Language teacher education programs are likely to be housed in departments of applied linguistics, education, or languages and literature: These three disciplines provide the knowledge base and opportunities for developing skills and dispositions for both prospective and experienced teachers. Until recently, applied linguistics (psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language description, and language teaching and testing methodology) formed the core of language teacher education, not unexpected, since language teaching has historically been the primary focus of applied linguistics (Bardovi-Harlig and Hartford 1997, Crandall 1995; 1996). However, during the last decade, general educational theory and practice have exerted a much more powerful influence on the direction of the education of both preservice and inservice language teacher education, resulting in a greater focus on: 1) practical experiences such as observations, practice teaching, and opportunities for curriculum and materials development (Crandall 1994, Johnson 1996b, Pennington 1990, Richards 1990, Richards and Crookes 1988); 2) classroom-centered or teacher research (Allwright and Bailey 1991, Chaudron 1988, Edge and Richards 1993, Nunan 1989, van Lier 1988); and 3) teacher beliefs and teacher cognition in language teacher education (Freeman 1996; 1998, Freeman and Johnson 1998a, Richards and Nunan 1990). In fact, the last decade can be viewed as a search for a theory of language teaching and, by extension, of language teacher education at both the micro and macro levels (Freeman and Johnson 1998b, Johnson 1996a, Larsen-Freeman 1990, Richards 1990). Language teacher education is a microcosm of teacher education, and many of the trends in current language teacher education derive from theory and practice in general teacher education. These trends include at least four major shifts.
Although estimates of the number of language minority students in U.S. schools vary, there is consensus that the numbers are increasing dramatically. In 1980, there were 24 million language minority individuals living in the United States, including nearly 8 million school-age children and 2.6 million children under age five, one or both of whose parents spoke a language other than English at home (Waggoner 1992). Of the school age children, an estimated 3–5 million had limited English proficiency. Between 1980 and 1990, according to the U.S. Census, the Asian-American population more than doubled and the Hispanic-American population increased by more than 50 percent. Many major metro-politan school districts report a student population speaking more than 60 or 70 different languages, and in one of these, Los Angeles, more than 50 percent of the school age population is language minority.
Adult ESL practitioners operate in a context in which full‐time positions are rare, resources are scarce, and turnover is high. But efforts to professionalize the field should not be taken as an indictment of the professionalism of the adult ESL workforce. Even under adverse current working conditions, professionalism in the field is high, as is demonstrated by participation in ongoing professional development and the range of professional development models in use. Whereas both certification and credentialing have been proposed as ways of enhancing the professionalization of the field, credentialing may be more appropriate because it can provide for multiple routes of access to the profession. The article discusses three major models of adult ESL literacy professional development: craft or mentoring models, applied science or theory to practice models, and inquiry or reflective practice models. The article concludes by outlining each model, describing examples of each in adult ESL literacy and suggesting ways in which they can be effectively combined, looking to innovative teacher development practices in K‐12 education as a guide.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.