Enacting the Work of Language Instruction, Vol. 1

Introduction

In 2015, as I prepared to teach my former department’s required foreign language methods course for the first time in thirteen years, I faced a number of challenges. Among these was designing a course for a varied audience representing in-service K-12 teachers, graduate teaching assistants, future collegiate-level instructors, and seven different languages (Arabic, English as a Second Language, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish). Additionally, I grappled with how find adequate time to treat all of the topics typical of a methods course in just fifteen weeks: principles of second language acquisition; an overview of methods and approaches; how to teach grammar, vocabulary, and the modes of communication; lesson planning and classroom management; assessment practices; and so on. Through the process of setting course objectives and designing the curriculum, however, I found that what mattered more to me was not coverage of content or transmission of information, but the opportunity for students to apply what they were learning in practical, yet theoretically grounded ways. As such, I designed the course to allow students time to connect theoretical concepts to the practice of teaching by observing and analyzing classroom practice and applying knowledge through collaborative activities. The result was a course grounded in praxis, or the dialogic relationship between what teachers know and what they know how to do (Lantolf & Poehner, 2014), and a diverse classroom community of practice.

Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High-Leverage Teaching Practices, with its emphasis on defining, deconstructing, and applying those practices most essential to foreign language teaching, facilitates the kind of praxis orientation that is key to successful teacher learning. Indeed, this book provides a solution to common challenges teacher-educators face in designing and implementing methods courses, and it is a timely contribution to scholarship in teacher development, which has experienced a shift away from an exclusive focus on cognition (i.e., teacher’s knowledge base, beliefs, and decision-making related to teaching) toward the behaviors in which effective teachers engage, how those behaviors relate to teacher knowledge, and how teacher-educators can implement professional development experiences that highlight theory-practice relationships (Grossman, Hammerness, & McDonald, 2009; Johnson, 2015; McDonald, Kazemi, & Kavanagh, 2013). In foreign language contexts, this shift was underscored in a recent special issue of the Modern Language Journal in which the editors argued that the body of cognitively-oriented research on teacher development has failed to adequately address questions related to how foreign language teachers create effective learning environments for their students or how teacher education programs should best incorporate results from teacher cognition research (Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015). They further highlighted the need to investigate cognition in action; that is, to create opportunities to study and implement relationships among teacher cognition, teaching practice, and student learning. Likewise, in this same special issue, Johnson (2015) pointed to the importance of approaches to language teacher education that view learning as a dialogic process of co-constructing knowledge that is situated in and emerges out of participation in particular sociocultural practices and contexts (p. 516).

High-leverage teaching practices (HLTPs), defined as the tasks and activities that are essential for skillful beginning teachers to understand, take responsibility for, and be prepared to carry out in order to enact their core instructional responsibilities (Ball & Forzani, 2009, p. 504), represent one answer to the question of how teacher education programs can apply results from teacher cognition research and assist teachers in creating effective learning environments for their students. Throughout Enacting the Work of Language Instruction, the authors illustrate how HLTPs fill this gap in teacher development research by presenting six core practices essential to effective foreign language teaching and connecting them to current research in second language acquisition, language pedagogy, and teacher development. To realize this task, each practice is deconstructed to make it accessible to teachers, put into practice through rehearsal and self-assessment, and contextualized within broader issues related to foreign language teaching and learning. Through this careful work, the authors show that the practice of teaching cannot be reduced to a list of easily replicated behaviors, but rather is principled and purposeful.

