Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Looking Across Contexts in Foreign Language Student Teacher Supervision A Self Study
Looking Across Contexts in Foreign Language Student Teacher Supervision A Self Study
Looking Across Contexts in Foreign Language Student Teacher Supervision A Self Study
Jason Martel
To cite this article: Jason Martel (2012) Looking Across Contexts in Foreign Language
Student Teacher Supervision: A Self-Study, The New Educator, 8:3, 243-257, DOI:
10.1080/1547688X.2012.641872
JASON MARTEL
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
INTRODUCTION
Address correspondence to Jason Martel, University of Minnesota, Peik Hall, 159 Pillsbury
Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. E-mail: marte145@umn.edu
243
244 J. Martel
and school knowledge (Fulwiler, 1996) and to the tenuous relational nature
of groups of three people—that is, the triad of the cooperating teacher,
the university supervisor, and the student teacher (see Yee, 1969, cited and
elaborated in Slick, 1998a).
Over the course of the 2008–2009 academic year, I experienced this
complexity firsthand as a university supervisor for the postbaccalaureate
licensure program in the Second Languages and Cultures (SLC) Education
Program at the University of Minnesota. I entered into the role with 5 years’
experience teaching middle and high school French. In tandem with my
supervisory duties, I participated in a course on student teacher supervision,
which served as formal professional development in preparing me for the
role. In this class, I endeavored to more fully understand the intricate way
in which my beliefs about and experiences with second language teaching
and learning affected the work I did with my supervisees. I was introduced
to self-study methodology as a way of turning a critical eye onto my own
practice as a university supervisor who aspires to become a foreign language
teacher educator.
PURPOSE
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
RESEARCH QUESTION
Seized Opportunities
Much to my surprise, I addressed looking across second language con-
texts only twice during my postobservation conferences with Taylor. Both
instances occurred during the first conference and focused on the practice
of using academic content to foster foreign language learning.
The first case emerged in response to a critique I made about the pur-
posefulness of several of Taylor’s activities during the lesson. I observed
that many of the activities she planned for the 90-minute lesson were short,
overly simple, and too discretely focused the formal aspects of the language
(here, the preterite tense). I expressed that the activities would be more
meaningful if students had to produce language based on their own expe-
riences, thoughts, opinions, and feelings while attending to the language
forms in question. I suggested that academic content creates a springboard
for purposeful engagement between students and offered the following
example:
But if the activity is like that science activity, did the air shrink or did the
air expand, half the class says shrink, half says expand, then the kids are
Looking Across Contexts 249
In this example, Taylor and I both initiated looking across second language
contexts in response to the topic of content use in foreign language classes—
me to ESL, and she to immersion. However, where I endeavored to support
my previous claim that academic content can give language use purpose by
looking across contexts, Taylor seemingly did so to highlight the differences
between contexts and therefore the difficulty of integrating such a practice
into foreign language teaching. I responded to her by defining this challenge
as important for much needed change in how foreign languages have been
traditionally taught.
Academic content use in foreign language classes is certainly a hot topic
that merits looking across to other contexts of second language learning (cf.
Bigelow & Tedick, 2005). In foreign language contexts, the language itself
and culture tend to serve as content, where in ESL and immersion settings,
this role is generally filled by academic content from other school sub-
jects such as social studies, math, etc. (Bigelow & Tedick, 2005). According
to Dalton-Puffer (2007), “the hub of CLIL [content-based instruction, in
European contexts] argument is that the curricula of the so-called content
subjects (e.g. geography, history, business studies etc.) constitute a reser-
voir of concepts, topics and meanings which can become the object of ‘real
communication’ where natural use of the target language is possible” (p. 3).
250 J. Martel
But can you email their history teacher and find out what they’re working
on? Say they’re working on the Revolutionary War. They all know George
Washington. They all know what happened in Lexington and Concord.
Can you get them to tell you the story of Lexington and Concord [in
Spanish]? What happened using the preterite and then describe it to
me. There were way more British soldiers than American soldiers. The
American soldiers were scared. That’s using the imperfect. That takes
a two minute email, or even if you don’t get in touch with their his-
tory teacher, you can probably safely bet that they all know about the
American Revolution and you can say “Alright guys, we’re going to talk
about some history and we’re going to use the preterite and imperfect.”
There’s your activity for tomorrow, right there.
