Foreign Language Pedagogical Knowledge: Toward a Developmental Theory of Beginning Teacher Practices

This longitudinal study focuses on how pedagogical content knowledge is initially represented and changes during the beginning teaching experiences of 9 teachers of French, German, and Spanish. The data consist of reflective journal entries, classroom observations, and focus group interviews collected during the first 2 years of foreign language (FL) teaching at the high school level. Techniques of grounded theory analysis were used to develop a theoretical framework comprehensive to the data. Four core categories—prior knowledge that frames instructional decisions, attitudes toward teacher control in the classroom, instructional goals for daily lessons, and considerations for responding to student affect—were identified to explain overarching change in foreign language pedagogical content knowledge. The results support the proposition that approaches to instruction, such as communicative language teaching, and their related theoretical underpinnings in language learning, develop as pedagogical content knowledge through a process of teaching, conflict, reflection, and resolution specific to the in-service classroom context. Similar to research findings in other subject disciplines, the instructional practices of beginning FL teachers may initially be considered traditional, outdated, or even antithetical to their preservice preparation as control over students and the instructional content serve as a proxy for perceptions of successful teaching. Professional development of beginning teachers must support the ongoing transformation of pedagogical content knowledge in order to ensure that these early characteristics do not become lasting traits in long-term teaching careers.