Facilitating Pre-Service ESOL Teachers’ Understanding of Language Proficiency Pedagogy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63084/cognexus.v2i2.261Keywords:
Second Language Acquisition, teacher education, educator preparation, proficiency, TESOLAbstract
This article reviews an exploratory study intended to determine the contribution of a course unit on L2 proficiency on prospective ESOL teachers’ views concerning the language acquisition process. Although many educator preparation programs are structured to equip current/future language teachers with the dispositions and skills needed to promote the development of their students’ language competency, fewer studies have investigated the contribution of such training on their perspectives regarding L2 proficiency; the current study thus aims to fill this gap in the current literature. The article begins with an exploration of the concept of proficiency and moves to an examination of previous studies which have attempted to document ESOL teacher candidates’ beliefs about language learning and teaching via the teacher version of the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (Horwitz, 1985). The article then describes the logistics of the course unit on L2 proficiency and the data collection and analysis procedures for the study. Participants included pre-service primary-education teachers enrolled in a TESOL methodology course offered at a four-year postsecondary institution located in the southeastern United States. Data for the study were collected via a pre- and post-questionnaire that included statements from the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory; these data were subsequently analyzed via descriptive statistics. Preliminary findings emerging from the study indicate that the course unit made a substantially positive contribution to participants’ emerging beliefs about the importance of advancing multilingual learners’ language proficiency and provided them with a range of useful strategies and techniques for doing so.
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