with complete sentences to questions developed by peers that require question words.
• Combine sentences orally and in writing for a variety of reasons.
• Ask and answer questions in unrehearsed conversations.
• Read for specific purposes, i.e., define new vocabulary using familiar information, paraphrase sections, sequence the reading, predict a new ending, etc.
• Write for specific purposes, i.e., provide pre-writing, writing, and post-writing strategies.

There is a wealth of learning for both participants of the collegial observation team as they both share the roles of observer and teacher. Additionally, there is room for self assessment and reflection, but the power of observations rests truly with the collegial observation team and their professionalism and willingness to share.

Reference

National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project. (1999). Standards for foreign language learning in the 21st century. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press.

April 2011

The Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy …
and Standards for Foreign Language Learning 
Peter Ecke
Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy (CERCLL)

The Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century have been used as a roadmap for language policy makers, teachers, and program directors. They have been adapted at the state and local level to improve foreign language learning. CERCLL acknowledges the importance of the standards as a guide for best practices for language teachers and students. I will use the five components of the standards here as a framework to present some of CERCLL’s current projects. Those project descriptions will demonstrate that CERCLL’s mission and activities are very much in line with and supportive of the goals set by the standards. 

The Standards for Foreign Language Learning have been described within five goal areas: (1) communication, (2) cultures, (3) connections, (4) comparisons, and (5) communities. They are being been described by ACTFL as follows:

COMMUNICATION (Communicate in Languages Other Than English)

CULTURES (Gain Knowledge and Understanding of Other Cultures)

CONNECTIONS (Connect with Other Disciplines and Acquire Information)

COMPARISONS (Develop Insight into the Nature of Language and Culture)

COMMUNITIES (Participate in Multilingual Communities at Home and Around the World)

More information on the standards for foreign language learning can be found at: http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3324

COMMUNICATION
CERCLL is devoted to research, innovative pedagogies, and material development to enhance communication skills, especially in the less commonly taught languages. Two current CERCLL projects focus on the creation / application of innovative and immersive learning environments that foster communication and interaction. In the project “Global Simulation for Business: Educating Global Entrepreneurs for Global Trade”, directed by Beatrice Dupuy, simulated, real-life learning environments are being created for the learning and use of foreign languages in the international business context. In these simulated environments, students of Chinese, Portuguese, and Russian will be able to use and advance their language skills through task-based and project-based learning.

The project, “Games to Teach: Developing Digital Game-Mediated Foreign Language Literacies”, directed by Jonathon Reinhardt and Julie Sykes, has as its objective the utilization of digital games as stimulating and effective learning environments. Through this project, CERCLL will provide language educators the resources needed to design, implement, and assess digital game-mediated learning activities for foreign language and culture learning.

In a third project, “Modern Persian Textbook Series: Advanced” project director, Kamran Talattof, is authoring two volumes of a much needed Persian textbook series for college students or independent learners. The textbooks will teach both spoken and written formats, and will provide students with information about aspects of Iranian culture.

CULTURES
Gaining knowledge and understanding of other cultures is an important part of CERCLL’s mission. Several projects are focusing on the study and teaching of cultural awareness. The project “Hypermedia Texts: Using Multimodal Text Annotations to Promote Cultural Literacy”, directed by Chantelle Warner, involves the creation of culturally annotated hypermedia texts in Arabic, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Turkish. The project collaborators develop pedagogical materials to accompany these texts for the teaching of language as culture through literary texts.

In “Bringing Global Cultures and World Languages into K-8 Classrooms”, project director, Kathy Short, and colleagues intend to make K-8 teachers more confident and comfortable with integrating cultural and linguistic perspectives into their classrooms and familiarize them with instructional strategies and electronic resources. By bringing an International Consultant and a Language and Culture Kit into K-8 schools, they introduce K-8 students to less commonly taught languages and cultures in order to encourage them to study these languages in high school and university context.  Kits in Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish will be added to already existing kits in Arabic and Korean.

The project “Study Abroad: The Assessment of Cultural Intelligence”, directed by Peter Ecke, addresses the need for ready-to use, easily adaptable instruments to teach and assess students’ development of cultural intelligence during study abroad in Russia and Germany. The materials that are being developed include questionnaires, learner portfolios, and simulation games through which learners analyze and resolve critical incidents that can occur during study abroad. A model will be developed for the teaching and assessment of cultural knowledge and skills in other less commonly taught languages.

