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In this investigation, Kristin J. Davin analyzes current and former emergent bilingual learners’ decisions to take or not take a language proficiency assessment in a home language to pursue a Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL). The SoBL is a... more
In this investigation, Kristin J. Davin analyzes current and former emergent bilingual learners’ decisions to take or not take a language proficiency assessment in a home language to pursue a Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL). The SoBL is a policy adopted in forty states to counteract English-only ideologies by recognizing students who graduate high school bilingual and biliterate. Considering the power of assessments and the complexity of the decision to take a test of proficiency in one’s home language, this study uses the history-in-person framework to understand the factors that shape students’ decisions to take, or not take, the “seals test.” Davin’s findings point toward considerations and changes necessary to SoBL implementation to ensure that the policy meets the needs of the emergent bilingual learners it was intended to benefit.
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The present study examined the perspectives of language administrators and teachers regarding Seal of Biliteracy implementation. Utilizing three school districts in Illinois as case studies, this study investigated the ways in which the... more
The present study examined the perspectives of language administrators and teachers regarding Seal of Biliteracy implementation. Utilizing three school districts in Illinois as case studies, this study investigated the ways in which the seal was implemented in each district, offering insight into what worked well in each unique school context, as well as the challenges that stakeholders encountered while putting the policy into practice. This mixed-methods study employed a concurrent triangulation design, where quantitative and qualitative data were collected concurrently, analyzed separately, and combined to confirm and cross-validate findings. Data sources included teacher surveys, interviews of world language administrators and teachers, and artifacts. The two most prominent themes that emerged from the research question regarding successes of the Seal of Biliteracy were change to instruction and assessment and increased world language retention and enrollment. The two most prominent themes regarding challenges of implementation were lack of extended sequences of study and the challenge of disseminating information about the award. The hope is that insights from these three districts will inform and ease the implementation for others wishing to put this policy into practice.
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Across the globe, schools serve students from increasingly diverse backgrounds, including those still learning the dominant language. But schools have struggled to maintain pace with the changing population, resulting in a lack of... more
Across the globe, schools serve students from increasingly diverse backgrounds, including those still learning the dominant language. But schools have struggled to maintain pace with the changing population, resulting in a lack of prepared teachers and subsequent gaps in student achievement. In this article, we share a theoretically grounded and research-based approach to build capacity in linguistically diverse schools through multi-faceted professional development (PD) efforts with teachers and leaders. Based on a 3-year project that successfully built foundations, structures, and supports for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in 32 urban schools in the United States, we provide readers with pertinent foci and facets to design and implement linguistically responsive practice and PD.
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Abstract This article examines how a teacher utilized a sandwich approach to DA in a sixth grade Spanish World Language classroom to form a dialectical relationship between instruction and assessment. While existing research has provided... more
Abstract This article examines how a teacher utilized a sandwich approach to DA in a sixth grade Spanish World Language classroom to form a dialectical relationship between instruction and assessment. While existing research has provided evidence that mediation provided during group DA can promote the language learning of multiple students, these investigations presented data for only a few individuals in the group, rather than all. The present study explored how DA was used in the classroom to gather more accurate data on all learners so that instruction could be tailored more appropriately to individual’s needs. In the present study, the teacher delivered a pretest, analyzed students’ performance to design instructional modules, and then carried out a series of posttests and transfer tasks to determine learners’ mediated performance. Our findings focus on how the teacher’s analysis of student performance shaped her subsequent instructional decisions and interventions.
