2.1 foreign language teaching

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Foreign Language Teaching in 19 CountriesForeign Language Teaching in 19 CountriesForeign Language Teaching in 19 CountriesForeign Language Teaching in 19 Countries

Ingrid Ingrid Ingrid Ingrid Pufahl, Nancy C. Rhodes, and Donna ChristianPufahl, Nancy C. Rhodes, and Donna ChristianPufahl, Nancy C. Rhodes, and Donna ChristianPufahl, Nancy C. Rhodes, and Donna ChristianCenter for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DCCenter for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DCCenter for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DCCenter for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

During the last decade, new efforts have aimed at improvingforeign language education in the United States (see, e.g.,National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project,1999). A recent study concerned with the need to strengthenforeign language skills among U.S. students examined thesuccesses of other countries. Conducted by the Center forApplied Linguistics, the study collected information from 22educators in 19 countries about foreign language instructionin their elementary and secondary schools. The countriesrepresented in the study are Australia, Austria, Brazil, Can-ada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany,Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Neth-erlands, New Zealand, Peru, Spain, and Thailand. Informa-tion was also gathered on China, England, and Hong Kongfrom comparative education reports.

Study participants responded to a series of questions aboutlanguage teaching methodologies, strategies, and policies intheir countries that could inform language teaching in theUnited States. Answers to the key question, "What do you

think are three of the most successful aspects of foreign lan-guage education in your country?" allowed study researchersto identify eight exemplary characteristics of foreign lan-guage education in the countries surveyed. This digest ex-amines these characteristics and discusses what the UnitedStates (and other countries) can learn from them.

WHAT WORKS IN OTHER COUNTRIESWHAT WORKS IN OTHER COUNTRIESWHAT WORKS IN OTHER COUNTRIESWHAT WORKS IN OTHER COUNTRIES

An Early Start

Many respondents reported that beginning foreign languagestudy early promotes achievement of higher levels of lan-guage proficiency. Seven of the countries studied have wide-spread or compulsory education in foreign languages by age8, and another eight countries introduce foreign languages inthe upper elementary grades. In many cases, a second foreignlanguage is offered or required in the elementary grades. Thiscontrasts starkly with the United States, where the majorityof students who study a foreign language do not start beforeage 14.


A Well-Articulated Framework

Several respondents noted the importance of a well-articulated curriculum framework that motivates and guidesthe development of an effective system of foreign languageeducation. Many European countries have adapted their for-eign language teaching at the national level to the frame-works and standards articulated by the Council of Europeslanguage policy and activities. Modern Languages: Learn-ing, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European Frameworkof Reference (Council of Europe, 1996), developed and re-vised over the past decade, has had high impact. The Frame-work is a planning instrument that provides a common basisand terminology for describing objectives, methods and ap-proaches, skills, practices, and assessments in languageteaching, and it is used for planning syllabuses, examina-tions, teaching materials, and teacher training programsthroughout Europe.

Rigorous Teacher Education

One of the most often cited factors related to excellence inforeign language education is a well-trained teaching corps.In Morocco, English teachers are among the best trainedteachers in the country. After a 4-year degree in English froma university or teacher training college, including one year ofspecialization in literature or linguistics, students spend ayear studying language teaching methodology and gettingpractical training.

A crucial factor in teacher quality is the status of the teachingprofession, because it directly impacts the quality of candi-dates who go into teaching. In Finland, potential teachers arerecruited from among the best high school graduates.Teaching is a highly valued profession, and admission touniversities, where all teacher education takes place, is verycompetitive. This creates a high degree of selectivity andincreases the prestige of a teaching degree.

Pre-service training that integrates academic subject studieswith pedagogical studies and teaching practice is consideredone of the most successful aspects of foreign language edu-cation in several countries. In some countries, including theNetherlands and the United Kingdom, study and work abroadprograms contribute to the high level of language proficiencyamong foreign language teachers.

Comprehensive Use of Technology

Innovative technologies and media are frequently cited as away to increase access to information and entertainment in aforeign language, provide interaction with speakers of otherlanguages, and improve foreign language teaching in theclassroom.