CONNECTIONS
While the development of communication and cultural skills is at the core of most CERCLL projects, several projects also connect with other disciplines.  In “Legal Registers for Interpretation: Training Materials and Resources for Heritage Language Speakers”, project director, Roseann González, addresses the need for accurate and adequate language services in the legal system.  The project will provide valuable training for interpreters of Russian who do not have the opportunity or financial means to develop their linguistic and interpreting skills in high-stakes legal settings. The project builds on successful intensive interpreter training programs in English and Spanish, Navajo, Haitian Creole, and ASL. It will also provide a model for developing interpreter services for other heritage languages.

The aforementioned project, “Global simulation for business”, addresses communication and culture skills, but specifically those needed by professionals in international business and trade.

COMPARISONS
Developing insight into the nature of language and culture is an important component of several projects: All projects listed under the culture and communication areas attempt to provide insight by comparing, i.e. detecting and analyzing similarities and differences between languages and cultures.

COMMUNITIES
Part of CERCLL’s mission is it to participate in and assist multilingual communities at home and around the world.  Through the project “K-16 Initiatives: Professional Development for Foreign Language Educators”, directed by Linda Waugh, CERCLL is providing professional development opportunities for language teachers and program administrators. The initiative responds to the needs of schools that increasingly offer less commonly taught languages and the needs of K-16 educators, as identified through the CERCLL practitioner needs survey. CERCLL offers (1) workshops at the University of Arizona, (2) in-service workshops at local and regional schools, and (3) a summer series of workshops and institutes. A list of CERCLL’s upcoming summer workshops can be found here: http://cercll.arizona.edu/doku.php/development

The project “PErCOLATE: Topic-based Modules for Preparing the Future FL Professoriate to Teach with a Multiliteracies Approach across the Undergraduate FL Curriculum”, directed by Heather Allen and Beatrice Dupuy, addresses shortcomings in the training of foreign language teaching assistants (TAs).  The objective is to create a set of modules for professional development of TAs in several languages by developing flexible materials and activities that focus on language teaching at higher levels and provide an alternative structure for professional development in programs where there is either a Language Program Director (LPD) with no applied linguistics background or no LPD at all (the norm in most less commonly taught language programs).

A highlight in CERCLL’s attempts to build and strengthen communities is going to be the Second International Conference on Intercultural Communication to be held in Tucson, AZ, January 26-29, 2012.  The first conference held in January, 2010, was a full success, and it is expected that the next one will be as exciting as the first. The call for papers for this conference can be found here: http://cercll.arizona.edu/doku.php/development/conferences/icc.

The five goal areas described in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities, are without doubt part of CERCLL’s mission and projects. CERCLL is working hard to contribute to higher standards of language and culture learning in this country.

More information about CERCLL’s ongoing projects and products of past projects can be found at: http://cercll.arizona.edu/doku.php/projects/materials
                                          

March 2011

Millennials Prove Themselves to the World
Carl Falsgraff
Director, Center for Applied Language Study (CASLS)

Millennials are the most diverse and tolerant generation in American history. Able to connect with peers around the world instantly, they are the first “post-national” generation. That teenager secretly texting the girl next to her in class can just as easily text a teenager in Shanghai, provided she can write Chinese. This generation should be the best language learners in history. Yet, the decline in traditional programs, especially at the elementary level, creates a situation where the demand for language learning far outstrips the supply. The commercial success of self-study programs such as Rosetta Stone and LiveMocha is a testament of the failure to meet this demand. At the Ccenter for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS), we consider this failure to be an opportunity to provide Millennials and others with effective, personalized language learning opportunities.

First, we have to consider who these Millennials are. These characteristics, drawn from various lines of research, are of course broad generalizations that do not apply to all individuals born between 1982 and 2001, the common definition of the Millennial generation. Nonetheless, they are useful in considering the pedagogic issues arising from Baby Boomers and Generation-Xers teaching children who have grown up with a very different relationship to technology and each other.

• Achievers: Millennials’ “helicopter parents” are driven to make sure their children are special, and kids got the memo: You need to distinguish yourself through high achievement and have a life plan. Boomers were proud to announce that they would hitchhike around Europe until the money ran out and then figure out what to do. Not Millennials who are thinking about grad school before finishing high school.
• Rule followers: Unlike the rebellious Boomers and the cynical Gen-Xers, Millennials are rule followers who trust structure and institutions.
• Tech-savvy: These “digital natives” have never known a world without Internet access and cell phones. In fact, 83% report having slept with their cell phones, demonstrating the ubiquity of communications technology in their lives and the desire to be constantly connected to peers.
• Peer-oriented: Millennials are tightly tied to peer groups both through technology and traditional face-to-face groups, such as organized soccer teams, school clubs, and multiplayer online games.
• Exhibitionist: Millennials self-promote. Posting sexy photos or bragging about accomplishments on Facebook is not considered bad form. The 40% with tattoos and 25% with piercings all but scream “Look at me!”

