Context and purpose
This study is an evaluation of a unique California foreign language teacher recruitment program, the Summer Seminar in Foreign Language Teaching. The Seminar is collaboratively sponsored by the California Language Teachers Association (CLTA), the California Foreign Language Project (CFLP), and the California State University Foreign Language Council (CSUFLC). In operation since 1991, the program expands the role of its sponsoring professional development associations by using their professional socialization techniques to actively recruit and mold a qualified future foreign language teaching workforce that is representative of California's diverse student body population. Each year the program admits approximately 25 students a year from California college/university foreign language departments to participate in its week-long Seminar. Prior to this study, formative evaluations had been conducted with each year's cohort, but no assessment of the ultimate career decisions nor of the long-term impact of the program on its participants had been carried out. The need for evaluation was further compounded by the discovery that very little evaluation of foreign language teacher recruitment programs in general could be found in the literature.
The work of the Seminar's sponsoring associations is particularly timely, given that many in this country are touting the importance of learning a foreign language in light of today's multicultural society and the U.S.'s increasingly ethnic population. In fact, the number of students studying foreign languages at all educational levels has increased to higher proportions than have been seen since 1928 (Draper & Hicks, 1994). These increased student enrollments have led to a critical shortage of foreign language teachers, particularly within the state the California. A variety of efforts have been made to confront the teacher shortage specifically within California, including state government, college/university, and private agency programs such as alternative certification procedures, financial incentives, importation of overseas teachers, and distance learning technology. However, with the exception of the Seminar, the use of professional associations as foreign language teacher recruitment vehicles appears to have remained an untapped resource.
In addition to providing another avenue for teacher recruitment, the use of foreign language professional associations is important in that it provides opportunities for potential teachers both to interact with other professionals and possible mentors and to identify with these individuals-aspects which are key to successfully becoming a member of a profession and to increasing the longevity of a person's involvement in a profession such as teaching (Lortie, 1959; Darling-Hammond, 1994). Typically, these types of interactions are rare for foreign language teachers, given the fact that they typically work in isolation from one another (Hammadou & Bernhardt, 1987; Sadow, 1996). There was, therefore, a need for a model program that would contribute not only to the long-term resolution of the critical teacher shortage, but also to the need for greater professional development for foreign language teachers.
Survey respondents
One hundred eighty-three people were invited to participate in this study, representing all students that attended one of the Seminars held from its inception in 1991 to the most recent seminar in 1998. Ninety-five respondents returned a completed survey, yielding a considerably high 52% response rate. The survey consisted of 62 primarily closed-ended items.
While respondents were a diverse group, the profile of a typical survey respondent could be described as a Caucasian or Hispanic female who attended the Seminar within the past 4 years. This attendance would have occurred during one of two primary periods-either while completing a degree program in her early to mid-twenties or during a return to school during her forties, possibly in search of a career change or the start of (or return to) a career after raising a family. This woman would now possess a bachelor's degree and possibly be currently pursuing or already in possession of a master's degree and/or a teaching credential. It should be noted that survey respondents were representative of the larger pool of Seminar attendants.
As will be discussed below, virtually all of the study's 95 respondents were classified into one of three groups-current, former, or potential teachers.
Current teacher profile
Forty-six of the study's 95 respondents obtained a career position in the field of language education following the Seminar. Seventy-four percent (N=34) were teaching foreign languages exclusively. Thirteen percent (N=6) were teaching bilingual/ESL only, and 14% (N=6) both foreign language and bilingual/ESL. Eighty-five percent (N=39) of those currently in the field were teachers; two respectively were aides or directors/department heads; one was a coordinator, and one was self-employed.
All current teachers were working in the state of California, and the length of their teaching careers ranged from 1 to 23 years. Nearly half (46%, N=21) of all current teachers had been in the field for three years or less, and the median number of years experience was 4. The estimated average age of current teachers was 36.
Current teacher respondents also represented a wide range of educational backgrounds, but all had at least a bachelor's degree. Current teachers also reported being active in continuing their education. Forty-one percent (N=19) reported enrollment in some type of degree and/or credential program on a part-time basis. Master's degree programs were the most commonly reported.