Missed Opportunities
Although our discussions about the place of academic content in foreign lan-
guage teaching yielded interesting cross-contextual references, the fact that I
made so few references is more salient in the findings of this study. The SLC
Looking Across Contexts 251
faculty’s writings suggest a much richer potential for sharing than what sur-
faced in my discourse with Taylor. For instance, Bigelow and Tedick (2005)
note that “some of the most passionate discussions among ESL, immersion,
and FL [foreign language] teachers, including EFL teachers, are with regard
to the place of the L1 [first language] in the L2 [second language] classroom”
(p. 301). This topic, which is widely debated in second language teach-
ing (cf. Turnbull & Dailey-O’Cain, 2009; American Council for the Teaching
of Foreign Languages, 2010), surfaced frequently in my conversations with
Taylor, but without reference to looking across contexts. Here, I will present
some of the instances in which I addressed first and second language use
with Taylor and then I will reflect on how looking across contexts could
have enhanced our discussions.
During both postobservation conferences, I suggested several times that
Taylor stick to using Spanish rather than using English or a combination of
Spanish and English (Spanglish). For instance, from our second conference:
So let’s go back to these goals. The agenda, it was posted. Good. You
went through it, which was nice. You went through it somewhat in
Spanglish and I would really encourage you to either choose English or
Spanish. I would really encourage that choice for you to use Spanish
because there are a lot of high-frequency words in there. That’s a
habit you can cultivate with them very quickly. Primera cosa, vamos
a hacer, segunda cosa, vamos a hacer, tercera cosa, vamos a hacer. A lot
of repeated words like that. Vamos a escribir, vamos a leer, vamos a
escuchar. Predictable stuff. Good for their language acquisition. Easy
time to be all in Spanish.
J: One thing that’s huge that came up is your direction giving. In a lot
of cases, is in Spanglish. And sometimes you’ll say it in Spanish and
then sometimes then you’ll pretty much always repeat it in English.
What do you think the effect of that is?
T: They’ll just wait until I say it in English.
J: There you go. They don’t even have to attend to the Spanish.
252 J. Martel
Here, Taylor picked up on the fact that giving directions in the students’
native language immediately after giving them in the target language lets
them off the hook from paying attention to and understanding the latter (cf.
Curtain & Dahlberg, 2010, p. 42).
It is a shame that I did not attend to these questions of language use
with Taylor by looking across second language contexts, for the nature of
first and second language use in ESL and immersion settings brings up inter-
esting reflection points for foreign language teachers. In ESL classes, often
times the teacher does not speak the many native languages of her students,
so the lingua franca of the class is English. In immersion settings, for major-
ity language speakers, teachers speak predominantly in the target language
for the first several years of schooling, with a gradual introduction of classes
in the students’ native languages in later grades. In dual immersion pro-
grams, however, minority language speakers are schooled predominantly in
their native language for the first several years, with a gradual introduction
of classes in their second language in later grades (cf. Christian, 2011).
The first question that looking across contexts begs of us foreign lan-
guage teachers is: Why don’t we stay in the target language more often?
Students in ESL classes, who generally do not share a language with their
teachers, seem to manage when it comes to doing a host of tasks, ranging
from asking permission to use the bathroom to asking for clarification of
directions on an activity. The same goes for immersion students. I have seen
this happen with my own eyes during supervisory visits on several occa-
sions. I find it interesting that many of the student teachers in our program
so readily accept English as the lingua franca in their ESL classes, yet often
seem scared to make the foreign language the lingua franca in their foreign
language classes.
The second question that looking across contexts begs is: When are
appropriate times to use students’ first language? In dual immersion settings,
minority language speakers are instructed principally in their native language
at the beginning in order to capitalize on the principal of additive bilingual-
ism, or the idea that strengthening a learner’s native language will help to
more effectively learn the second language (cf. Lightbown & Spada, 2006).
So, when are the moments that using English will help Spanish learners in
foreign language classes better learn Spanish? Answers to this question seem
to fall under the rubric of what Turnbull and Dailey-O’Cain (2009) refer to
as “selective and principled codeswitching” (p. 1). There is still much work
in the field of second language acquisition to determine exactly what this
means.
I consider it a missed opportunity that I did not fold my comments about
Taylor’s first and second language use into a larger discussion about first
and second language use in foreign language, ESL, and immersion settings.
Sharing perspectives from settings other than foreign language may have
helped Taylor to develop a more nuanced position on Spanish and English
Looking Across Contexts 253
DISCUSSION
I told her the program is designed so that students can see that the
contexts can give to each other, and that it’s important to see what there
is in ESL instruction that can be brought into foreign language instruction.
One thing I suggested, that I love seeing in the ESL placements and
hardly see in foreign language contexts, is storytelling.
