What are the basic traits that a teacher should have to be able to help students attain necessary language skills and cultural knowledge in an L2? As language educators, we receive this question all the time. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not an easy one because research involving curriculum analyses, both in the United States and in Europe, has revealed a significant amount of variation in the number of domains and competencies covered in L2 teacher education programs (Richards, 2008). While some programs have predominantly focused on language and L2 acquisition research and theory, others have taken a more linguistics and methods-orientated direction. In general, though, most experts in the field would agree on a number of fundamental competencies.

Competent L2 teachers know who their learners are (1), what language is (2), how it is learned (3), and how it should be taught (4). Furthermore, they have a solid background about the foundations of L2 curriculum (5), the selection and development of instructional materials (6), and the design of a learning environment (7) that is sensitive to socio-cultural differences (8). They also know how to use the L2 as a tool for L2 learners to gain access to academic content knowledge (9). While they are also able to situate the whole language learning and teaching experience within broader learning theories (10), and competently assess and evaluate L2 development and proficiency (11), they are well aware of their professional roles and responsibilities as advocates for successful L2 education in its entirety at all levels, including institutional, national, and international. Indeed, these competencies have been categorized under the five domains of (I) Language Learning, (II) Learners, (III) Instruction, (IV) Assessment and Evaluation, and (V) Professionalism and Advocacy. Before any further ado, let’s take a look at what each competency entails.

Domain I: Language learning

This domain includes background knowledge and skills in (1) linguistics, (2) general learning theories, and (3) first and second language acquisition theories. First, L2 teachers need to be highly proficient in the language that they teach. Competent L2 teachers understand the nature of language and basic concepts of language systems such as phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, semantics, discourse, and pragmatics. They are also familiar with socio-linguistic, psycho-linguistic, and neuro-linguistic factors in L2 learning. Furthermore, they know the functions and register of the L2, including the conventions of written and spoken language, and the pedagogical implications of differences between basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) (Cummins, 1984). In addition, they understand the interrelatedness of receptive (listening, reading), productive (speaking, writing), and complementary (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation) language skills.

Second, competent L2 teachers are familiar with the basic theories and concepts about first (L1) and L2 acquisition, including the language universals (Chomsky, 1965), and the role L1 plays in L2 development. While they understand differences between the processes of L1 and L2 acquisition, they have a solid background in second language acquisition (SLA) theories. For example, they know how to use different ways to maximize the comprehensible input (Krashen, 1987) opportunities for their students through authentic tasks and activities. More importantly, they know that the greatest bulk of an L2 is acquired through self-exposure and social interactions, not learned in strictly structured and inauthentic classroom settings. Finally, competent L2 teachers are able to situate SLA theories within the broader learning theories. For instance, they understand behaviorist (memorization) versus cognitivist (information processing) versus socio-constructivist (socio-cultural factors) views (Pavlenko – Lantolf, 2000) about L2 learning and development.

Domain II: Learners

Current SLA research has revealed that socio-psychological factors affect success in learning an L2. This domain covers teacher knowledge about (1) differences among language learners and (2) their levels of socio-cultural awareness. Individual differences, such as motivation, attitudes, anxiety, identity, learning styles, pedagogical beliefs, socialization patterns, and learning and communicative strategies affect success in learning an L2. For example, many scholars have found that high motivation has a positive effect on L2 learning (Dörnyei, 2005) while learners with high levels of anxiety do not seem be successful language learners (Horwitz, 2008). In fact, researchers have found that learners who strongly identify with the L2 community attain a more native-like accent than those who strongly identify with their native-speaking communities Dörnyei – Ushioda, 2009). Competent L2 teachers know about the role these factors might play in L2 attainment and plan the learning experience for their students accordingly.

Other learner-related factors concern the socio-cultural differences. L2 learners come from different families and geographical regions with different socio-economic and educational backgrounds, demonstrating a significant amount of cultural diversity. Culturally responsive L2 teachers understand the role of diversity – namely cultural products, perspectives, and practices – in L2 attainment. They know not only how to construct culturally-sensitive learning experiences to facilitate the most effective learning, but also what strategies to apply to create among students an awareness of and respect for cultural diversity. Indeed, culturally competent teachers effectively apply skills for communicating and collaborating effectively with the parents/guardians, the community members, and local resources to enhance their students’ learning. For example, such teachers not only genuinely value cultural diversity and incorporate it into the curriculum, but also organize extra-curricular activities in appreciation of diversity as an added value for advancement.

