Additional Language Learning

for Preservice Teachers

Rashid A. Moore

Nova Southeastern University

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

 Hanizah Zainuddin

Florida Atlantic University

This article discusses how an additional language learning experience can be used as an instructional tool for increasing pre-service teachers’ awareness of the language learning process at the beginner level.  This experience entails pre-service teachers learning an additional language as part of a TESOL course of study in teacher preparation programs in Anglophone countries.  As a pedagogical tool, the language learning experience described in this article has three components: additional language learning, critical reflections, and a portfolio containing demonstrations and artifacts in the additional language. This experience is designed to facilitate pre-service teachers’ development of insights into the connection between TESOL theory, best practices and their own experiences as language learners through critical reflection and portfolio assessment linked to national standards.

Introduction

English language learners (ELLs) comprise a significant and growing segment of the public school population in many Anglophone countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In preparing pre-service teachers to meet the needs of ELLs hailing from these diverse linguistic populations (see Table 1), teacher education programs in Anglophone countries face a number of challenges. One significant challenge lies in the cultural and linguistic mismatch between ELLs and predominantly monolingual pre-service teachers.  For example in the United States, less than 5% of teacher trainees claimed fluency in a language other than English (Cushner, McClelland, and Safford 1996).  A second challenge is that many pre-service teachers do not always see the relevance of TESOL theory to their own teaching (Freeman and Johnson 1998; MacDonald, Badger and White 2001).  Wright (1992) attributes this disconnection between theory and practice to the fact that pre-service teachers are often given limited opportunities to experience and contextualize language learning theories in engaging ways, such as actively learning a new language as a component of a teacher education program. 

Providing pre-service teachers with the opportunity to experience learning an additional language may be a way to meet these challenges. The idea of apprenticing pre-service teachers into an additional language as a component of teacher development has been discussed and promoted in previous literature on teacher education (Birch 1992; Flowerdew 1998; Waters, Sunderland, Bray, and Allwright 1990). These studies have underscored that language learning experience can help teachers gain insights into their students learning processes. Also underscored was the use of critical reflection on their language learning experience. Such reflection can act as a catalyst for instilling within pre-service teachers an awareness of the complexities of second language learning and how TESOL theory and research are manifested in their own learning (Ward and Ward, 2003). 

Table 1 Top Additional Languages in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States

Despite the benefits of language learning experiences suggested in the literature, few if any TESOL courses or certificate programs require any sustained additional language learning.  Even in prominent TESOL certification programs, such as the CELTA (CELTA Syllabus, 2005), the CELTYL (CETYL Syllabus, 2005), (Trinity, 2005) the CELTA geared toward younger learners such as children and teenagers), and the Trinity CertTESOL (Trinity, 2005), time explicitly devoted to additional language learning is either very limited or not required at all. Of these three programs, the only one that required any type of learning an additional language in an explicit manner was the Trinity CertTESOL. However, the weight and prominence given to learning an additional language was a mere 4 hours of tuition with only an oral/aural bias (Trinity 2004:7). 

Although this is a start, four hours of listening to and attempting to speak a new language is hardly an adequate amount of time to allow the pre-service teacher to learn some social and academic language in a meaningful way. Such experiences generally do not require the pre-service teacher to use the additional language to understand and use academic language in content areas such as math, science or social studies as would be the case for ELLs in the schools of Anglophone countries. As such, pre-service teachers in this additional language experience who opt to learn a language with which they have some social language proficiency should be encouraged to learn more academically-oriented language in one or more content areas.

This article discusses how a language learning experience can be used as an instructional tool for increasing pre-service teachers’ awareness of second language theory and research. This experience entails pre-service teachers learning an additional language as part of a TESOL education course that emphasizes applied linguistics, second language acquisition research or testing and assessment.  As a pedagogical tool, it is designed to facilitate the following goals of TESOL education:

     1. Development of insights into the language learning process at the beginner level

     2. Connection between TESOL theory, best instructional practices and their own experiences as language  learnersthrough critical reflection
   

     3. Awareness and exploration of authentic, performance-based forms of assessment using a portfolio linked to national standards.

          As an instructional strategy, the language learning experience described in this article has three components:  additional language learning, critical reflections, and portfolio assessment involving demonstrations and artifacts in the additional language. These components are described in greater detail in the following sections.

