Creation of a Training and Development Program for Teachers of Less Commonly Taught Languages at Brigham Young University: A Development Project

• Main Author: Merrill, Margaret
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2007
• Subjects: language teaching; language learning; teacher training; teacher education; LCTLs; Educational Psychology
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/845; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1844&context=etd

This project report discusses the design, development, and evaluation of a teacher development program for teachers of less commonly taught languages in the Center for Language Studies (CLS) at Brigham Young University. Teachers hired to teach beginning language classes in the CLS are typically very proficient in the target languages, but are not trained in language teaching. Because proficiency in a language alone does not sufficiently qualify someone to teach it, this teacher development program was created to train CLS teachers in the basics of language pedagogy. The report includes a review of relevant literature on language pedagogy and teacher training, as well as a review of other language teacher development programs. The program described here consists of a pre-service seminar, in-service workshops, and classroom observations with immediate feedback. Feedback on the program was collected from the target audience during and after each of the five semesters of implementation. Many improvements, in such elements as training topics and sample materials, resulted from that feedback and from the formative and summative feedback gathered from subject matter experts.