DOCUMENT RESUME ED 433 716 FL 025 973 AUTHOR Burkart, Grace Stovall, Ed. TITLE Modules for the Professional Preparation of Teaching Assistants in Foreign Languages. INSTITUTION Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC. SPONS AGENCY Center for International Education (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE 1998-12-00 NOTE 328p.; For individual modules, see FL 025 974-983. CONTRACT P017A50050-95A AVAILABLE FROM Center for Applied Linguistics, 4646 40th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20016-1859. PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) Guides Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC14 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Classroom Techniques; *College Instruction; *Cultural Awareness; Curriculum Design; Educational Research; Grammar; Higher Education; Language Research; *Language Teachers; Language Tests; Learning Strategies; Listening Skills; Oral Language; Reading Instruction; *Second Language Instruction; Second Languages; Student Evaluation; Teacher Education; *Teaching Assistants; Teaching Methods; Writing Instruction ABSTRACT The series of ten instructional modules is designed for the training of graduate teaching assistants (TAs) in college-level second language instruction. The modules are written by authors with a professional interest in the professional preparation of teachers who are experienced in the design and preparation of materials for language teaching. The authors assume a generally communicative approach, and call on the TAs to reflect on their own teaching experiences. Modules include: "Beyond TA Training: Developing a Reflective Approach to a Career in Language Education" (Celeste Kinginger); "Research and Language Learning: A Tour of the Horizon" (Ken Sheppard); "Teaching Learning Strategies to Language Students" (Anna Uhl Chamot); "Alternative Assessment in the Language Classroom" (Diane J. Tedick, Carol A. Klee); "Grammar in the Foreign Language Classroom: Making Principled Choices" (Patricia Byrd); "Listening in a Foreign Language" (Ana Maria Schwartz); "Spoken Language: What It Is and How To Teach It" (Grace S. Burkart); "Reading in the Beginning and Intermediate College Foreign Language Class" (Heidi Byrnes); "Writing in the Foreign Language Curriculum: Soup and (Fire) crackers" (Diane Musumeci); and "The Teaching of Culture in Foreign Language Courses" (Dale L. Lange). (MSE) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Modules for the Professional Preparation of Teaching Assistants in Foreign Languages Edited by Grace Stovall Burkart Center for Applied Linguistics 4646 40th Street, NW Washington, DC 20016-1859 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Othce of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND originating it. December 1998 DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS Minor changes have been made to BEEN GRANTED BY improve reproduction quality. Points of/4iew or opinions stated in this 646. document do not necessarily represent official/OERI position or policy. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 Prepared under Grant Award No. P017A50050-95A Center for International Education International Research and Studies Program U.S. Department of Education BEST COPY AVAILABLE Modules for the Professional Preparation of Teaching Assistants in Foreign Languages Edited by Grace Stovall Burkart Center for Applied Linguistics Abstracts of Modules Celeste Kinginger Beyond TA Training: Developing a Reflective Approach to a Career in Language Education The Teaching Assistant (TA) is an apprentice embarking upon a career in foreign language education. TA as student and as teacher. Four views of language education. The reflective practice model of professional development. The teaching portfolioas documentation of long-term development. First steps in developing a professional profile. Ken Sheppard Research and Language Learning: A Tour of the Horizon Summary of research in second language acquisition that focuseson four issues that bear directly on the teaching of foreign languages in university settings. What isa foreign language? What do we know about learners? What does theprocess of language learning look like? What can the classroom contribute? Anna Uhl Chamot Teaching Learning Strategies to Language Students Learning strategies are the thoughts and actions that studentscan take to assist their comprehension, recall, production, and management of their languagelearning. Rationale for teaching learning strategiesto language students. Twenty teachable learning strategies. Guiding principles, instructional framework, andsample activities for implementing instruction in learning strategies. Center for Applied Linguistics12/98 3 Diane J. Tedick and Carol A. Klee Alternative Assessment in the Language Classroom Multiple forms of measurement (traditional as well as alternative) provide a more comprehensive picture of student performance. Alternative assessment provides information on what learners can do with language.It gives learners opportunities to reflect not only on their linguistic development, but also on their learning processes.Identifying and designing tasks that lend themselves to alternative assessment. Checklists and rubrics.Self-assessment and peer assessment.Portfolios. Patricia Byrd Grammar in the Foreign Language Classroom: Making Principled Choices "Teaching grammar" can mean formal presentations of grammatical information (when it can be profitably used by learners), but it can also mean behind-the-scenes decisions made by teachers in the selection of materials and classroom activities.Grammatical knowledge as one part of communicative competence. Grammar = form + meaning + context. Errors and error correction. Grammar instruction related to students' learning styles.Inventorying the textbook's resources for teaching grammar. Supplementing the textbook. Ana Maria Schwartz Listening in a Foreign Language Treats listening as an active, cognitive process and focuses on strategies that enable learners to comprehend aural input more effectively.Setting goals and objectives based on the characteristics and purposes of listening.Evaluating, adapting, and developing listening materials.Planning the listening lesson. Working with textbook tape programs and video materials.Practicing listening strategies.Interactive listening. Grace S. Burkart Spoken Language: What It Is and How to Teach It Examines several features of spoken language: transactional talk and interactional talk, turn taking behavior, maintaining and shifting conversation topics, managing communication scripts. Argues for raising students' consciousness of speech characteristics. Distinguishes practice-oriented and communication-oriented teaching activities. Communicative competence and communicative efficiency. Center for Applied Linguistics12/98 ii Heidi Byrnes Reading in the Beginning and Intermediate College Foreign Language Class Presents reading as an interactive process in which the reader creatively constructs meaning on the basis of the text. The reader relies not just on second-language proficiency, but also on first-language literacy and background knowledge of the topic of the text, text type, and target culture.Lesson template for approaching a text through comprehension and production stages.Learning to read and reading to learn.Criteria for selection of texts. Diane Musumeci Writing in the Foreign Language Curriculum: Soup and (Fire)crackers Distinguishes transcription (copying spoken or written words) and composition (combining words and phrases to inform, persuade, entertain, etc.), and shows how appropriate tasks of both types may be used in even the earliest stages of language study. Audience, purpose, and context shape the writing and determine the degree of accuracy required. Kinds of feedback most effective in improving student writing. Dale L. Lange The Teaching of Culture in Foreign Language Courses Adopts a social sciences perspective on culture. Two principal ways of teaching culture: one focusing on facts and information about the culture, the other emphasizing exploration, analysis, and evaluation of features of the culture. Techniques and strategies for teaching culture, including ways of interweaving language learning. Ways to assess culture learning. Treatment of culture learning in three recently published textbooks. Center for Applied Linguistics12/98 5 Introduction This series of ten modules is designed for the professional development of the graduate teaching assistants (TAs) who staff a large percentage of the introductory language courses at four year institutions of higher education. In institutions where teaching assistants are present, they teach approximately half of the sections in first and second year language courses. Despite this fact, it is not at all uncommon for criteria for selection of TAs to omit entirely any questions about prior preparation or experience in the teaching of a foreign language. Moreover, in many foreign language departments, there is no provision for on-the- job training, and the TAs are left to cope on their own. In recent years; an increasing number of language departments are developing preservice and in-service training programs for their TAs, but there is a need for more such programs, and there is a need for suitable training materials