In addition to recruiting a qualified group of teachers, the Seminar was also successful in creating an ethnically diverse teaching population. Nearly half of all survey respondents were minorities (primarily Hispanics and Asians), and teachers entered the field in proportion to their ethnic backgrounds. Most importantly, the ethnic breakdown of teacher respondents closely mirrored the ethnic breakdown of California's student body population, which is roughly 40% Caucasian, 40% Hispanic, 8% Asian, 8% Black, and 4% Other (SRI International, 1998).
Current teachers reported working in a variety of educational settings, including elementary, middle, and high schools, community colleges, colleges/universities, and Saturday schools. The majority, however, still taught in the high school setting. While current teacher respondents reported teaching a variety of skill levels, most taught at the beginning level. Consistent with national data, Spanish (67%, N=31) and French (37%, N=17) were the two most commonly taught languages of respondents (Branaman & Rhodes, 1997). Twenty percent (N=9) of current teachers reported ESL as a language they taught. Other languages reported were German (9%, N=4), Japanese (2%, N=1), Lithuanian (2%, N=1), and Hmong (2%, N=1). Thirty-nine percent (N=18) of all current teachers reported teaching more than one language. Consistent with the emphasis of the sponsoring associations, 91% (N=42) of all current teachers reported that their primary pedagogical orientation was to teach students to function appropriately in the target language in various settings and with a variety of people.
Seventy-six percent (N=35) of current teachers reported attending a professional development function at least once a year, and new teachers were nearly just as likely as experienced teachers to participate. The professional development activity most current teachers participated in within the last year was a CLTA function (46%, N=21), followed by county office-sponsored programs (17%, N=8) and CFLP functions (11%, N=5). The two leadership roles most commonly reported by current teachers were mentor teacher (15%, N=7) and foreign/heritage language curriculum advisor (11%, N=5). The number of minority respondents (N=9) and non-minorities respondents (N=11) who assumed leadership roles was nearly proportionately equivalent.
Former teacher profile
Eight respondents who had obtained career positions in language education following the Seminar had since left the field. No one particular age, ethnicity, or target language group appeared to be leaving the field in disproportionate numbers, though there was evidence that males may be more likely to leave, and both genders tended to leave within the first three years of teaching. No consistent answer was provided by the 8 respondents who had left the field since attending the Seminar, though insufficient compensation was a frequently cited criticism of the field. Three of the 8 former language teachers reported still attending a professional development function at least once a year, while half reported never attending such events.
Overlap with other areas of language education
Among the 54 current and former teacher respondents, twenty-two percent (N=12) had at some point in their careers taught at least one ESL class. Seventeen percent (N=9) had at some point in their careers taught a bilingual or immersion class, and 19% (N=10) reported experience with heritage language teaching. Of all current teacher respondents involved to any degree in traditional foreign language education, one third (N=13) were also involved in ESL and/or heritage language teaching. These facts highlight a fundamental strength of this study-the inclusion of respondents' involvement in other areas of language teaching, specifically bilingual/immersion, ESL, and heritage language instruction, in the findings. Without incorporating these elements, a complete picture of the professional experiences of the study's foreign language teacher respondents would not have been painted and recommendations for those associations that work with this population would have been narrow and lacking in breadth.
Potential teacher profile
Of the 41 respondents who had not obtained a career position, only 3 reported that entering the field of language education was no longer a possibility for them. Various reasons were provided. The remaining 38 respondents reported that a career in language education was still a possibility and were thus classified as "potential" teachers.
Potential teachers were divided into three groups. The first were those who are involved in some manner in language education. Sixty-six percent (N=25) of potential language teachers fell into this group. The majority of respondents in this category, 88% (N= 22), were still full-time students. Nearly half were enrolled in a credential, emphasis/specialized credential, and/or a master's program, and 8 were in undergraduate programs. The second group of potential teachers, 16% (N=6) of potential teachers, reported currently working in an area unrelated to language teaching. The final 18% (N=7) of prospective teachers did not indicate (and it was not clear through their other responses) whether or not their current occupation was related to language teaching.
