Evaluation of Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract

The standard technique for evaluating a language teaching program is to obtain objective measures of pre‐ to post‐training changes in students. A potentially faster and more useful technique would be the evaluation, based on direct observation, of actual training in progress to ascertain whether the course design, program administration, and individual teaching performance conform to certain principles, policies, and procedures that have been demonstrated to play a role in successful language learning. A research plan has been devised for developing such an evaluation technique. The preliminary phase of the first step in this plan has been accomplished through an analysis of the ratings which 364 faculty members at NDEA institutes gave to 324 features believed to be important in developing second‐language proficiency. The consensus strongly favored an audio‐lingual approach. The next step will be to validate those features which are apparently important. (An appendix lists the 324 features and gives the mean rating, standard deviation, and % of negative responses to each.)

The Effect on Foreign Language Teacher of Leadership Training in a Foreign Setting

“…T h e third technique involved asking the participants to evaluate selected FL principles and practices earlier found (Hayes, et al, 1967) to be considered important by successful FL teachers and coordinators. Fifty-three items were included.…”

“…Separate analyses of variance were performed for each item. An attempt has been made to relate these findings to those of Hayes, et al (1967).…”

“…T h e two questionnaires deal with various features of a teacher's self-concept, personality dispositions, attitudes, value orientations, professional motivation, and opinion5 about policy in the FL field. T h e content of the questionnaires was selected from social-psychological measurement procedures found to be valuable in earlier experimentation (e.g., Gardner and Lambert, 1959;Lambert, Gardner, Olton, and Tunstall, 1968; Lambert, Gardner, Barik, and Tunstall, 1963;Gardner, Taylor, and Santos, 1969;and Hayes, Lambert, and Tucker, 1967). Recent reviews of the significance of each of tlie features included can be found in Lambert (1969,1970) and in Tucker (1970).…”

“…Since the items used in Part 111 were taken directly from the research study by Hayes, Lambert, and Tucker (1967), which provides norms of opinions or views collected from some 400 NDEA teachers, it is of interest to compare the three groups examined in this study with the earlier norms. In general, there is amazing agreement on nearly every item, i.e., where the NDEA teachers rated an item on the average as 6 in importance (on a 7-point scale) our three EPDA groups also rated it as 6.…”

The Context for Innovation in Language Instruction

“…Focus on &dquo;what is actually taught&dquo; characterizes an important innovation in research on language teaching methodology proposed by Hayes, Lambert and Tucker (1967). Their interest is in actual inprogress teaching strategies rather than on pre-and post-test results of a particular course of instruction.…”