Research "Fitting" Practice: Firth and Wagner, Classroom Language Teaching, and Language Teacher Education

This article argues that Firth and Wagner's 1997 contribution gained influence in second/foreign language teaching partly owing to a loose group of conceptual and ideological preconditions that drew on classroom methodologies, debates over educating second language teachers, and new views of how teachers could document and analyze their own practices. The article is organized around four issues drawn from Firth and Wagner: focus (How was classroom language teaching refocused by their critique?); meaning (What is the nature of meaning as the central driver in instructed learning?); locus (Given the preceding questions, how then does the locus of activity in the language classroom shift?); and identities (How are the notions of learner and teacher identities reshaped by this critique?). The discussion draws connections between the thinking articulated by Firth and Wagner and the practices of classroom language teaching, and includes suppositions that are susceptible to further investigation.

[1]  Amy B. M. Tsui.  Understanding expertise in teaching , 2003 .

[2]  Constance C. Gerger.  Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses. , 1993 .

[3]  Richard G. Kern.  Students' and Teachers' Beliefs About Language Learning , 1995 .

[4]  D. Freeman.  Teaching and Learning in ‘The Age of Reform’: The Problem of the Verb , 2006 .

[5]  Sarah Elisabeth Rilling,et al.  Understanding Communication in Second Language Classrooms , 1996 .

[6]  Henry A. Giroux,et al.  Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning , 1988 .

[7]  S. Krashen.  Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning , 1988 .

[8]  Michael J. Reddy.  Metaphor and Thought: The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language , 1993 .

[9]  D. Allwright.  Six Promising Directions in Applied Linguistics , 2006 .

[10]  Robert V. Bullough,et al.  First Year Teacher: A Case Study , 1989 .

[11]  Freema Elbaz,et al.  Teacher Thinking , 2018 .

[12]  Richard J. Shavelson,et al.  Research on Teachers’ Pedagogical Thoughts, Judgments, Decisions, and Behavior , 1981 .

[13]  Ferdinand de Saussure.  Course in General Linguistics , 1916 .

[14]  Paula Golombek.  A Study of Language Teachers' Personal Practical Knowledge , 1998 .

[15]  C. Gattegno.  The Common Sense of Teaching Foreign Languages , 1976 .

[16]  H. Brown.  Principles of language learning and teaching , 1981 .

[17]  Innovative approaches to language teaching , 1982 .

[18]  S. Borg.  Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do , 2003, Language Teaching.

[19]  B. Norton,et al.  Imagined Communities and Educational Possibilities: Introduction , 2003 .

[20]  R. Yates,et al.  On Reconceptualizing Teacher Education , 2003 .

[21]  S. Katz,et al.  Toward an Understanding of the Role of Applied Linguists in Foreign Language Departments. , 2005 .

[22]  Michael H. Long,et al.  An introduction to second language acquisition research , 1990 .

[23]  S. Borg.  Experience, Knowledge about Language and Classroom Practice in Teaching Grammar , 2005 .

[24]  Thomas A. Sebeok,et al.  Style in language , 1962 .

[25]  David B. Tyack,et al.  Why Do Women Teach and Men Manage? A Report on Research on Schools , 1980, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

[26]  J. Gee.  Social Linguistics And Literacies: Ideology in Discourse , 1996 .

[27]  Michael H. Long,et al.  Classroom Oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition , 1985 .

[28]  T. Sebeok,et al.  Style in language , 1962 .

[29]  D. Freeman.  The hidden side of the work: Teacher knowledge and learning to teach. A perspective from north American educational research on teacher education in English language teaching , 2002, Language Teaching.

[30]  Johannes Wagner,et al.  SLA PROPERTY: NO TRESPASSING , 1998 .

[31]  M. Clarke.  The Dysfunctions of the Theory/ Practice Discourse , 1994 .

[32]  Courtney B. Cazden,et al.  Classroom Discourse: The Language of Teaching and Learning. Second Edition. , 2001 .

[33]  Karen E. Johnson,et al.  Reconceptualizing the Knowledge-Base of Language Teacher Education , 1998 .