The types of languages listed by the 38 potential teachers followed generally the same pattern as current teachers. One way the prospective teachers' languages did differ from the current teachers' lists, however, was in the presence of Italian, which tied with ESL with 21% (N=8) of the 38 potential teachers listing it as a language they planned to teach. This substantial rise in the number of Italian teachers was indicative of collaborative efforts on the part of the sponsoring associations with the Instituto Italiano de Cultura and other Italian government cultural centers. Therefore, while clearly these high proportions of Italian speakers were not a reflection of the entire prospective language teaching force, they were an indication of the success of resurgence efforts by these associations of Italian as a target language.
Although potential teacher respondents' answers were more diverse than other groups', the majority (63%, N=26) of prospective teachers wanted primarily to teach students how to function appropriately in the target language in various settings and with a variety of people, as did the current and former teacher respondents. Thirty-four percent (N=13) of prospective teachers reported attending a professional development function at least once a year, as compared to 76% (N=35) of current teachers.
Composite language profile of current, former, and potential teachers
Spanish was the language most frequently listed by the 92 current, former, and potential teachers, with 66% (N=61) of these respondents reporting that Spanish was a language they respectively teach, taught, or plan to teach. Following Spanish was French with 37% (N=34), ESL with 22% (N=20), Italian with 9% (N=8), and German with 8% (N=7). Spanish and French were the two languages respondents were most likely to report as primary target languages, while ESL and Italian were most likely to be a secondary language. The most popular combinations for those listing two languages were Spanish/ESL (36%, N=16), Spanish/French (25%, N=11), French/Italian (9%, N=4), and Spanish/Italian (7%, N=3).
The most common methods current, former, and potential teachers reported using to acquire their target languages were classroom instruction, followed by being a native speaker. The language with the greatest proportion of native-speaking current, former, and potential teachers was Spanish, with 56% (N=34) having learned the language natively. Of interest, only 55% (N=11) of respondents who teach ESL reported to be native speakers of English.
After listing up to two target languages, current, former, and potential teachers were asked to rate separately their receptive and productive skills in the target language(s) they reported using the ACTFL scale. Each of the average scores for the first language listed reflected a higher level of proficiency than the second language listed.
Those respondents listing Spanish had collectively the best receptive proficiency score (1.32 on a 4-point scale), while German speakers had the best average proficiency level both in productive skills and across all skill levels (1.43 for both categories). Italian had the lowest proficiency scores across all three categories, likely due to the fact that many of those reporting Italian as a target language were just beginning to study it.
Long-term impact of the Seminar
As many respondents had had years of professional history since the Seminar, the survey sought to gauge the full long-term impact of the Seminar and to explain how it fit within the context of other factors encountered along Seminar attendants' career paths. Twenty of the study's survey items prompted respondents to provide their long-term impressions of the Seminar by using a 4-point scale. Various aspects of the Seminar were grouped into four broad categories and the percentage of respondents who evaluated the Seminar favorably in each area was calculated. The four groups and their satisfaction ratings were as follows: 1) provision of career guidance/motivation and validation of respondent's career choice (89% respondent satisfaction), 2) dissemination of detailed information about the profession and its members (86%), 3) interaction with professionals and the establishment of a professional identity (81%), and 4) establishment of stronger connections to members of the profession that have had personal impact (82%). Most respondents, in other words, found the Seminar to be a useful introduction to the field of foreign language teaching and useful in identifying their strengths, channeling their skills into the field, and helping them to understand more thoroughly and accurately the role of the foreign language professional.
Respondents belonging to minority groups evaluated the Seminar equivalently to non-minority participants, but did rate the Seminar more favorably than non-minorities in the following areas: its ability to increase participants' motivation, to help participants visualize themselves as foreign language teachers, and to paint an accurate picture of the role of an foreign language teacher.