As highlighted in this text, HLTPs are not a teaching method or approach; they are core practices that facilitate implementation of a method or approach. A unique feature of Enacting the Work of Language Instruction, then, is its complementarity with all types of teaching methods and approaches, such as communicative language teaching, task-based approaches, or literacy- and genre-based approaches. Because the authors do not prescribe a particular method or approach in this text, there is space for teachers and teacher-educators to express their individuality and to decide how HLTPs map onto the approach(es) they use in their classrooms. For example, in applying the model for sequencing tasks related to the practice of guiding learners to interpret authentic texts (HLTP#3, Chapter 3), a teacher adopting a literacy-based approach might incorporate situated practice activities such as predicting into the pre-reading/pre-viewing phase to immerse learners in the text without conscious reflection; overt instruction activities such as information mapping into the interpretive phase to help learners connect language forms to the meanings they convey; critical framing activities such as critical focus questions into the interpretation/discussion phase to encourage cultural or genre comparisons; and transformed practice activities such as story retelling into the creativity phase to use knowledge gained from the previous phases to communicate in new and creative ways (Kern, 2000; Paesani, Allen, & Dupuy, 2016). Through these varied activity types grounded in literacy-based pedagogy, teachers enact the practice of guiding learners to interpret an authentic text.

In addition to its emphasis on praxis and its adaptability to various teaching methods and approaches, this text is also relevant for a range of teachers and teacher-educators. Although the emphasis is on pre-service K-12 teaching, as the authors point out, the practices, concepts, activities, and discussions herein are applicable across K-16 contexts and to novice and experienced teachers alike. As such, HLTPs may help bridge the divide that often exists between researchers and practitioners and between secondary and post-secondary teaching contexts; they can serve as a mediating tool to unite those who share the common goal of effective foreign language teaching. Moreover, because the six practices presented in this text build on well-established and empirically tested research in areas such as mathematics, history, and science education, Enacting the Work of Language Instruction exemplifies what we share in common with other disciplines. This work is essential given the prioritization of STEM fields and the less prominent role of the humanities in 21st century educational contexts. Scholarship on HLTPs in foreign language contexts of the type presented in this text shows that there is a shared language for talking about teaching and teacher development across disciplines and that the humanities have a relevant and vital role to play in determining that shared language.

At the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota, part of our mission is to advance the quality of foreign language teaching and learning by conducting research and sharing the knowledge gained from that research across disciplines and educational contexts. We therefore cultivate a unified view of the enterprise of teaching and apply the very principles that underlie work on HLTPs: the dialogic relationship between research and practice and the importance of developing skillful language teachers who impact upon student learning. Enacting the Work of Language Instruction will therefore serve as a useful reference as we develop future research projects, workshops, summer institutes, and other activities that promote foreign language teaching and learning. In addition, through the principled presentation of six practices essential for effective foreign language teaching, the authors provide a solid foundation for future research on HLTPs in areas such as determining additional core practices; exploring practices in which experienced teachers engage and how those practices inform education of novice teachers; investigating how teachers appropriate HLTPs into their classroom practice; mapping HLTPs onto specific methods or approaches; or connecting HLTPs in foreign languages to other disciplines. Lastly, Enacting the Work of Language Instruction is a valuable tool for teacher-educators facing the challenges of designing and implementing a foreign language methods course and for novice and experienced instructors facing the challenges of teaching effectively and promoting student learning. Both audiences have much to gain from the praxis orientation of this text, the definition, deconstruction, and application of each core practice presented within it, the cycle of enactment presented in the final chapter, and the ways in which HLTPs are situated in relation to broader issues in foreign language teaching and learning.

Kate Paesani

Director, Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) University of Minnesota

References

Ball, D. L., & Forzani, F. M. (2009). The work of teaching and the challenge of teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 60, 497–511.

Grossman, P., Hammerness, K., & McDonald, M. (2009). Redefining teaching, re-imagining teacher education. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15(2), 273–289.

Johnson, K. E. (2015). Reclaiming the relevance of L2 teacher education. Modern Language Journal, 99(3), 515–528.

Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and language teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Kubanyiova, M. & Feryok, A. (2015). Language teacher cognition in applied linguistics research: Revisiting the territory, redrawing the boundaries, reclaiming the relevance. Modern Language Journal, 99(3), 435–449.

Lantolf, J. P., & Poehner, M. E. (2014). Sociocultural theory and the pedagogical imperative in L2 education: Vygotskian praxis and the research/practice divide. New York, NY: Routledge.

McDonald, M., Kazemi, E., & Kavanagh, S. S. (2013). Core practices and pedagogies of teacher education: A call for a common language and collective activity. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(5), 378–386.

