Pursuing Continuing Education as a Foreign Language Teacher: An Overview. An Integrative Approach to Foreign Language Teaching: Choosing among the Options. ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series, Vol. 8.

Overview & Synopsis

There are many different hypotheses concerning the focus for continuing education for foreign language teachers and a range of training patterns are utilized. Many training programs emphasize graduate education as the basis for the continuing education of foreign language teachers. Teacher centers, teacher development centers, staff development cooperatives, and school-based staff developers create the possibility of using actual classroom experience as systematic learning opportunity. Significant efforts in materials development in bilingual education may have implications for foreign language education. A coherent program for experienced-teacher development should provide a statement of a comprehensive theory of pedagogy; criteria and standards for effective practice in a school and for creating (and changing) school environments; and catalogues for teacher-developed curricula. Experienced teachers are a new learner population and need new patterns for learning. Stages of language learning for a teacher who is a competent speaker are represented in a table presenting Freire's stages, Havelock's stages, and Erikson's stages. The major types of available inservice opportunities nationwide and quality control of inservice experiences are discussed. (SW)