What would a “Millennial pedagogy” look like?

First, it must appeal to Millennial’s sense that they are “special” as well as their intense desire for peer-group connections. A Millennial pedagogy would provide structure and rules. It would worry less about punishing students for slacking (Gen-Xers) or flaunting the rules (Boomers) and more about rewarding them for accomplishments. And it would give them ample opportunity to show off.

Working with partners around the country, CASLS has adopted a Millennial-friendly approach called “Can-Do Learning” and is developing tools to help facilitate that approach. The basic tenets of Can-Do Learning are:

• Learners set their own goals in terms of what they can do.
• Learning experiences, inside or outside of class, are designed to help them pursue those goals.
• Learners track their own progress toward goals through self-, peer- and teacher-assessments.
• Learners choose evidence to substantiate claims of what they can do.

CASLS has developed a tool to facilitate the Can-Do Learning approach called LinguaFolio Online. Developed in partnership with the National Council of State Supervisors For Languages (NCSSFL) and the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), this online tool allows learners to identify goals in terms of CanDo statements such as “I can give and ask for directions” at lower levels and “I can state and defend an opinion” at higher levels. Each of these main CanDo statements can be broken into sub-CanDo statements and, more importantly, customizable CanDo statements.

In this example, a student chose to enter “I can give directions from my house to the mall.” Learners can define their own goals within a standard framework. Learners also can attach evidence to each of these statements in the form of videos, audio files, text, or images.

Once the evidence is uploaded, learners can keep it private (default) or choose to share with peers or teachers. In the picture below, the text evidence is kept private (single person icon) and the MP3 file is available for review (three person icon).

Concerns about Can-Do Learning from Boomer and Gen-Xer teachers illustrate a significant gap in the mind sets between them and their Millennial students.

Concern #1: Self- and peer-assessment is meaningless. Kids will cheat.
Boomers grew up challenging rules of the establishment, and Gen-Xers learned to manipulate the system to get what they wanted. With this mentality, self-assessment is indeed problematic. But Millennials are rule followers. In fact, initial evidence from STARTALK summer institutes indicates that learners’ estimates of their ability are often lower than that of their teachers.

Concern #2: Kids won’t do this.
Most of us who began using social networks as adults are reticent about posting anything on Facebook more intimate than a family photo. Those who grew up posting tuneless renditions of pop songs on YouTube, compromising photos on Facebook, and texting salacious pictures get a social reward for “being seen” that older Americans do not. If giving a speech in Japanese, singing an Argentine pop song, or doing a skit in Arabic prompts your friends to hit the “like” button, students are likely to do it.

Concern #3: It’s too complicated.
A recent LinguaFolio teacher training workshop, filled with Boomers and Xers, was a nightmare. It took two hours just to get everyone logged in properly. At a later session with Millennial students, however, halfway through the explanation of how to get access, kids were already starting to check off Can-Do statements and upload evidence. Technology is not a barrier for digital natives.

Of course, not all Millennials are team-oriented achievers who want to see themselves on YouTube any more than all baby boomers were radical hippies or all Gen-Xers were hopeless slackers. The general trend towards technology-mediated peer groups and a focus on achievement within a well-defined structure, however, suggests the Can-Do Learning approach may fit well within the Millennial mindset.

For more information, visit http://casls.uoregon.edu/lfo.php

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February 2011

Teaching in the Target Language

As we focus on learners and what they need from their teachers during language classes, one of the most important elements is their need to access the new language through the language itself and not through English. Janice Erickson, ACTFL past president, compared using English to teach another language like teaching kids how to swim without water. We know from research in second-language acquisition that learners need to be surrounded with input that is meaningful and interesting in order to acquire a new language.

How Much Target Language Use is Appropriate?
We must provide this kind of input consistently, from the very beginning and for every class period. Many teachers speak exclusively in the target language; others recommend use of the new language 95 to 100 percent of the time. ACTFL in its position statement on this topic (http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4368 - targetlang) recommends that the target language be used a minimum of 90% of the time. It is especially important that the teacher use the new language for regular classroom tasks, such as giving directions and managing behavior because this demonstrates to the students that the new language is useful and works for all the business of the classroom.

