In her paper, Burke questions whether top-down proficiency mandates will positively impact teacher practice. Her main argument is the following: The requirement that foreign language (FL) teachers demonstrate an advanced level of proficiency does not guarantee that they will be more effective K-12 FL teachers; on this point, the author agrees with…

The issue of high-stakes testing for teachers has been a debated topic in the larger educational arena for some time now and certainly has the potential to spark a lively argument by language professionals in this "Modern Language Journal (MLJ) Perspectives" venue. In his popular text, "A Rulebook for Arguments" (2009), Weston…

Brigid Burke is the program coordinator of World Language Education at her university, which is housed in the College of Education and Human Development. Since obtaining this position 4 years ago, she has become most concerned about certain recommendations that were made by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in 2002,…

In this article the author asserts that learning is about personal growth and enrichment, and at its core it is not about career determinations. Good teachers nurture their students; they encourage them to pursue their dreams, and they find ways to stimulate curiosity and dedication to lifelong learning. They do not become teachers because of…

Bridid M. Burke poses an interesting question: Is requiring high-stakes language proficiency tests really going to improve world language education? In her article, Dr. Burke shares testimonials from "several promising student teachers" [whose] dreams of being French, German, or Spanish teachers [were] crushed" based on not…

Vygotsky's work on the acquisition of foreign language words has been criticized for lacking a formal view of language as a system and for taking little interest in questions such as the route and rate of language acquisition. We argue that word meanings really do not constitute a formal system, either in the way they develop, or in the way they…

This article reports on research that questions commonsense understandings of a bilingual pedagogy predicated on what Cummins refers to as the "two solitudes" assumption. It sets out to describe a flexible bilingual approach to language teaching and learning in Chinese and Gujarati community language schools in the United Kingdom. We argue for a…

Constructionist approaches to language hypothesize that grammar can be learned from the input using domain-general mechanisms. This emphasis has engendered a great deal of research--exemplified in the present issue--that seeks to illuminate the ways in which input-related factors can both drive and constrain constructional acquisition. In this…

This article argues for the crucial role of alignment in second language acquisition, as conceptualized from a broadly sociocognitive perspective. By "alignment," we mean the complex processes through which human beings effect coordinated interaction, both with other human beings and (usually human-engineered) environments, situations, tools, and…

This article begins with a review of second language acquisition research leading up to the 1997 article by Firth and Wagner. We argue that the Firth and Wagner article did not represent a new direction, but rather continued a type of argumentation that was already prevalent in the field at the time of the 1997 publication. We identify 3 issues as…

This article argues for a reconceptualization of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research that would enlarge the ontological and empirical parameters of the field. We claim that methodologies, theories, and foci within SLA reflect an imbalance between cognitive and mentalistic orientations, and social and contextual orientations to language, the…

Firth and Wagner's (1997) call for a more socially and contextually situated view of second language acquisition (SLA) research has generated a great deal of discussion and debate, a summary of which is offered in this reflective commentary. Given the individualistic, cognitive origin of the SLA field, such controversy is entirely understandable.…

Correction and repair as components of an instructional practice that facilitates learning have figured prominently in research on classroom-based second and foreign language learning. Recent studies incorporating a conversation analytic (CA) perspective on second language acquisition (SLA) have also focused on repair and correction. From a CA…

In foreign language education where culture has been integrated as a core curricular component, a "categorical approach" to the concept of culture has been the mainstay. Depending on the orientation of the times, academic debate has been focused on what category of culture should be emphasized in the second language classroom. "Behavioral culture"…

Exploratory Practice (EP) has been developed over the last 15 or so years as an approach to practitioner research that is devoted to understanding the quality of language classroom life. It started in reaction both to academic classroom research and to Action Research, the practitioner research model most in vogue at that time in our field. At…