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Fueled by immigration and globalization, the United States has evolved into a nation of linguistically diverse residents; however, English remains the dominant language in schools. A recent language policy initiative emergent in states... more
Fueled by immigration and globalization, the United States has evolved into a nation of linguistically diverse residents; however, English remains the dominant language in schools. A recent language policy initiative emergent in states across the nation, the Seal of Biliteracy challenges English monolingualism by promoting the development of students’ bilingualism and biliteracy by high school graduation. Using narrative inquiry, this study explores the policy journeys that states have taken to enact the Seal of Biliteracy, as educators and stakeholders come together to engage in grassroots policy work. Findings include the collective stories of these efforts to disrupt English-dominant ideologies in schools, as well as individual states’ journeys to develop students’ bilingualism. Implications serve educators, researchers, and other stakeholders interested in influencing practice through bottom-up policy movements, particularly at this crucial moment as states embrace more flexibil...
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The Seal of Biliteracy is a grass-roots language policy initiative that is sweeping across the United States. An award affixed to high school graduates’ transcripts and diplomas, the overarching purpose of the policy is to promote and... more
The Seal of Biliteracy is a grass-roots language policy initiative that is sweeping across the United States. An award affixed to high school graduates’ transcripts and diplomas, the overarching purpose of the policy is to promote and foster students’ bilingualism and biliteracy in K-12 schools. Initiated in California in 2011, the policy has been modified significantly as stakeholders in 32 different states have drafted, passed, and enacted similar legislation in recent years. On its surface, the policy appears to hold promise in disrupting the monolingual norm prevalent in U.S. schools; however, with many states focusing efforts on world language education for English-dominant students, a critical analysis of the policy from the lens of the large and growing population of English learners is warranted. This paper considers the 32 state policies from this lens, first exploring the policy purpose and logistics and then making policy recommendations to enhance equity and access for E...
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The Seal of Biliteracy is “an award made by a state department of education or local district to recognize a student who has attained proficiency in English and one or more other world languages by high school graduation” (ACTFL, 2015a,... more
The Seal of Biliteracy is “an award made by a state department of education or local district to recognize a student who has attained proficiency in English and one or more other world languages by high school graduation” (ACTFL, 2015a, p. 2). In participating school districts in states that have adopted the Seal of Biliteracy, students who demonstrate proficiency in both English and a world language are eligible to earn a seal that is affixed to their high school diploma or transcript. With scant research conducted to date on the Seal of Biliteracy, this study aimed to understand the variation in policies across participating states. Documentation and interview data were collected and analyzed from each state offering the Seal of Biliteracy. Findings revealed that substantial variation existed across states regarding minimum required levels of proficiency, world language proficiency requirements, and English language proficiency requirements. These variations in policy influenced the types of schools offering and the percentage of students earning the award. This article offers implications for those in the process of policy adoption, policy revision, and those interested in researching these efforts to increase equity and access to the Seal of Biliteracy.
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This article reports findings from an investigation into how novice teachers’ classroom discursive practices were influenced by history-in-person processes. Thought-based and practice-based data sources of two novice teachers were... more
This article reports findings from an investigation into how novice teachers’ classroom discursive practices were influenced by history-in-person processes. Thought-based and practice-based data sources of two novice teachers were analysed to understand how history is brought to the present through the minds and bodies of individuals as they are addressed by external forces. Findings suggested that one’s history-in-person interacts in complex and unpredictable ways with external factors and can result in contentious local practice. Thus, attention to both personal history and to institutional constraints must figure into interpretations of how novice teachers perform and how changing practice is approached.