Domain III: Instruction

Under this domain, we have instructional competencies including (1) foundations of curriculum, (2) methods of language teaching, (3) learning environment, (4) instructional materials, and (5) language and content area integration. First, competent L2 teachers know the history and policy foundations of L2 education and use this knowledge to plan and implement effective L2 programs (Richards, 2001). They are able to select the most effective types of programs that are appropriate for the needs of a particular learner profile in a particular setting. For example, while most scholars agree that bilingual and immersion programs are the most effective, the most common English as a second language (ESL) programs in the U.S. are the pull-out ones, also known as the least effective programs that are primarily based on the development of BICS skills while neglecting the teaching of CALP via content-based curricula.

Second, competent L2 teachers are also able to choose and implement the most appropriate and current methods of language teaching. Such teachers know that we have come a long way since the grammar translation and audio-lingual method (Richards – Rodgers, 2001), however, we no longer adhere to one particular method because we live in the beyond-methods’ era (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). Nonetheless, this does not imply a senseless, eclectic approach; rather it entails being flexible within a consistent theoretical and pedagogical framework often referred to as “principled eclecticism” (Larsen-Freeman, 2003). Third, as the current ecological L2 learning theories would suggest (Brown, 2006), just as only a balanced amount of sun, water and care, in a nurturing environment, can lead to the healthy growth of a flower, instructional methods can lead to success in L2 learning only if the learning environment is meticulously designed.

Last but not least, an important part of what constitutes a nurturing environment is the availability of effective instructional resources. Competent L2 teachers are not only well-informed about the strengths and weakness of commercial and authentic materials but also possess the necessary skills to select, adapt, or develop their own materials based on the specific needs and goals of their students. Indeed, competent L2 teachers use the instructional materials that integrate the language and content area goals, supporting L2 learners’ BICS, CALP, and academic achievement (Cummins, 1984). For example, most English-medium universities overseas have English preparatory programs to prepare students to be able to receive, say, engineering or economics content in English; however, instead of conducting a needs analysis and basing their EFL instruction on the content of these majors, most of these programs select generic commercial materials that often times include linguistic input predominantly about shopping, holidays, food, and friendship.

Domain IV: Assessment and evaluation

This domain covers knowledge and skills about the assessment and evaluation of L2 learners’ language development. It includes background in L2 testing skills related to the placement, diagnostic, achievement, and proficiency of L2 learners. Competent L2 teachers know the commonly used national and international standard assessment tools, such as TOEFL. Such teachers also know the basic concepts and practices related to test design, development, and interpretation. In addition to understanding the validity and reliability of testing methods and tools, they understand potential relationships among the national standards, instruction, and L2 testing. More importantly, in their classrooms, they effectively apply knowledge of formal/informal, direct/indirect, and dynamic and authentic assessment. Most importantly, however, competent teachers are familiar with the construct of the “backwash effect” – the effect testing might have on student learning (Hughes, 2003). Successful learning will not take place if teaching and testing goals and/or methods are incongruent. For example, if writing skills are tested by multiple choice tests, students will invest their time and effort in developing their skills to respond to such questions, not in working on actual writing skills that they will need in real-life tasks.

Domain V: Professionalism and Advocacy

As part of the last domain, L2 teachers are required to possess certain professional qualifications and individual characteristics to be able to support L2 learners’ linguistic, cultural, and academic development. This domain lies at the heart of the profession. Competent L2 teachers demonstrate knowledge of the history of L2 teaching, keep up-to-date with new trends and current educational research, and follow domestic and international issues related to language planning and policy, as well as other advances in L2 education. Moreover, considering language learners spend only a limited amount of time with language teachers, it is very important that L2 teachers collaborate with the mainstream teachers and build partnerships with outside resources and parents to support the linguistic, cultural, and content areas of development. Also noteworthy is that such teachers claim responsibility for L2 learners and are able to apply effective strategies to advocate educational and social equity for their students, both at the institutional and broader community levels (Crawford, 2004). For instance, such teachers serve as a resource to promote a school environment that values cultural and linguistic diversity, and they advocate for equitable access to resources for language learners by becoming members of organizations (e. g.: TESOL) that support L2 learning and teaching.

Furthermore, in order for teachers to apply these professional competencies in actual classroom practices, they need to posses certain individual characteristics and dispositions that complement their professional qualifications. Unlike learning other subjects, language learning requires a great deal of patience and perseverance. Hence, L2 teachers need to be caring, compassionate, understanding, self-sacrificing, and patient. They need to establish a good rapport and empathy with their students, offering them timely motivational support. Only by doing so can they understand their students’ socio-psychological well-being and invest additional personal time and effort in students’ learning.

Last but not least, L2 teachers need to remain positive and enthusiastic about their students’ progress, because the process of L2 development is a bumpy road with lots of ups and downs. To help their students, teachers need to be able to identify their students’ struggles correctly and provide them with developmentally appropriate support. In addition, they need to be fair and treat all of their students equally. In doing so, they need to know their students very well and think outside the box, supplying innovative in-class and self-study strategies. Finally, in order for L2 teachers to be able to competently demonstrate these personal traits, they need to have effective communication skills. While such teachers are very good and empathetic listeners, they also need to be able to communicate their thoughts and feelings effectively, and with mutual respect and appreciation, to support their students’ learning.