Here, it is clear that my thinking was oriented towards looking across con-
texts. I remember reveling in the way that my supervisees gave bookwalks
and engaged in guided reading with their elementary ESL students and think-
ing that the same practice could have a positive impact in foreign language
classes, tailored to the students’ ages and interests, of course.
I can only wonder about potential reasons for which I did not bring
up cross-contextual perspectives more with Taylor during our conferences.
Maybe I went directly into (foreign language mode), given my experience
of teaching secondary school French for 5 years? Maybe I went back to this
experience and funneled most of my commentary through it? Or, maybe
the thinking I had been doing about looking across contexts subconsciously
motivated the topics I brought up with Taylor even though it only appeared
in my discourse during the postobservation conferences twice? It is also pos-
sible that I took looking across contexts as a given with Taylor. I might have
thought that, by virtue of being in this specific program, she was already in
this particular mindset.
254 J. Martel
This study’s findings and reflections demonstrate the value and promise
of looking across the various contexts of second language teaching in the
preparation and professional development of foreign language teachers.
In the case of academic content use in foreign language classrooms, looking
across contexts can help student and practicing teachers to understand that
the inclusion of content from subjects such as history and math can promote
Looking Across Contexts 255
REFERENCES
American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (2010). Position statement
on use of the target language in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.actfl.
org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=5151
Bigelow, M., & Tedick, D. (2005). Combining foreign and second language
teacher education: Rewards and challenges. In D. Tedick (Ed.), Second lan-
guage teacher education: International perspectives (pp. 295–311). Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Blanton, M. L., Berenson, S. B., & Norwood, K. S. (2001). Exploring a pedagogy for
the supervision of prospective mathematics teachers. Journal of Mathematics
Teacher Education, 4, 177–204.
Bullough, R. V., & Pinnegar, S. (2001). Guidelines for quality in autobiographical
forms of self-study research. Educational Researcher, 30(3), 13–21.
Christian, D. (2011). Dual language education. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook
of research in second language teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 3–20).
New York, NY: Routledge.
Cole, A. L., & Knowles, J. G. (1995). A life history approach to self-study: Methods
and issues. In T. Russell & F. Korthangen (Eds.), Teachers who teach teach-
ers: Reflections on teacher education (pp. 130–154). London, United Kingdom:
Falmer.
Curtain, H., & Dahlberg, C. A. (2010). Languages and children: Making the match:
New Languages for young learners, grades K–8 (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn &
Bacon.
Dalton-Puffer, C. (2007). Discourse in content and language integrated learning
(CLIL) classrooms. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins.
Ellis, R. (2008). Principles of instructed second language acquisition (CAL Digest
Series). Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.
Fulwiler, L. (1996). A beggar in both worlds: A supervisor in schools and the
university. Journal of Teacher Education, 47(1), 21–26.
Hamilton, M. L., & Pinnegar, S. (1998). The value and promise of self-study. In M.
L. Hamilton (Ed.), Reconceptualizing teaching practice (pp. 235–246). London,
United Kingdom: Falmer Press.
Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned (3rd ed.). Oxford,
United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation.
San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.
National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project. (1999). Standards for
foreign language learning in the 21st century. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press.
Shiveley, J., & Poetter, T. (2002). Exploring clinical, on-site supervision in a school-
university partnership. The Teacher Educator, 37(4), 282–301.
Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform.
Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1–22.
Slick, S. K. (1998a). A university supervisor negotiates territory and status. Journal
of Teacher Education, 49(4), 306–314.
Slick, S. K. (1998b). The university supervisor: A disenfranchised outsider. Teaching
and Teacher Education, 14(8), 821–834.
Looking Across Contexts 257
Slick, S. K. (1997). Assessing versus assisting: The supervisor’s roles in the complex
dynamics of the student teaching triad. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(7),
713–726.
Tedick, D., & Walker, C. (1994). Second language teacher education: The problems
that plague us. The Modern Language Journal, 78(3), 300–312.
Turnbull, M., & Dailey-O’Cain, J. (Eds.). (2009). First language use in second and
foreign language learning. Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters.
Walker, C., & Tedick, D. (2000). Bilingual education, English as a second language,
and foreign language education: Movement to a center. In D. Birckbichler & R.
Terry (Eds.), Reflecting on the past to shape the future (pp. 223–224). Chicago,
IL: National Textbook.
Yee, A. (1969). Do cooperating teachers influence the attitudes of student teachers?
Journal of Educational Psychology, 60, 327–332.
Zahorik, J. A. (1988). The observing-conferencing role of university supervisors.
Journal of Teacher Education, 39(2), 9–16.