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The international trend towards a practice-based approach in teacher education has permeated foreign language teacher education and English language teaching. A practice-based approach is based on the understanding that teachers learn to... more
The international trend towards a practice-based approach in teacher education has permeated foreign language teacher education and English language teaching. A practice-based approach is based on the understanding that teachers learn to teach a language by engaging in "actual" teaching rather than "talking" about teaching. We report on the implementation of a practice-based approach in two different contexts: an initial English teacher education program in Chile and an initial foreign language teacher education program in the United States. We provide practical recommendations and areas of caution for future enactments. The findings demonstrate that incorporating a practice-based approach into the university classroom offers a useful affordance for examining and illuminating the complexities of foreign language teaching practice across contexts. Keywords: foreign language teaching, high-leverage practices, practice-based approach La tendencia internacional hacia un enfoque basado en la práctica en la formación del profesorado también se refleja en la formación del profesorado de lenguas extranjeras. Un enfoque basado en la práctica se basa en la comprensión de que los maestros aprenden a enseñar un idioma mediante la enseñanza "real" en lugar de "hablar" sobre la enseñanza. En este trabajo informamos sobre la implementación de un enfoque basado en la práctica en dos contextos diferentes: un programa inicial de formación de docentes de inglés en Chile y un programa inicial de preparación de docentes de idiomas extranjeros en los Estados Unidos. Asimismo, proporcionamos recomendaciones prácticas y áreas de precaución para futuras promulgaciones. Los resultados demuestran que la incorporación de un enfoque basado en la práctica en el aula universitaria ofrece una capacidad útil para examinar e iluminar las complejidades de la práctica de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en todos los contextos. Palabras clave: enfoque basado en la práctica, enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, prácticas generativas Malba Barahona
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This article explores the implementation of dynamic assessment (DA) in an elementary school foreign language classroom by considering its theoretical basis and its applicability to second language (L2) teaching, learning, and development.... more
This article explores the implementation of dynamic assessment (DA) in an elementary school foreign language classroom by considering its theoretical basis and its applicability to second language (L2) teaching, learning, and development. In existing applications of L2 classroom DA, errors serve as a window into learners’ instructional needs and provide opportunities for the teacher to mediate, prompting learners to reformulate their utterance. The investigation presented here draws on data from a combination of classroom DA and small-group work in a unit focused on Spanish interrogatives. Extending earlier studies (Davin, 2013; Davin & Donato, 2013), it critically evaluates the extent to which the teacher’s DA records, the heart of DA assessment, provide sufficiently robust evidence
for central claims in DA for the dynamic link between assessment and teaching in order to advance learner development. It does so by contextualizing the teacher’s record with transcripts from smallgroup
work that alternated with DA, and with a microgenetic analysis of two learners across both DA and small-group work. It concludes that whole classroom applications of DA will require considerable expertise on the part of teachers that would have to become part of teacher education programs. Equally importantly, it will benefit from being anchored in an explicitly meaning-oriented theory of language.
for central claims in DA for the dynamic link between assessment and teaching in order to advance learner development. It does so by contextualizing the teacher’s record with transcripts from smallgroup
work that alternated with DA, and with a microgenetic analysis of two learners across both DA and small-group work. It concludes that whole classroom applications of DA will require considerable expertise on the part of teachers that would have to become part of teacher education programs. Equally importantly, it will benefit from being anchored in an explicitly meaning-oriented theory of language.
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As the number of English language learners in mainstream classrooms increases, so too does the need for teachers skilled in classroom-based language assessment (CBLA). All teachers must be able to monitor, evaluate, and support the... more
As the number of English language learners in mainstream classrooms increases, so too does the need for teachers skilled in classroom-based language assessment (CBLA). All teachers must be able to monitor, evaluate, and support the English language development of their students. With a paucity of research on how to prepare teachers to enact ongoing, meaningful assessment of language development, this article describes how teacher candidates’ learning of CBLA was embedded into practice, responding to the question: How can teacher educators embed candidates’ professional learning of CBLA into practice across different course settings? The authors discuss the key elements of a practice-based approach and describe how these elements were applied to the teaching of CBLA in both a controlled and a designed setting. The article concludes with teacher candidates’ reactions to this approach and recommendations for situating teacher learning of CBLA into practice.
