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Stayers And The Leavers: The Identity Of S/Fl Teachers At A Time Of Critical Shortage, Peter B. Swanson
Stayers And The Leavers: The Identity Of S/Fl Teachers At A Time Of Critical Shortage, Peter B. Swanson
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
A Survey Of The U.S. Confucius Institutes: Opportunities And Challenges In Promoting Chinese Language And Culture Education, Shuai Li, G. Richard Tucker
A Survey Of The U.S. Confucius Institutes: Opportunities And Challenges In Promoting Chinese Language And Culture Education, Shuai Li, G. Richard Tucker
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications
The Confucius Institute (CI) network is a key project in China’s recent campaign to promote Chinese language and culture education internationally. This study focused on the CIs in the United States (U.S.) and investigated their effort to achieve this goal. The re-sults of a survey questionnaire based on 24 U.S. CIs showed that these institutes primarily focused on Chinese language teaching, teacher education, academic and cultural events. Meanwhile, the areas of teaching material development, language assessment, Chinese program development and evaluation were underdeveloped. Qualitative interviews with four focal CIs further revealed that the CIs were able to adjust to their …
Measuring Language Learners’ Speaking Proficiency In A Second Language Using Economical Digital Tools, Peter B. Swanson
Measuring Language Learners’ Speaking Proficiency In A Second Language Using Economical Digital Tools, Peter B. Swanson
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications
Rising costs, combined with an increasing lack of flexibility of commercial course management technology tools such as uLearn and Blackboard, have prompted educators to consider other options. New advances in free and open source software, webware, and hardware are becoming attractive alternatives for educators and school systems due to decreased funding. These innovative digital tools hold promise to help educators overcome a variety of impediments to teaching and learning in the 21st century such as fostering student motivation. In the context of second/foreign language learning, the author seeks to present various technologies to P-16 educators that can be used for …
Spanish Teachers' Sense Of Humor And Student Performance On The National Spanish Exams, Peter B. Swanson
Spanish Teachers' Sense Of Humor And Student Performance On The National Spanish Exams, Peter B. Swanson
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications
Research suggests that second/foreign language teachers' sense of humor is directly related to many outcomes for teachers and their students. This research investigates the relationship between the perceived sense of humor of in-service Spanish teachers' (n = 102) and their students' (n = 5,419) score on the National Spanish Exams using the affective filter hypothesis as a conceptual framework. Statistical analyses indicate that Spanish teacher sense of humor is related to student achievement on the exams. This research has implications for language teachers and teacher educators.
The Recruitment Of Language Teachers At A Time Of Critical Need, Peter B. Swanson
The Recruitment Of Language Teachers At A Time Of Critical Need, Peter B. Swanson
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications
There is a shortage of Second/Foreign Language (S/FL) teachers in many parts of the world. The author presents a research-based model to recruit highly efficacious language teachers at a time of critical need. While set in the context of language teachers, the model can be easily modified for the recruitment of teachers in other content areas. This research has implications for teacher preparation faculty.
From Teacher Training Through The First Year On The Job: Changes In Foreign Language Teacher Efficacy, Peter B. Swanson
From Teacher Training Through The First Year On The Job: Changes In Foreign Language Teacher Efficacy, Peter B. Swanson
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications
For decades, there has been a shortage of language teachers in the US and other parts of the world. While teacher retirements and attrition certainly help explain the shortage, teachers’ sense of efficacy in teaching languages also plays a role, especially among novice instructors (Swanson, 2010a). The present quantitative study focuses on measuring teacher education candidates’ sense of efficacy in teaching languages at two points: near the beginning of the teacher education program and one year following program completion. Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy’s (2001) Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale and Swanson’s (2010a) Foreign Language Teacher Efficacy Scale were used to …
Water On Sand: Environmental Histories Of The Middle East And North Africa, Alan Mikhail, Ed., (Review), Ian Campbell
Water On Sand: Environmental Histories Of The Middle East And North Africa, Alan Mikhail, Ed., (Review), Ian Campbell
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
A Preliminary Investigation Of Business Chinese Teaching Among U.S. Institutions Of Higher Education, Shuai Li, Shanshan Wang, Jin Wang
A Preliminary Investigation Of Business Chinese Teaching Among U.S. Institutions Of Higher Education, Shuai Li, Shanshan Wang, Jin Wang
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications
This study examined the current practice of college-level for-credit Business Chinese (BC) teaching in the United States (U.S.). Through Internet and manual searches, we found 21 schools offering 39 BC courses. These courses were primarily offered at the advanced level with three credits. In addition, BC teaching was more commonly conducted through a sequence of two to three BC courses than through a single course. Based on interviews with representatives of four BC-course-offering schools, the qualitative part of this study examined BC teaching from a language curriculum development perspective (Brown, 1995). The qualitative data was organized and discussed in terms …