Access to Information and Entertainment. Most respon-dents, in particular those from Canada, Denmark, and Thai-land, highlighted the importance of the Internet and special-ized databases for information retrieval. In smaller countries,many television shows are broadcast in a foreign languageand subtitled rather than dubbed. In Denmark, where Englishis omnipresent through the many U.S. and British televisionprograms, films, computer games, and music videos, teachershave developed successful strategies for integrating theirstudents' informal foreign language exposure into classroomteaching.

Interaction and Collaboration With Speakers of OtherLanguages. Access to information on the World Wide Weband the use of new information technologies, especially net-worked computers, has contributed to increased communica-tion among foreign language teachers and students in manycountries. Through e-mail, mailing lists, discussion groups,and chat rooms, the Internet has increased access to andcommunication in the foreign language with both native andnonnative speakers.

Effective Teaching Strategies

Respondents mentioned several innovative methods for lan-guage instruction, which fall roughly into the categorieshighlighted below.

Integration of Language and Content Learning. Learningcontent-area subjects through the medium of a foreign lan-guage has become increasingly popular in many of the re-sponding countries. In some cases, a foreign language is usedas the medium of instruction in non-language subjects, fre-quently at the secondary school level when students haveacquired sufficient proficiency in the foreign language. InLuxembourg, for example, both German and French are usedas a medium of instruction throughout students' school ca-reers to support simultaneous learning of both languages. Inimmersion programs, called "bilingual programs" in Europe,primary school children are taught subject matter almost ex-clusively in a second or foreign language.

Communicative Teaching Methods. In Denmark, Germany,the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, and Spain, a focus oncommunicative and intercultural learning has not onlystimulated a productive discussion of teaching objectives,methods, and underlying rationales that are now reflected incurricula and textbooks, but has also resulted in increasedoral and written proficiency for their students.

Focus on Language Learning Strategies. Several respon-dents reported that a recent focus on how to learn a foreignlanguage has been important to the success of language edu-cation in their countries. In Denmark, for example, teachersfocus on raising students' awareness of various communica-


tion strategies, including strategies to bridge vocabularygaps, reading and listening strategies, and general languagelearning strategies.

Building on the First or Subsequent Languages. Particu-larly in bilingual or multilingual countries or in those with alarge number of language minorities, respondents stated thatsuccessful approaches consider students' first languages as afoundation upon which to build second language proficiency.In Luxembourg, several projects demonstrate that acknowl-edging the sociocultural context and the already developedcompetencies of children in their first language will boostlearning of subsequent languages.

Other Successful Methods. Other notable methods includethe sole use of the foreign language in the classroom; amodular approach to teaching in which students are groupedaccording to proficiency level rather than age or grade level;and project-oriented learning that emphasizes the use ofauthentic materials through technology and integrates learn-ing about English-speaking countries with language andcontent learning.

Strong Policy

A number of respondents mentioned the importance of pol-icy formulation. Language and education policies at the na-tional, regional, and local levels can facilitate or inhibitstrong language education.

Language and Education Policies. In Australia, one of themost successful aspects of foreign language education relatesto the National Policy on Languages (NPL) (Lo Bianco,1987), which provides a framework for language education.The NPL has initiated pluralism in the languages being of-fered, supported projects for indigenous and first languageeducation, led to policy development in each Australian ter-ritory, and resulted in the near-universal introduction of lan-guages at the primary level.

Foreign Languages as Core Subjects. One of the most in-fluential policies with respect to foreign language learning isthe status of languages within the school curriculum. In allEuropean countries and in Canada, Kazakhstan, Morocco,and Thailand, at least one foreign language is compulsory forall students.

Assessment

Several of the educators surveyed highlighted assessment asone of the best practices in foreign language education intheir country. In most of the countries, nearly all assessmentof students' foreign language learning occurs in the contextof specific courses, with grades or credit for completion as-signed by teachers. The only national or regional examina-

tions that include language proficiency assessments areschool-leaving examinations administered at the end of sec-ondary education. For example, in the Netherlands, there arecentral school-leaving examinations developed by a nationaltesting institute and administered at the end of secondaryschool. Students attending the pre-university stream take theexam, which includes achievement tests in three foreign lan-guages: English, French, and German. Results account for50% of the final grade in the subject. A result of these centralexams, which are in accordance with the European Frame-work, is a coherent approach with respect to the curriculum.