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As a new century begins for The Modern Language Journal, we argue that highly effective pedagogy requires viewing language and language learning as both cognitive and social phenomena, and that teachers who seek to truly understand the... more
As a new century begins for The Modern Language Journal, we argue that highly effective pedagogy requires viewing language and language learning as both cognitive and social phenomena, and that teachers who seek to truly understand the nature of their responsibilities do not have the luxury of choosing one perspective over the other. We first identify what we consider to be theory-neutral nonnegotiable boundaries within which pedagogical decision making takes place, including (a) participants' background knowledge , (b) the nature of the object of instruction, (c) the nature of human cognition and social interaction , and (d) available time. Then we discuss learning goals, learning means, and instructional support as the negotiable elements that teachers may manipulate through their instructional decisions. At the heart of the article, we describe in greater detail cognitive versus social perspectives on the dynamic relationship between teaching and learning, and we identify ways in which they diverge and converge in characterizing linguistic development. We then synthesize these perspectives in a holistic, sociocognitive view of pedagogy, which we define as 'a meeting of minds within social worlds.' We conclude by outlining current pedagogical proposals that exemplify sociocognitive pedagogy by engaging learners in iterative cycles of modeling, guidance, and handover to independent language use.
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The present study reports data from a large-scale foreign language proficiency assessment to explore trends across a large urban school district. These data were used in conjunction with data from teacher and student questionnaires to... more
The present study reports data from a large-scale foreign language proficiency assessment to explore trends across a large urban school district. These data were used in conjunction with data from teacher and student questionnaires to make recommendations for foreign language programs across the district. This evaluation process resulted in recommendations related to a need for consistency in curriculum and assessment, program articulation, and responsive placement strategies, as well as the need for greater emphasis in interpretive and interpersonal communication.
With climbing percentages of linguistic diversity within the United States population, teachers must be prepared to work with English language learners in school and community settings. In this paper, we utilized a multiple-case study... more
With climbing percentages of linguistic diversity within the United States population, teachers must be prepared to work with English language learners in school and community settings. In this paper, we utilized a multiple-case study design to describe and explore the learning of four undergraduate teacher candidates enrolled in a university course on the assessment of English language learners. Working to fulfill the course and clinical requirements for the English as a Second Language endorsement, candidates engaged in fieldwork and conducted authentic language assessments to glean the unique sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds, abilities, and needs of students to inform subsequent instruction. Findings indicated that candidates benefited from diverse school and community field placements that matched their programs of study and cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Additionally, findings demonstrated the affordances of community sites where candidates had authentic and low-stakes opportunities to engage in professional practice, juxtaposed with high-stakes classroom settings where cooperating teachers often limited candidate involvement due to the focus on standardized testing. We close with implications and recommendations for field-based teacher preparation for English language learners.
This article describes the implementation of a practice-based approach to foreign language (FL) teacher preparation. After briefly framing the discussion in relation to the literature on the practice-based approach in teacher education –... more
This article describes the implementation of a practice-based approach to foreign language (FL) teacher preparation. After briefly framing the discussion in relation to the literature on the practice-based approach in teacher education – including Phase I of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Research Priorities – we present the implementation and integration of this approach in the context of FL teacher preparation. The successes and challenges encountered throughout the implementation experience are discussed, and recommendations are made for practice-based course design in FL teacher preparation programs and for future research on the practice-based approach.
This article explores how a primary school teacher utilized the frameworks of dynamic assessment (DA) and the instructional conversation (IC) within a Spanish as a foreign language classroom. DA was used to construct zones of proximal... more
This article explores how a primary school teacher utilized the frameworks of dynamic assessment (DA) and the instructional conversation (IC) within a Spanish as a foreign language
classroom. DA was used to construct zones of proximal development with individuals in the classroom context. A menu of pre-scripted assisting prompts, used to respond to predictable
lexical and grammatical errors, permitted the teacher to assess students while also promoting development. ICs were used to co-construct a group zone of proximal development (ZPD) in
response to less predictable student errors or inquiries. The flexible mediation provided by the teacher in these instances allowed for the active involvement of more students as well as more responsive dialogue. This language teacher drew upon these two frameworks to navigate dual goals of instruction and assessment while providing mediation attuned to the ZPD of the learners. As students studied interrogative formation to complete the pedagogical task of an interview, the teacher alternated between these two frameworks based on her goal for each interaction. Class transcripts are analysed to reveal how these two complementary frameworks can be used in conjunction to meet both the students’ and teacher’s needs.