Open-ended responses to survey items revealed that while the Seminar was the determining factor in the career decisions of a small number of respondents, the majority of respondents (N=76) said that they had been at least fairly certain about pursuing language education as a career prior to their attendance at the Seminar, but that the Seminar played an important role in reaffirming their decision.
From respondents' remarks to the open-ended questions, five primary contributions of the Seminar were identified. These contributions were as follows: the Seminar's provision of useful and easily implemented teaching methods and techniques, its facilitation of interactions and the valuable contact that occurred as a result between the respondents and current teachers, its ability to provide/boost confidence in respondents concerning their abilities to be successful as a foreign language teacher, its instructors' enthusiasm and the message they sent that foreign language education could be entertaining and rewarding, and its success in increasing participants' motivation.
In addition to a limited number of respondents who reported that the Seminar had no impact on their career decisions, two specific criticisms were directed toward the Seminar. Two respondents reported that there was not enough opportunity to interact with current teachers, and one respondent felt that too much information was presented in a relatively short period of time.
Success of the Seminar/Recommendations
Teacher shortage
In summary, this study addresses three primary concerns in foreign language education. The problem at the core is the declaration of California as a state in which there is a critical shortage of foreign language teachers (SRI International, 1998). The findings of the study revealed the success of the Seminar in contributing toward the production of a group of qualified current and future language teachers. Nearly 80% of the study's respondents had been involved in language education in some manner (e.g., serving in a career position, enrolled in a related program, or contributing through a volunteer position) since attending the Seminar, and nearly 50% of respondents currently held career positions in language education, the majority of which were exclusively foreign language teaching positions. Most respondents without career positions were still full-time students from the 2 most recent cohorts. Using the broadest definition of the program's success-that is, to include respondents reporting to be current teachers, prospective teachers (regardless of whether they were currently involved in the field), and former teachers who would consider returning to the field-the Seminar had a 95% success rate in effectively addressing this first issue. It should be noted that not only was the Seminar successful in its contribution of a qualified pool of language teachers, but the commitment of these teachers was evidenced by the fact that over 80% of those who entered the field following the Seminar had remained. Additionally, while there was some shifting occurring between the areas of language education in which respondents hold career positions, these shifts generally had been toward foreign language positions as opposed exclusively to bilingual and/or ESL positions.
Diversity of new teachers
The second issued addressed in this study was the need for new foreign language teachers to be representative of the diverse student populations found in California's multi-ethnic, multi-racial schools. The ethnicities of recruited teachers closely mirrored those of the state's students.
Need for improved professional development
As evidenced by the overlap between foreign language teachers and other areas of language education, the field of foreign language education is in flux, and there is even more divergence now than ever among the foreign language teaching profession. These factors clearly called for more activities with a professional development component to create a community among language educators from the very start of their careers, the third and final primary focus of this evaluation.
Ninety-five percent of respondents reported a favorable response to the statement "The Summer Seminar instilled in me the need for professional growth and the development of pedagogical skills in foreign language education", earning this item the highest satisfaction rating of all survey items and the distinction of being the only item to be rated identically by both minority and non-minority respondents. Additionally, three quarters of all current and one third of all potential teachers reported attending professional development activities at least once a year.
Finally, the number of current and prospective teachers who are actively pursuing additional credentials and degrees is also indicative of respondents' desire to enhance their professional development and pedagogical skills.
Recommendations
There is a need for further summative evaluation of the Seminar in coming years. Contacting Seminar attendants' to verify address information periodically would likely contribute to higher response rates in future evaluations. A second recommendation for the sponsoring associations is to attempt to increase the overlap between the potential teacher and current teacher strands at the Seminar. Potential teachers have reported feeling isolated from the larger group, and some have expressed disappointment in the level of interactions that were possible between the two groups.
The Summer Seminar in Foreign Language Teaching has established itself as a successful recruitment program and vehicle for professional development of future foreign language teachers. The changing face of foreign language education calls for more programs to emulate the success of the sponsoring associations and to use the Summer Seminar in Foreign Language Teaching as their model for the professionalization, socialization, and integration of tomorrow's foreign language teachers.
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