Paesani, K., Allen, H. W., & Dupuy, B. (2016). A multiliteracies framework for collegiate foreign language teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER

Introducing High-Leverage Teaching Practices (HLTPs)

Great teachers aren’t born—they’re taught.

—Teacher Works, 2016

The purpose of this text is to present a set of high-leverage teaching practices that are essential for novice teachers to enact in their classrooms to support second language learning and development. High-leverage teaching practices (HLTPs) are the tasks and activities that are essential for skillful beginning teachers to understand, take responsibility for, and be prepared to carry out in order to enact their core instructional responsibilities (Ball & Forzani, 2009, p. 504). The focus of this text, therefore, is not on a body of knowledge that teachers should possess or standards that they must attain nor is its focus on a long list of best practices that teachers should intuitively be able to orchestrate in their classrooms. Rather, this text is designed to assist teachers in learning how to enact specific practices deemed essential to foreign language teaching by deconstructing them into various instructional moves. Deconstruction of the practice is essential given that the instructional moves of these practices are complex, often impossible to perceive through observation, and difficult to envision and enact based only on theoretical descriptions and discussions. Thus, this text is focused on practicing the practices as a way to acquire skill in enacting them through the use of a set of tools to plan and self-assess performance when carrying them out. In other words, this text seeks to make visible complex teaching moves that are often invisible through observations of classroom teaching.

Further, the text seeks to enable novice teachers to understand how the selected practices can address specific teaching challenges and to think strategically about how their actions within a given practice serve a larger educational and instructional purpose. The goals of the text will be accomplished by means of a purposeful discussion of the practices, including the teaching challenges they address, their deconstruction into smaller parts, and suggestions for ways to rehearse them in a guided fashion as well as to self-assess teaching performance.

This text is intended to complement a methodology textbook by providing the practice elements of teacher preparation. The text presupposes a professional knowledge base regarding the fundamental principles of language acquisition and teaching, such as those found in a methodology text for novice teachers. Although a brief theoretical foundation is provided as the basis for each HLTP, users of this text will need to consult a methodology text for more detailed information about concepts that are either new or not thoroughly understood.¹

The text is designed to serve multiple audiences. First, it can be implemented as a tool by faculty in foreign language teacher preparation programs as they guide their teacher candidates to do the work of teaching in field experiences, i.e., to enact the selected high-leverage teaching practices. Pre-service teachers who are enrolled in a practicum course or peer-teaching laboratory course can use this text as they engage in practicing these HLTPs in anticipation of enacting them in their student teaching or practicum experiences. Additionally, more experienced in-service teachers can benefit from the text to deepen their understanding of current research-based practices and how to enact them in their classes. In a similar vein, the text can be a tool to mediate the professional development of in-service teachers and teacher educators, who might use the text for purposes of lesson study and collaboration with peers within a practice-oriented approach to teacher preparation. In essence, this text is a valuable resource for foreign language professionals at all levels of instruction and at any point in the career continuum. Further, it is the authors’ hope that this text will spark much dialogue in the profession about HLTPs in foreign language education as well as promote further research in practice-oriented teacher preparation.

Practiced-Based Teacher Preparation—Doing the Work of Teaching

In recent years a strand of research in teacher education receiving increasing attention has suggested that professional training be focused on the practices of teaching (Ball & Forzani, 2009; Forzani, 2014). This recent emphasis on practice-based teacher education emphasizes the inclusion of carefully designed and purposeful early field experiences in K-12 classrooms that are closely linked to coursework in pedagogy (Grossman & McDonald, 2008). Current research and professional dialogue are calling for teacher preparation programs to engage prospective teachers in doing teaching rather than simply talking about it (Hlas & Hlas, 2012; Sleep, 2009). Central to this discussion has been the identification of specific teaching practices across disciplines and levels of instruction that are essential for novices to become capable at before they are permitted to assume independent responsibility for a classroom (Forzani, 2014, p. 357). This movement has occurred in part in response to the perceived shortcomings of the contemporary teacher education curriculum that tends to focus only on a professional knowledge base and belief system at the expense of developing the ability to perform the core tasks that teachers must be prepared to carry out to motivate and engage learners and to support their learning. According to Ball and Forzani (2009), most initiatives to improve teacher quality have centered on teacher recruitment and retention and on creating new pathways to learning such as through technology, collaborative work, and problem-based curricula. As an alternative, this new line of research situates practice at the center of teacher education, which involves detailed attention to training teachers to enact the work of teaching so that their students are motivated and engaged in learning and make progress. Placing practice at the center of teacher education does not mean that novice teachers do not need the professional knowledge base (e.g., history oflanguage education, national standards, current research findings) and theoretical understandings that inform instruction, curriculum design, assessment, etc. It is through practice that theory can be exemplified, examined, critiqued, and understood. As the knowledge of theory deepens and is experienced in action, teaching practice is refined and transformed and professional expertise develops.

