Daily Excerpt: Practices That Work (Garza) - Introduction
The following excerpt comes from Practices That Work (Thomas Garza).
Introduction
This volume represents a revised and
expanded version of the 2008 first edition titled What Works: Helping
Students Reach Native-Like Second-Language Competence and includes, in
addition to all of the excellent original contributions,[1]
eleven new pieces from language practitioners with experience in Language Flagship
Programs and/or university programs with established records of success in
bringing learners to Professional-level proficiency in languages. Like its
predecessor, this new edition seeks to offer the reader a broad selection of
tested, successful models of practice from classrooms in both government and
post-secondary institutions that have attested results of professional
proficiency among its learners. Its intended audience is the language
practitioner who understands that the goal of attaining high-level proficiency
is possible and is looking for new or additional ways and means to enhance
their courses with field-tested “formulas” for learner success.
The
2021 edition, Practices That Work: Bringing Learners to Professional
Proficiency in World Languages, adds to the combined practices of our
colleagues with experiences garnered over the last decade from varied and
diverse programs and institutions. What is common in their experience, however,
is the commitment to bring their learners to high-level professional
proficiency. Many of the newer contributions to this volume are from
instructors in university language Flagship programs: federally funded programs
the support the attainment of high-level proficiency for undergraduate and
graduate students for all academic disciplines.
The
inauguration of the Language Flagship program, a federally-funded component of
the National Security Education Program (NSEP) at the U.S. Department of
Defense, in 2002 marked the ambitious reset of the goal of a four-year college
or university language program from “functional” to “professional” proficiency,
i.e., from the ACTFL Intermediate to the Advanced High level and beyond.
Through proficiency-oriented, standards-based training, combined with an
in-country capstone and internship program, Flagship programs began producing
graduates with the desired results. The sea change that the Flagship experience
brought to the post-secondary language teaching community is reflected not only
in the attainment of high levels of proficiency among learners but also in the
professional experience of the instructors in these programs, showing promising
progress from the situation described in the comment in the 2008 edition of
this volume, “Teachers with high-level proficiency teaching experience are,
indeed, a nearly microscopic subset of the body of foreign language teachers in
the USA and abroad” (x). Today, more programs boast faculty who are either
instructors in or alumni of Flagship or Flagship-like programs. In short, the
field of language teaching has benefitted from the increasing focus on
attaining professional proficiency and, in turn, our students have profited
from the expanded offerings of high-level courses.
The
volume is divided into five sections which group the practices by their focus:
Learner, Instruction, Instructor, Skills, and Assessment. Section I: Focus on
the Learner offers models of learner-centered practices that can promote
autonomous learning and proficiency gains. Section II: Focus on Instruction and
Section III: Focus on the Instructor provide, respectively, models of classroom
practices that have produced Superior-level speakers of the language and share
recommendations for instructors in these courses to help them create the kinds
of materials and learning environments that will foster ever-higher proficiency
gains. Section IV: Focus on Skills gives concrete examples of teaching
strategies and techniques that have succeeded in producing high-level
proficiency outcomes in a variety of settings and with various languages.
Finally, Focus on Assessment demonstrates formats and techniques to measure and
evaluate learner progress during our courses of study. Each “formula” ends with
a list of readings that includes any works cited as well as other works that
can reflect greater insight or more information on the topic of the “formula.”
Together,
these “formulas”—some short, some longer, depending on topic and experience
with the topic—comprise a kind of go-to handbook for instructors looking for
new ideas, techniques, or inspiration to help their learners attain
professional proficiency in a world language and culture. Most of the “formulas”
are language-generic, but they come from experience with Arabic, Chinese, English
(ESL/EFL), French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, representing one
or more languages from each of the US government four language categories
(based on observed and tracked difficulty of acquisition).
The
2008 first edition of this book stated its two-fold purpose as: 1) to show that
bringing learners to professional proficiency in world languages in U.S.
program could be done; and 2) to show how these results could be
attained. This 2021 revised version reiterates these original purposes and adds
one more: 3) to demonstrate why world language education must be part of
every educational curriculum and part of every U.S. citizen’s consciousness.
The attainment of professional proficiency in world languages is a game changer
for international relations and diplomacy, global business, medicine,
education, and a host of other fields for which communication and mutual
understanding is paramount. Let us seize this opportunity to change the timbre
and tone of the U.S. presence abroad through cadres of well-educated and fully
proficient global professionals through high-level language and culture
education.
-----
This 2021 revised edition, Practices
That Work: Bringing Learners to Professional Proficiency in World Languages,
is dedicated to the memory of two colleagues whose contributions to language
education and advanced proficiency is dwarfed only by their generosity of
spirit.
Boris V. Shekhtman (1939-2017)
Madeline E. Ehrman (1942-2015)
----
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