COMPONENTS OF THE LANGUAGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Component 1: Additional Language Learning

The proposed experience requires that students learn an additional language for at least 2 hours per week over the course of one full academic year, spanning two or more courses in TESOL. This would provide the pre-service teacher with at least 60 hours of language learning time that will be documented by the teacher trainee with portfolios they will maintain and share with the TESOL instructors and program advisors. Because pre-service teachers will be learning the language for an extended period of time, more than one TESOL education course could require this as one of the course requirements. For students who already have an additional language experience, they may be encouraged to acquire other aspects of the additional language.  For example, if they speak French, they would now try to learn to read and/or write in French or if they could read and/or write in Chinese, they could now learn to speak Chinese. 

Although 60 hours is still not an ideal amount of time needed to attain high levels of proficiency in the additional language, this experience will highlight that the length of time for rapid acquisition may vary across individuals and is contingent upon various factors such as the amount of practice and frequency of language use, learner attitude, motivation, and perceived goals for learning the additional language, and the language demands for learning to speak, read, and write in the additional language. Corollary to this, pre-service teachers, even those with an additional language experience, would see the variable performance levels in areas of speaking, reading, and writing in the additional or foreign language or different topical contents which mirror the varied language experiences and backgrounds of many second language learners.  Hence, teacher trainees are encouraged to go beyond survival social language and attempt to learn academic language through content of their choice in such areas as science, math, or social studies. Learning content in a different language in addition to social language should provide pre-service teachers with the opportunities to see the difference between social and academic language learning. 

For a greater challenge and experience that would approximate the experience of many ELLs who are not from popular European language backgrounds, pre-service teachers may wish to try to learn a language radically different from English. Learning languages such as Chinese, Bengali or Arabic that have different alphabets, syntactic structures, directionality, and other linguistic parameters might give the pre-service teacher a greater understanding of the enormity of the challenges facing ELLs from these backgrounds. Learning such a radically different language may also give pre-service teachers insights into what it means and feels like to be functionally illiterate learners, a group they may well encounter in their teaching career when they work with children who are largely illiterate due to such factors as poverty, civil unrest, or refugee status.

The teachers are required to learn this additional language using any means at their disposal, and are not limited to the suggested sources that follow:

        1. seeking out and interacting with native speakers of the language such as their colleagues, relatives, students,  
  friends, or neighbors;

         2. taking traditional tuition or formal classes in the language at a university, language center or community center;
      

        3. exploring web-based resources such as commercial or non-profit language sites and international news sites  
  like the BBC or CNN that provide multiple language versions of current news in content areas such as social
  studies and science;

        4. making use of bilingual teaching materials such as children’s books found in libraries and schools;

        5. using pre-packaged language learning programs that include CDs, video and/or audio tapes, manuals, and other
      visual materials; and

        6. viewing or listening to television, films or music with lyrics in the additional language.

Reasons for using multiple sources for gaining input in the additional language are varied.  One reason for using representatives of the language minority group is that they allow pre-service teachers to see the importance of extending opportunities for real language use through interaction beyond the classroom setting; ultimately learners’ motivation for and rapid language acquisition hinge upon their perceived relevance and need for learning the new language to carry out specific communicative tasks.  The higher the “face validity” of learning the additional language and match between the activities and the learner’s language learning goals, the higher the motivation for practice/use of the new language.  This method also encourages teacher trainees to seek native speakers in the community besides bilingual teachers and students in their respective schools.  Another reason is that they allow pre-service teachers to explore the wealth of resources on languages that are available on the Internet for teachers and students of a new language.  These resources are especially helpful to schools and students that do not have large numbers of bilingual representatives of the language minority group.

Component 2:  Critical Reflections

To encourage teachers to make connections between their additional language experience and the theories and principles of second language learning and assessment, pre-service teachers should be required to write critical reflections in a language learning journal.  Reflections will consist of two different types – weekly reflections on their own language learning journeys and a final reflective paper on how the demonstrations and artifacts (discussed in more detail under component 3 of this paper) created by the pre-service teachers are examples of and opportunities for creating a portfolio of authentic, performance-based assessments. Weekly reflections may include, but are not limited to, different aspects of the learning process such as the following:

        1. Difficulties with learning the syntactic, lexical, and phonological systems that are different from their L1

        2. Cultural differences between the language such as how language is used in various social settings

        3. Concepts not available in the target language or vice-versa

        4. Strategies employed in learning the target language

        5. Reactions to the methods/activities used during learning and their impact on  learning

        6. Their views on what it takes to be a good language learner

        7. Sources of pleasure, personal strengths, unique features, strongly held attitudes or values, personal habits or      
  interests that may be affecting their learning.