Saban Cepik is Assistant Professor/Department Chair, ELT, Zirve University.

References

• Brown, D. H. (2006). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (5th Edition). New York: Pearson ESL.
• Chomsky, N. (1965), Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press
• Cummins, J. (1984) Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
• Crawford, J. (2004). Educating English Learners: Language Diversity in the Classroom. (5th ed). Los Angeles, CA: Bilingual Education Services.
• Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Dörnyei, Z. – Ushioda, E. (Eds.). (2009). Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
• Horwitz, E.K. (2008). Becoming a language teacher: A practical guide to second language learning and teaching. Boston, MA: Allyn – Bacon, Inc.
• Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for language teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Krashen, S.D. (1987). Principles and practices in second language acquisition. New York: Prentice-Hall.
• Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). TESOL methods: Changing tracks, challenging trends. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 59-81.
• Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching language: From grammar to grammaring. Boston: Thompson-Heinle.
• Pavlenko, A., – Lantolf, J. P. (2000). Second language learning as participation and the (re)construction of selves. In J. Lantolf (Eds.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning: Recent advances (pp. 1545-177). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Richards, J. C. (2008). Second language teacher education today. RELC Journal, 39: 158-177.
• Richards, J., – Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Education becomes more formal at school. There are a great many different teaching styles inspired by different educational philosophies. Likewise, there are very many learning styles based on different personalities. Every person is created differently and every person may have a slightly different learning style. However, at schools where mass teaching is done, teachers need to decide on a certain method. There are some traditional methods and some novel ones. Here we will focus on peer instruction,2 a non-traditional teaching method developed over the last decade based on physics education research, and later applied in other science teaching as well. We will also try to extract lessons from the peer instruction experience to guide us not only in learning in the classroom but also in everyday informal learning practices.

Eric Mazur is a professor of physics at Harvard University. About a decade ago, Mazur discovered that his students could not correctly answer seemingly simple qualitative questions, despite being able to work through much more difficult quantitative problems. He was shocked as he was considered to be one of the best instructors in the physics department. Mazur began to document the disparity between student performance on the two types of questions, by including on his exams paired qualitative and quantitative questions on a single physical concept. He soon confirmed that for his students, success in solving traditional physics problems did not imply that they understood the underlying physics. Many physics instructors across the United States shared Professor Mazur’s experience. Mazur started developing what is now known as peer instruction.

As the name suggests, peer instruction promotes learning through interaction with one’s peers in the classroom, in addition to listening to the instructor. This is very new, considering that many remember science classes in the form of a plain lecture, where the only player is the instructor, and the students are the audience, except for a few outgoing students who are not always appreciated by their peers. Peer instruction transforms the students into active players during the class. This is actually common sense in all our education experiences. If you just listen to an idea, you will understand very little, and retain very little. If you think about the subject matter, try to apply it in different circumstances, and finally teach it to someone else then your chance of comprehension and retention greatly improves. This is what the instructor achieves through peer instruction. The students are gently pushed toward thinking, discussing, and finally teaching each other, and so they learn more and better.

Every class in peer instruction includes three or four short mini-lectures followed by (or sometimes preceded by) a conceptual question. Students are assigned prior reading so as to come to the class prepared and to have at least some familiarity with the new concepts and terminology. Each mini-lecture’s goal is to highlight certain concepts and give the students further insight. Very different from traditional physics lectures, the instructor does not feel obligated to solve many example problems where a lot of math is needed. That is done through homework and during the problem sessions, which are usually administered by teaching assistants. Between mini-lectures three to five conceptual questions are distributed. Each conceptual question is a qualitative multiple-choice question that gives students and the instructor a means to assess what students have learned. Most questions are asked twice. In the first stage, the instructor shows the question on a projector screen and reads it aloud. Each student is asked to think individually about the answer. No talking is allowed. At the end of this first one- or two-minute period, the instructor asks the students to show their responses. This can be done with flashcards, or electronic transmitters (clickers). A flashcard may have the choices (A, B, C, …), or the instructor may prefer to use color flashcards. Some schools provide students with clickers (or students buy them), and the instructor has the receiver that is connected to a computer.