In China, the Matriculation English Test (MET) assesses notonly grammar and lexis but also their use, thus leading to adecrease of rote memorization in English learning practice(see, e.g., Hamp-Lyons, Hood, Sengupta, Curtis, & Yan,1999).

Maintenance of Heritage, Regional, and Indige-nous Languages

Several respondents described programs that teach themother tongue of speakers of languages other than the domi-nant one in their country. These programs contribute to for-eign language success by helping maintain existing languageresources in a country and by fostering achievement amongminority populations. Some of the most successful practicesin Canada are found in heritage language programs. The Ca-nadian federal policy of bilingualism is framed within acontext of multiculturalism that promotes recognition of thevalue of languages other than English and French. Severalprovinces have heritage language programs in their officialschool curricula.

WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THISWHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THISWHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THISWHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THISSTUDYSTUDYSTUDYSTUDY

Start language education early. The United States needs anational commitment to elementary school language teachingfor all children. The federal government can provide leader-ship in developing long-term policies for enhanced teachertraining, incentives for school districts to offer early lan-guage instruction, and a detailed research agenda.

Learn from others. We need to look outside our borders andlearn from the mistakes and successes of other countries. Inparticular, we need to look to countries like ours that have asingle official or national language but that are nonethelesssucceeding in developing citizens with bilingual or multilin-gual proficiency.

Conduct long-term research. The U.S. education system canbenefit greatly from the development of a long-term research


agenda that incorporates longitudinal studies of a variety ofearly language learning models of instruction.

Provide stronger leadership. A stronger and more coherentgovernment-wide effort is needed to create the atmosphereand opportunity to improve language education in the UnitedStates.

Identify how technology can improve language instruction.A major question remains about how successful technologyis in improving foreign language instruction. We need spe-cific research on how technology can best be used to increasestudents' proficiency in other languages.

Improve teacher education. The United States needs toconduct a more in-depth investigation into how some coun-tries are recruiting high-caliber students into teaching andproviding top quality in-service and pre-service training.

Develop appropriate language assessments. The effectiveassessment practices used in other countries are worthstudying given the salience of assessment in U. S. education.

Designate foreign language as a core subject. In districtsand schools in the United States where foreign language

study is part of the core curriculum, there is a more rigorousapproach to curriculum development, professional develop-ment, and assessment. Designating foreign language study asa core subject is essential for a successful program.

Take advantage of the sociolinguistic context. Americaneducators need to take advantage of the sociolinguistic con-text in which we live by promoting the learning of languagesspoken by indigenous groups and by immigrants and refu-gees in this country, as well as by our neighbors in Canadaand Mexico.

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSIONCONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

Compared to students in much of the world, U.S. students lagfar behind in their foreign language capabilities. The studydiscussed in this digest has provided valuable insight intosuccessful foreign language education in other countries. TheUnited States can learn a great deal by studying these suc-cesses and using the information to implement practices andpolicies that will support the development of better foreignlanguage education and a higher level of foreign languageproficiency among our citizens.

REFERENCESREFERENCESREFERENCESREFERENCES

Council of Europe. (1996). Modern languages. Learning, teaching, assessment: A common European framework of reference.Strasbourg, France: Author. Available: http://culture.coe.fr/lang/eng/eedu2.4.html

Hamp-Lyons, L., Hood, S., Sengupta, S., Curtis, A., & Yan, J. (1999). Best practices: A literature review of effective instruc-tional design and learner processes in acquiring second/foreign language at primary and secondary levels. Hong Kong: HongKong Polytechnic University, Department of English.

Lo Bianco, J. (1987). National policy on languages. Canberra: Australian Department of Education.

National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project. (1999). Standards for foreign language learning in the 21st Cen-tury. Lawrence, KS: Author.

2.1 foreign language teaching

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