Teacher as Culture Bearer
Language is the key to the culture. Even though not all teachers are native speakers, all teachers serve as culture bearers--the representatives of the culture in the classroom. When students have the feeling of being surrounded by the language, they also have the feeling of what it might be like to actually be in a place where this language is spoken. If we spend much of classroom time in English, we are actually denying students access to the language and the culture.

Why Do Some Teachers Resist Using the Target Language?
Since using the target language is such a vital part of actually learning the language, why do some teachers resist using the language and use English? Some thoughts on possibly explaining this are:

• They worry that the learners won’t understand and won’t know what to do.
• They worry that they themselves sometimes do not know enough of the language to be able to be effective users.
• They worry that the language is too difficult and that they must explain it in English.
• They worry about losing control of the class if they speak the target language.
• They may have inherited a class whose previous teacher spoke mostly in English.

What is the Role of English?
Under some circumstances it may be necessary to use English. There may be an emergency in which the welfare of the students is at stake or there may be emotional upsets in which individual students need a private conversation in English. There may be extremely important concepts in a teachable moment that absolutely may not be communicated in the target language.

The use of English should be intentional and be a conscious decision, not just something the teacher slides into without thinking. The following series of questions can be helpful in deciding when and if using English instead of the target language is appropriate.

Shall I Use English for a lesson segment?

• Can I find a way to communicate the new idea in the new language with visuals, gestures?
• Can I simplify?
• Can I substitute a different concept?
• Can I delay this topic until we can deal with it in the target language?
• Could this be part of the lessons I leave for a substitute teacher?
• Could this be a homework assignment using English language resources?
• Is an English explanation essential to further progress toward my goals for this lesson?

Shall I Use English to clarify vocabulary?

• Have I already tried using visuals, gestures, or other strategies to get the meaning across?
• Will failing to understand this vocabulary item interfere with the progress of the lesson?

Of course, if after all these deliberations, the teacher finally makes the decision to use English for a specified purpose, it is still important to stay within the guidelines of target language use 90 to 95 to 100 percent of the time.

How Do We Keep the Classroom in the Target Language?

Use the Target Language Consistently.

Make the Language Comprehensible

• Use simple, direct language and choose vocabulary and structures that incorporate a large amount of material that is familiar to the learners.
• Break down directions and new information into small, incremental steps.
• Use concrete materials, visuals, gestures, facial expressions, and movement.
• Model every step of the process or the directions being presented.

Monitor and Assess Target Language Use.

• Keep track of student language use
• Make sure that oral language use is part of student assessment
• Make target language use a part of the classroom management system and an integral part of the classroom culture. Possibly use a reinforcement system to reward students for a short period of time to get them in the habit of using the language.

Check for Comprehension

• Students can use signals to indicate their response to a comprehension check. They can hold their thumbs up or down for “yes” and “no,” and wiggle their thumbs for “I’m not sure.”
• They can draw pictures to signal their comprehension or write on small whiteboards. Students can act out the behavior or imitate the performance that the teacher has demonstrated.

Separate the Native Language from the Target Language—Avoid Translation as a First Resort

• If the students know that the teacher is going to use both languages, they will not engage with the target language and will patiently wait for the English.
• If the teacher plans to repeat or clarify in English, he or she may not expend as much effort to make the target language comprehensible.
• Sometimes students who have understood directions or new vocabulary may call out the English, either as a way to help their classmates or to show the teacher that they have understood. It is important not to encourage or reinforce this practice because if it becomes a habit, the language lesson can turn into a translation game.

Separate the Native Language from the Target Language—Use a Sign

• Using a sign on which one side indicates English and the other side indicates the target language reminds teachers and students to stay in the target language.
• The sign can help the teacher make a transition to using the target language more frequently by keeping the teacher and the students focused on using the language for longer periods of time each day.
• Of course, beginning students cannot always conduct themselves entirely in the new language. Teachers can respond in the target language by rephrasing what students said in the target language and then responding in the target language.

Conclusion
The central task for the language teacher is to create a communicative climate focused on meaning, within which language acquisition can take place naturally. The key to creating this climate is using the target language! When learners are surrounded with their new language 90 to 95 to 100 percent of the class time, and when teachers use the language for all classroom purposes, language use has a purpose and there is motivation to learn.

Download printable version (PDF).

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