Current Poll
Past Poll Results
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
Approximately half of all world language students have an opportunity to visit a country where the target langauge they are studying is spoken through their school program. Read this month's feature article for inspiration on how you can find the funding to take your students out of the country too!
June/July 2010
Traveling to a country where the target language is spoken is overwhelmingly the most popular place to be in the summer to improve language teaching practices. While international travel is not possible for everyone, planning lessons, watching movies in the target language and learning how to use new technologies all contribute to language teaching practices.
May 2010
World language teachers have the possibility to integrate an endless number of global issues in classroom instruction. Among the most popular issues to explore are: health issues, human rights, and immigration. While politics can offer interesting cultural perspectives about a country, this poll shows that most teachers do not focus on political issues in the classroom.
April 2010
Teachers advise their students about a variety of professions which seek out bilingual and multilingual speakers. Strongest advisement appears to be towards professional positions. However, don't forget to advise students about the joys of teaching a language - remember, the shortage of world language teachers is greater than that of science and math.
March 2010
Speaking with friends and colleagues ranks highest among the ways language teachers maintain bilingualism. While teachers may benefit from travel to countries where the target language is spoken that expose them to new trends in the language, cultural experiences and events, as well as access to authentic materials, most language teachers do not prioritize travel as a way to maintain their bilingualism.
February 2010
Nearly 50% of all respondents found attending conferences and workshops contributed most towards the development of their professionalism in the field of language teaching. The opportunity to work with peers and colleagues in various capacities also contributes towards the development of professionalism but to a lesser extent according to the poll results.
January 2010
While most schools still refer to 'foreign' language programs, the trend towards calling programs 'world' language programs is reaching about the same level use. Few programs refer to language programs as critical, second, LOTE or modern and classical language programs.
December 2009
Internet research and YouTube videos are used most frequently by the language educators who responded to this poll. However, blogs and wikis, used least in this poll, are great ways to engage your students in online journal writing in the target language as individuals or in small groups. Blogs and wikis open up spaces of creativity for students to incorporate photos, videos, and other resources with their writing.
November 2009
It appears that most teachers rely on their own excellent instruction and recruitment events to attract students to language programs. Let's not forget about the many other ways to entice students throughout the year by displaying our students' linguistic abilities through poster contests, international night performances, year end events, and parent meetings about the language program.
October 2009
We were relieved to see that some of you are experiencing no changes despite the troubled economy! Unfortunately, professional development experiences which allow teachers to improve instruction and network with other language teachers seems to be cut or limited for many teachers. This is an important reminder to keep language teacher networks strong so information can still be shared with all teachers.
September 2009
While there are many possiblities for collaboration in teacher professional development, it appears that most schools only utilize in-service workshops led by teachers from their own district.
August 2009
Most of the teachers who answered our poll said the'yd travel to improve their language ability during the summer.
May 2009 Poll
May's poll asked, "How does your school assess your performance as a teacher?" The most common answer was administrator evaluations, followed by observations. See our monthly question response on how teachers would improve the system of evaluation.
February 2009 Poll
NCLRC’s poll in FeBRUARY asked, How do you feel about being observed as a teacher? The most common answer to last month’s poll was "I have been observed and I really appreciate the feedback" (44%). The next most common answer was "I think that being observed is a valuable experience, but do not enjoy it." Both of these results indicate the importance of observation as a teacher assessment tool. This is related to March's newsletter theme: Practices in Language Teacher Education.