After receiving the answers from the students, the instructor assesses the situation. If there are only a few correct answers, then the question was asked prematurely. If there are only a few incorrect answers, then the question was too easy, no more time is devoted to that concept. However, in most cases the instructor selects a question to which 30–70% of the answers will be correct. Then, in the second stage, without giving the correct answer, the instructor asks the students to turn to their peers sitting next to them, and discuss the answer and its reasoning. This is peer instruction. These interactions between students have proven very useful. At the end of the second stage, which typically lasts two to three minutes, the instructor asks the students to show their responses to the same question once again. It has been shown that most of the time the number of correct answers goes up. Clearly, success is conditional on the pre-class reading, a mini-lecture that highlights the concepts, and selection of the carefully designed conceptual questions. Based on the responses, the instructor can decide whether to elaborate on the topic or proceed to something new.

Here is a conceptual question3 that may be asked while studying the law of gravitation:

The Moon does not fall to Earth because…

1. it is in the Earth’s gravitational field.

2. the net force on it is zero.

3. it is beyond the main pull of the Earth’s gravity.

4. it is being pulled by the Sun and planets as well as by the Earth.

5. All of the above.

6. None of the above.

At this point we suggest that the reader should think about this question before reading the next paragraph, which includes the correct answer at the end. If possible, ask someone near you and discuss your reasoning.

This question is carefully designed with choices representing various misconceptions. For example, any student with some introductory knowledge of physics will accept that if the net force on an object is zero, then the object will not move, so it is tempting for some students to say, “Oh, yes. The Moon does not fall to Earth. This means that the net force on it is zero!” Or, everybody has a direct experience of the gravitational pull of the Earth. You jump and you fall to Earth. You cannot escape. Again, it is tempting to say that the Moon is beyond the main pull of the Earth’s gravity, but that is not true because if there were not enough gravitational force on the Moon, it would escape the Earth’s orbit. Option 4, for example, is correct as a statement. By virtue of having a mass, the moon is pulled by the Sun and other planets. One might tend to think that there is a balance between the gravitational forces applied by the Earth and other heavenly objects. But, no, that is not the actual reason for the Moon not to fall to Earth. None of the options alone gives the correct answer. Since two of the options (2 and 3) are incorrect, the correct answer to this question is option 6, “None of the above.” The correct answer is that the Moon orbits the Earth as well as being pulled by its gravitational force. The reason the Moon keeps changing its direction is the gravitational pull of the Earth. The Moon was given an initial speed so that it does not fall. If the Moon should stop at any instant, it would fall to Earth.

To reiterate our main point, peer instruction causes students to think through and apply a general principle to different cases through conceptual questions and teach each other what they have just learned. That is, our brain becomes much more active, and it is forced to synthesize difference pieces of information, rather than keeping busy with factual information only.

Research has shown that peer instruction improves the learning gains of the students greatly.4,5,6,7 Peer instruction has been used in astronomy, chemistry, biology, and mathematics as well. How can we benefit from the peer instruction experience to improve our everyday teaching and learning practices? Before trying to answer this question, let us remember occasions when we learn and teach in our daily lives. We teach and learn when we talk to our friends. When we browse through a newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch a TV program, we are bombarded with information. We read books hoping to learn something from them.

The first message we should receive from the success of peer instruction is that passive listening and watching only injects a lot of information in a short time into our memories. Because such information is not processed with an active mind, or we do not try to apply it in different situations, we should be aware that such information might not be so reliable in general. The irony is that many people in the twenty-first century look to the TV, movies, and radios for information. On the TV screen we see twenty-four pictures every second, that is, about a quarter million pictures daily, if we watch TV for three hours per day. In order for TV and radio to be useful, as peer instruction shows, viewers and listeners need to stop and think about what they have just seen and listened to. If possible, then turn to a friend, discuss what you have just watched and get their opinion. Try to teach what you have just learned and see the reaction of people around you.

When we read we have more time to think. We should gently push our brains to make connections with what we know, and what we have just read. What is the purpose? What is the message? Why is this significant? Then again, try to teach it to a friend, enter into a short discussion. This can really help minimize misconceptions and refine our understanding. It will help us assimilate the information, and make it our own. As Nursi puts it, “A learned guide should be a sheep not a bird. A sheep gives its lamb milk, while a bird gives its chick regurgitated food.”8 Yes, we should try to digest information, and our chances of digesting it improves with continuous thought, meaningful discussions, and when we try to teach someone else, just like what happens in peer instruction.

Notes:

1.Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, The Twenty-Third Word, Fourth point, NJ, The Light: 2005, pp 331–32.

2.http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/research/detailspage.php?ed=1&rowid=8.

3.Eric Mazur, Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1997.

4.D. Meltzer, and K. Manivannan, Am. J. Phys. 70, June 2002.

5.Mark C. James, Am. J. Phys. 74, August 2006.

6.Catherine H. Crouch and Eric Mazur, Am. J. Phys. 69, September 2001.

7.T. J. Bensky, Am. J. Phys. 71, November 2003.

8.Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Letters, Seeds of Truths, NJ, The Light: 2007, pp 445-458.