To facilitate further critical reflection, the pre-service teachers should be encouraged to share their weekly reflections with their peers, to consider peer comments and to make some links to the concepts they have been reading about each week.  The instructor may also assign topics that correspond to the course content to provide more structure to the discussion. 

Component 3: Portfolio assessment of demonstrations and artifacts

Another improvement on previous language learning experiences in the literature is the inclusion of portfolio assessment involving demonstrations and artifacts in the additional language. A sample portfolio summary sheet delineating specific portfolio artifacts that combine suggested portfolio contents cited elsewhere (Valdez-Pierce and O’Malley 1992; O’Malley and Valdez-Pierce 1996) is depicted in Figure 1. Many types of artifacts to document developmental growth in learning an additional language can be collected.  These artifacts may include samples of their written work or oral language productions on a variety of tasks to show evidence of learning growth in the additional language.  They may also include their reading response journals or audio/videotaped segments of their reading and discussions as evidence of their reading strategies and comprehension levels on different reading tasks over time and whether they were able to read with success independently or with some assistance from a more knowledgeable peer.  Self-evaluations of their difficulties with specific tasks and their use of specific strategies in resolving them can help teacher and learners to identify areas that need to be reviewed and how they can best be learned.

Figure 1  Additional Language Portfolio Summary Sheet

        A further improvement to previous language learning experiences cited in the literature, this portfolio could be tied to state or national standards. In this particular experience, portfolio assessment is linked to the on-line UK National Curriculum for attainment targets in language and subject areas (see Figure 2). Pre-service teachers will become familiar with the descriptions of the attainment targets and apply them in assessing their own language and subject area proficiency levels on multiple occasions. Additionally, if the pre-service teachers have access to language informants, such as tutors or teachers, they can discuss the attainment targets with their informants so as to ensure greater reliability in the portfolio assessment process.

Figure 2  National Curriculum Attainment Targets

Pre-service teachers are also asked to demonstrate what they have learned by showcasing products that can serve as support materials during and after the demonstration.  For example, teachers can create a short, illustrated text, such as an autobiographical “All about me” booklet or an illustrated pamphlet focusing on key moments in the life of historical or contemporary figures.  Other examples of written artifacts could be sets of news reports, in both the additional language and English, which could be organized into news presenter scripts, a newsletter, or a bilingual current events booklet.  Writing artifacts could include science experiment write-ups, buddy journals with native speakers of the additional languages, and graphic organizers with text written in the additional language.  Another type of artifact is a short video in which the pre-service teachers are speaking the language in a variety of settings.  Such settings could include historical simulations, cooking demonstrations, formal speeches, poetry readings, and critical incidents that highlight aspects of the new culture. Pre-service teachers can be encouraged to allow their language informants and teachers to be actors in their videos as well.  In TESOL courses taught by the authors that have required this part of the proposed additional language learning experience, pre-service teachers have created videos in which they described the process of preparing French crepes in an actual school cafeteria kitchen, complete with voiceovers and cutaway shots to mirrors aimed directly overhead the stove and the cooking process as one might see in food program on television.

To showcase what they have learned, pre-service teachers are required to present demonstrations in the additional language that they can share during their TESOL courses and programs.  In these demonstrations, they are expected to express basic functions, perform basic communicative tasks in the additional language, and exemplify evidence of basic speaking, reading, and/or writing skills in the additional language.  During the demonstrations, the instructor serves as an unobtrusive observer.  If a particular moment in an activity exemplifies a TESOL theory or best practice, the instructor might freeze the action and use it as a “teachable moment” to elicit reactions or questions from the audience. Because pre-service teachers are asked to explore an aspect of a language they have not acquired or are proficient in, these demonstrations will underscore their variable levels of language performance in speaking/listening, reading, and writing.