[34]  A phenomenological approach to classroom decision‐making , 1977 .

[35]  Ulrich Ammon,et al.  David Graddol. English Next. Why global English may mean the end of ‘English as a Foreign Language.’ , 2008 .

[36]  Noam Chomsky.  Review of B.F. Skinner, Verbal Behavior , 1959 .

[37]  David Nunan,et al.  Understanding Language Classrooms: A Guide for Teacher-Initiated Action , 1990 .

[38]  Jack C. Richards,et al.  Second Language Teacher Education , 2009 .

[39]  Mary M. Kennedy,et al.  The Connection Between Research and Practice , 1997 .

[40]  Kenneth M. Zeichner,et al.  The New Scholarship in Teacher Education , 1999 .

[41]  A. Firth,et al.  On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in SLA Research , 1997 .

[42]  Penelope L. Peterson,et al.  Teachers' Thought Processes. Occasional Paper No. 72. , 1984 .

[43]  E. Bernat,et al.  Beliefs about Language Learning: Current Knowledge, Pedagogical Implications, and New Research Directions. , 2005 .

[44]  Péter Medgyes.  Native or non-native: who's worth more? , 1992 .

[45]  H. Frey,et al.  25 Centuries of Language Teaching , 1971 .

[46]  Charles Arthur Curran.  Counseling-learning in second languages , 1976 .

[47]  Jack C. Richards,et al.  Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching , 2001 .

[48]  Robert Keith Johnson,et al.  The Second Language Curriculum: Index , 1989 .

[49]  D. Berliner.  In Pursuit of the Expert Pedagogue , 1986 .

[50]  Mary M. Kennedy.  An Agenda for Research on Teacher Learning. NCRTL Special Report. , 1991 .

[51]  Earl W. Stevick,et al.  Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways , 1981 .

[52]  Georgi Lozanov,et al.  The Foreign Language Teacher's Suggestopedic Manual , 1988 .

[53]  B. Mclaughlin.  Theories of second-language learning , 1987 .

[54]  Gilbert A. Jarvis,et al.  Principles of Language Learning and Teaching , 2nd ed. H. Douglas Brown. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987. Pp. xvi + 285. , 1988, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[55]  L. Ortega.  For What and for Whom Is Our Research? The Ethical as Transformative Lens in Instructed SLA , 2005 .

[56]  R. Kleinsasser.  A Tale of Two Technical Cultures: Foreign Language Teaching. , 1993 .

[57]  D. Freeman.  Doing Teacher Research: From Inquiry to Understanding , 1998 .

[58]  B. Kachuck.  Comment on Strober and Tyack's "Why Do Women Teach and Men Manage?" , 1981, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

[59]  Karen E. Johnson.  The Role of Theory in L2 Teacher Education , 1996 .

[60]  J. Richards,et al.  Teacher learning in language teaching=语言教学中的教师进修 , 1996 .

[61]  Paul W. Richardson.  The culture of education , 1996 .

[62]  Elsa Tragant,et al.  Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms , 1996 .

[63]  Roland Sussex,et al.  QQ+concordance: an analysis tool for text research , 2006 .

[64]  U. Ammon.  English Next. Why global English may mean the end of 'English as a Foreign Language.' , 2008 .

[65]  L. Shulman.  Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform , 1987 .

[66]  G. Perren,et al.  The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics , 1980 .

[67]  Marilyn Cochran-Smith,et al.  Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge , 1993 .

[68]  Jack C. Richards,et al.  Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms: Epilogue , 1994 .

[69]  S. Tseng.  Beliefs about Language Learning , 2007 .

[70]  Stephen Krashen,et al.  The Natural Approach , 1983 .

[71]  H. Douglas Brown,et al.  Training Foreign Language Teachers: A Reflective Approach , 1994 .

[72]  J. Calderhead.  Exploring teachers' thinking , 1987 .

[73]  D. J. Tedick.  Second Language Teacher Education: International Perspectives , 2004 .

[74]  Karen E. Johnson.  Understanding Language Teaching: Reasoning in Action , 1999 .

[75]  B. Johnston.  Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education , 1998 .