classroom. DA was used to construct zones of proximal development with individuals in the classroom context. A menu of pre-scripted assisting prompts, used to respond to predictable
lexical and grammatical errors, permitted the teacher to assess students while also promoting development. ICs were used to co-construct a group zone of proximal development (ZPD) in
response to less predictable student errors or inquiries. The flexible mediation provided by the teacher in these instances allowed for the active involvement of more students as well as more responsive dialogue. This language teacher drew upon these two frameworks to navigate dual goals of instruction and assessment while providing mediation attuned to the ZPD of the learners. As students studied interrogative formation to complete the pedagogical task of an interview, the teacher alternated between these two frameworks based on her goal for each interaction. Class transcripts are analysed to reveal how these two complementary frameworks can be used in conjunction to meet both the students’ and teacher’s needs.
This article examines collaboration during small‐group tasks with young language learners studying Spanish. After five days of classroom dynamic assessment (DA) targeting WH‐question formation, students worked in small groups on a... more
This article examines collaboration during small‐group tasks with young language learners studying Spanish. After five days of classroom dynamic assessment (DA) targeting WH‐question formation, students worked in small groups on a collaborative writing task. This research sought to determine whether learners were able to mediate their peers during this task and if so, whether this mediation might be traced back to participation in classroom DA. Findings revealed that students drew upon
collective knowledge to complete the task. While the learners did not appropriate forms of mediation used during DA, characteristics such as repetition and first language usage appeared in peer scaffolding. We conclude that classroom DA can be supplemented by small‐group tasks and that assistance, albeit in different forms, emerged in these two contexts.
collective knowledge to complete the task. While the learners did not appropriate forms of mediation used during DA, characteristics such as repetition and first language usage appeared in peer scaffolding. We conclude that classroom DA can be supplemented by small‐group tasks and that assistance, albeit in different forms, emerged in these two contexts.
This article reports on the implementation of the Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) in an Early Foreign Language Learning program. The goal of this research was to examine the performance of grade 4 and 5 students of Spanish on the... more
This article reports on the implementation of the Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) in an Early Foreign Language Learning program. The goal of this research was to examine the performance of grade 4 and 5 students of Spanish on the IPA. Performance across the three communicative tasks is described and modifications to IPA procedures based on the needs of the young learner are presented. Comparisons of the performance of monolingual and multilingual students and information collected
through a student post-IPA survey are also reported. The researchers argue that in addition to benefits of the IPA to describe student communicative performance, integrate
teaching and assessment, and promote standards-based teaching practices, the IPA also has the potential to identify strengths and weaknesses of elementary school foreign language programs.
through a student post-IPA survey are also reported. The researchers argue that in addition to benefits of the IPA to describe student communicative performance, integrate
teaching and assessment, and promote standards-based teaching practices, the IPA also has the potential to identify strengths and weaknesses of elementary school foreign language programs.
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The international trend towards a practice-based approach in teacher education has permeated foreign language teacher education and English language teaching. A practice-based approach is based on the understanding that teachers learn to... more
The international trend towards a practice-based approach in teacher education has permeated foreign language teacher education and English language teaching. A practice-based approach is based on the understanding that teachers learn to teach a language by engaging in "actual" teaching rather than "talking" about teaching. We report on the implementation of a practice-based approach in two different contexts: an initial English teacher education program in Chile and an initial foreign language teacher education program in the United States. We provide practical recommendations and areas of caution for future enactments. The findings demonstrate that incorporating a practice-based approach into the university classroom offers a useful affordance for examining and illuminating the complexities of foreign language teaching practice across contexts.