What is meant by the work of teaching? Teaching is unique from other endeavors in at least three ways. First, teaching is unnatural work that requires carefully designed lessons for novices to learn the practices that constitute this work. Professional classroom teaching is very different from informally showing or helping someone perform some action or solve a problem. It involves knowing a great deal of information about learners and the learning process that, in turn, enables teachers to intervene and guide learners so that what they can do today with assistance, they can do in the future on their own in related contexts of activity. For instance, in language teaching, teachers do not just simply point learners to a textbook and expect language acquisition to occur. Teaching is a unique form of professional activity and goes beyond informal helping or lending a hand. The uniqueness of formal instruction requiring professional expertise and differentiating it from informal assistance includes, for example,

•  asking questions to which teachers might know part of the answer, or can predict how students might respond

•  probing learners’ ideas; i.e., pushing students to provide more details, think more critically

•  not presuming shared identity; learning others’ perspectives and experiences, so that background knowledge, interests, learning styles, etc., can be used as the springboard for learning

•  seeing people more descriptively—knowing what learners bring to the learning task, how they learn, what challenges them, among other characteristics

•  being in a professional role (adapted from Ball & Forzani, 2009, p. 500).

A second way in which teaching is unique is that teachers must not only know their content areas but they must be skilled in perceiving how others envision and understand it and how it can be explained. That is, they must be skilled at

1.  identifying the ways in which a learner thinks about a particular topic, problem, or task;

2.  designing the steps to guide the learner’s development; and

3.  monitoring and assessing the learner’s progress to effect learning and continued development (Ball & Forzani, 2007, 2009).

A third characteristic that sets teaching apart from other helping behaviors is that it is intricate and complex work (Ball & Forzani, 2009). That is, each episode of teaching consists of many tasks and moves not always visible to an observer (Lewis, 2007). These pedagogical moves are the individual steps that the teacher takes to enact a particular practice. For example, in the foreign language practice leading a discussion about a news article in a newspaper from the target language country, the teacher makes many moves, including providing culturally relevant information, activating prior knowledge about the topic, developing interpretive questions to guide the discussion, grouping students to provide greater opportunities for participation, motivating students to share their ideas and opinions, providing expressive reactions and assisting questions to move the discussion forward, and informally assessing students’ contributions to the discussion. These individual moves and the sequence in which they occur may not be readily visible to an observer, especially a novice teacher.

The unique work of teaching, as explored above, involves the core tasks that teachers must execute to help pupils learn (Ball & Forzani, 2009, p. 497). In the educational literature these core tasks are referred to as core practices or high-leverage teaching practices (HLTPs) given that they provide the greatest leverage for new teachers in bringing about effective student learning. As defined in the opening of this chapter, HLTPs (which is the term used in this text) refer to tasks and activities that are essential for skillful beginning teachers to understand, take responsibility for, and be prepared to carry out in order to enact their core instructional responsibilities (Ball & Forzani, 2009, p. 504). The skillful enactment of HLTPs is likely to result not only in large advancements in student learning but also in teaching skill (Teaching Works, 2016). In fact, given that these practices are central to teaching, if teachers cannot enact them competently, they are unlikely to be able to engage students with content (TEI Curriculum Group, 2008, p. 4). In other words, without the enactment of these practices, learning is unlikely to occur.

Characteristics