Literary Discussions and Advanced-Superior Speaking Functions in the Undergraduate Language Program

Abstract

During the last decade, researchers of foreign language pedagogy have become increasingly interested in the “language-literature divide” (Donato and Brooks 2004). The purpose of the current study is to contribute to this growing body of research by investigating the extent to which whole class discussions in three third-year undergraduate Spanish literature/culture courses provided opportunities for learners to engage in the communicative functions corresponding to the advanced and superior levels of the “ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines—Speaking.” The analysis included teacher questions, quantity of learner versus teacher speech, and distribution of teacher and learner verb forms. The results showed that, although there were some opportunities for learners to converse at the advanced and superior levels, the majority of learner discourse occurred below the advanced level. Recommendations for further research and pedagogy are provided.

Lasting effects of pre‐university language exposure on undergraduate proficiency

“…Second, ratings in reading were consistently higher than in the other two modalities throughout the curriculum. This echoes a sentiment that is often expressed by students, instructors, and program coordinators: that language major and minor coursework favors the development of reading skills over all other modalities (Darhower, 2014;Donato & Brooks, 2004). Apart from supporting this notion generally, empirical results indicate the extent to which this typical course structure can affect students' proficiency outcomes, producing contrasts that, in the present study, are frequently greater than an entire sublevel.…”

It Takes a Department! A Study of the Culture of Proficiency in Three Successful Foreign Language Teacher Education Programs

“…The question of propelling university language majors to the Advanced level has been investigated as a function of the “language‐literature (dis)connection” (Donato & Brooks, , p. 184), and several studies (Darhower, ; Mantero, ; Polio & Zyzik, ; Thoms, ; Zyzik & Polio, ) have shed light on the most prevalent discourse features in upper‐level Spanish literature courses that are most frequently populated by majors and minors, including prospective language teachers. These studies revealed that students, including teacher candidates, were typically not provided with opportunities to address a range of topics and tasks in the target language in a sustained manner that was conducive to developing Advanced proficiency.…”

“…However, in undergraduate language programs across the nation, achieving Advanced 2 oral proficiency continues to be an elusive endeavor for many students. Much has been written in the professional literature, particularly in the context of foreign language teacher preparation, concerning the difficulty of attaining an Advanced-level rating at the conclusion of an undergraduate language program of study (e.g., Burke, 2013;Chambless, 2012;Darhower, 2014;Donato, 2009;Donato & Brooks, 2004;Glisan, 2013;Glisan, Swender, & Surface, 2013;Huhn, 2012;Magnan, Murphy, & Sahakyan, 2014;McAlpine & Dhonau, 2007;Tedick, 2013). Some within the profession have questioned whether Advanced Low proficiency should even be a requirement.…”

Spanish Teaching Assistants’ Attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching

“…In line with findings of previous studies in other contexts, the investigator hypothesized that participants would have favorable attitudes overall but demonstrate some lack of knowledge about some of the principles. Additionally, in view of the fact that lower-level students of Spanish continue to struggle in their efforts to achieve communicative competence and the literature indicates that students coming out of U. S. foreign language undergraduate programs hardly ever achieve the Advanced Low proficiency level (Darhower 2014;Glisan 2013;Pratt 2017;Tedick 2013;Valdés et al 2003), the investigator also expected that the breakdown of scores would show some unfavorable scores, indicating significant difficulties with some tenets of the approach. As shown in Table 2, all 15 TAs received scores higher than the neutral point of 72, indicating that all of them had favorable attitudes towards the communicative approach.…”