Evaluation of the additional language learning experience

        Evaluation of the additional language learning experience occurs on different levels. The pre-service teachers themselves will evaluate their own language and subject learning employing state or national standards in the evaluation process. TESOL instructors and program advisors can evaluate the overall understanding of TESOL theories and best practices as manifested in the critical reflections and portfolio demonstrations and artifacts. Pre-service teachers can be directed to reflect on various theories and best practices such as:

        1. their proficiency levels in the areas of speaking/listening, reading and/or writing in the additional language and 
  whether these proficiencies are influenced by topic and situational tasks;

        2. whether increased amounts of contact with native or near-native speakers facilitated their language acquisition and
  provided a window to how speakers use in language in a variety of settings;

        3. instructional techniques/materials that were helpful to learning;

        4. whether they have revised their views about the process, linguistic environment, and instructional materials, and if
  so, why;

        5. whether their selected types of demonstrations and artifacts assess what they can do in the additional language and
  whether they could be used for assessing ELLs’ knowledge and language abilities; and

        6. how attitudes towards learning an additional language or specifically towards reading, writing and conversing in the
  new language affect language acquisition

How to implement the additional language learning experience

        The first step in the additional language learning process involves the pre-service teacher selecting a language to study. This can be done by the student researching the types of languages that are spoken by English language learners in the areas in which they intend to teach. Additionally, pre-service teachers may wish to consult with local, state or national education departments and ministries to determine if there is a demand for teachers with some fluency in certain languages, such as Spanish in the United States. If there is a demand for multilingual teachers, then pre-service teachers may see a practical as well as pedagogical reason for learning an additional language.

        After an additional language is selected, the pre-service teachers can then inform their TESOL instructors and program advisors of their commitment to learning a new language. At this point, these TESOL professionals can provide advice on some best practices in language learning, such as:

        1. employing effective strategies, such as those found in Florida’s Language Arts Through ESOL curriculum  
  frameworks;

        2.  seeking out multiple forms of comprehensible input;

        3. creating and maintaining a portfolio of critical reflections and performance, self and peer assessment artifacts 
  documenting their growth in the additional language learning experience; and

        4. helping set language and subject attainment targets such as those set by the Qualifications and Curriculum
  Authority  (QCA) in the National Curriculum in the United Kingdom.

        During the course of the pre-service teachers’ TESOL courses or program, the teacher candidates will check in with their TESOL instructors to discuss their progress, critical reflections and performance artifacts. Reflections and artifacts can be shared in the TESOL classes the students are taking. Best practices and language learning concepts can be highlighted by both the TESOL instructor and the teacher trainees during these events. Allowing pre-service teachers to share their experiences may encourage them to continue learning the additional language, particularly since the additional language learning experience spans more than one TESOL course.

        At the end of the additional language learning experience, the pre-service teachers will formally compile their portfolios for inclusion in their own professional teaching portfolios that education programs often require of education students. If the program does not require a portfolio, then the language-learning portfolio can still be used in a number of ways by the pre-service teachers when they become teachers of ESOL students. First, the new teachers will have a tangible example of what portfolio assessment could be. Second, in showing their own personal language learning portfolios to their ESOL learners, they can show their ESOL learners that they are also language learners just like them and that they value languages other than English. Additionally, TESOL program administrators may wish to organize language learning symposia in which pre-service teacher make their language learning experiences and portfolios public through formal or poster presentations and displays of their portfolios for the benefit of new TESOL pre-service teachers.

CONCLUSION

        Given the growing numbers of additional language speakers in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, pre-service teachers need to be better prepared to meet the needs of ELLs. The additional language experience described here can become a catalyst for enhancing monolingual pre-service teachers’ insights into the unique challenges of second language learning that are experienced by learners who are required to have high degrees of functional ability in English. Utilizing language input from multiple sources and employing best practices in language learning not only allow teacher candidates to use multiple language sources to learn a language, it also demonstrates that a wide variety of sources can be accessed by teachers to create home language materials for their ELLs. The language learning journal component of the experience allows teachers to critically reflect on their additional language learning experience and link TESOL theories and principles to actual learning.  Further, the artifacts required within the language learning experience will provide pre-service teachers with tangible records of their language learning experience and with data sources to stimulate discussions on creating authentic performance-based assessments for second language learners. By inviting pre-service teachers to explore different ways of documenting evidence of their own language learning experience through portfolio assessment, they will gain exposure to new ways of assessing English language learners other than through formal, standardized testing. Through the final reflective paper, pre-service teachers can reflect on the importance of TESOL theories and research and the importance of using authentic language assessments in documenting language and content knowledge development of ELLs.  Teachers who are sensitive to the needs and abilities of ELLs are more likely to increase their students’ full participation and success in schools.

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