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AT MANY universities foreign language methodologists face incomprehension or worse. At crucial junctures such as contract renewal, tenure, and promotion the course of their careers may be determined by the decisions of faculty members and administrators who simply do not understand or value foreign language methodology as an academic discipline. A relatively small group, those whose primary research interest is in developing techniques and approaches that enhance language teaching may feel isolated and slighted. The greatest rewards seem to go to literary scholarship while the bulk of the day-to-day work centers on teaching language.
Conversely, literary specialists may be perplexed by their methodologist colleagues. While they may be sympathetic to individual methodologists, they may find it intellectually difficult to equate a treatise on the teaching of listening comprehension with a study of a literary text. Most likely, they do not know what being a methodologist entails. They may not be aware of the inherent similarities to their own work or of the differences from it.
A description of what foreign language methodologists do is clearly needed. Such a depiction would be useful to language and literary specialists alike. It could enable the methodologist to educate colleagues and bolster individual cases. It could provide the literature scholar with the background necessary to clarify misperceptions and make informed choices. Fortunately, the work of the methodologist can be described in terms that will be comprehensible to the nonspecialist. The model that follows is intended to do just that.
1. Methodologists make intellectual contributions. Among their ranks are academics who propose, evaluate, defend, and debunk entire theories of instruction, each based on a competing view of how languages are learned. The supporters of audiolingualism, for example, recognize the centrality of the stimulus-response mechanism. Those who favor understanding at the cognitive level stress the importance of rule-governed behavior and a more general knowledge of how the target language works. Proponents of the newer interactive methods see the need for a collaborative process based on extensive communication among learners.
Others, only slightly less ambitious, investigate how concepts found in “frame” and “schema” theory, research into creativity, and other areas of cognitive science can be applied to language teaching. Insights from linguistics, particularly in the field of discourse analysis, have been rapidly developed into new ways of teaching conversation management. Research into writing strategies has altered the way foreign language composition is taught. Even literary studies, especially in the area of genre, have triggered changes in how literature is taught in the language classroom.
Methodologists use the classroom as their workshop. There they accumulate empirical evidence to establish or destroy theory. There, too, they must find solutions to immediate problems such as syllabus design, small-group dynamics, difficult points of grammar, faulty pronunciation, and appropriate testing procedures. Methodologists experiment, evaluate results, and try again. When they have gathered, checked, and rechecked enough material, they write up the findings and submit their reports for publication.
Writing in methodology is subject to a rigorous review process. Articles and book reviews appear in widely read, refereed journals like Modern Language Journal, Foreign Language Annals, and the Canadian Modem Language Review. Cambridge University Press, Newbury-Harper, the University of Chicago Press, and Heinle and Heinle are among the major houses that publish methodological texts. Each year produces a few breakthrough works to which the entire field must respond. The best of these is honored by the MLA's Kenneth W. Mildenberger Medal.
2. Methodologists deal with a field that is continually changing. Their research is done not in a vacuum but, rather, a part of an evolving discipline. The bibliography is large and constantly growing. Private communication between researchers is constant and intense. For instance, practitioners from all over the country have coordinated their efforts to create the ACTFL-sponsored Proficiency Movement.
Developments in parallel fields such as the teaching of English as a second language and the teaching of writing directly influence innovations in foreign language methods. As in other academic disciplines, disagreements and even polemics occur, with methodologists rushing to join one camp or another.
3. Methodologists are aware of recent developments in related disciplines like applied linguistics, speech communication, anthropology, and cognitive science. The importance of linguistics may seem obvious, but the connections with the other fields can be just as crucial. Methodologists work in an interdisciplinary environment. Anthropological field research, artificial intelligence, and even oral interpretation all have their relevance. More and more often, methodologists collaborate as equals with specialists from other disciplines. They pool their efforts, for example, with psychologists who study group processes and with speech-communication specialists who investigate the intercultural dimensions of proxemics and turn-taking behavior. The increasing use of the computer and videodisc as adjuncts to classroom instruction has meant that many methodologists have become highly skilled course-ware developers.
4. Methodologists produce ideas that have direct, practical, and verifiable applications. Methodological writings must convince and even incite. The strategies they describe are meant to be used in other people's classrooms. Hence, teachers must be convinced that the suggestions will work for them. To be persuasive, methodologists must make their case and present evidence that the new procedures have been tested. Whenever possible, they supplement anecdotal support with classroom-centered research.
5. Methodologists often write textbooks that, as an outgrowth of their research, constitute an important part of their creative work. And these days the term textbook has come to include audio and video programs, language-laboratory materials, computer-assisted language learning (CALL), and many other types of ancillary aids. The evaluation of these “text-books” is made difficult because many are the result of group effort and aggressive editing. Nevertheless, textbooks (or even sections of them) are a logical extension of theoretical work. Broad pedagogical concerns are discussed and then developed through coordinated classroom exercises. In their textbooks, methodologists can make their ideas directly available to hundreds of teachers and thousands of students. While it is very difficult to prove that students learn better or faster with one book than another, it is possible to gather testimonials from teachers and to evaluate students' responses statistically.
6. Methodologists are excellent teachers who practice what they preach. This point would seem self-evident. While they may not win highest ratings every semester, their overall performances, judged by peer and student review, are usually far above average. Typically they are also interested in curricular innovation and program development — in particular, in interdisciplinary and special-purpose courses.
7. Methodologists are teachers of teachers, leaders in the profession. A major way in which their jobs differ from those of other academics is the amount of time spent informing and training colleagues. Methodologists speak regularly at local, state, and national conferences; their presentations and workshops often go on for an hour or more. They give guest lectures at meetings of related organizations like TESOL, SIETAR, NAFSA, and ASTD. Methodologists tend to be active in foreign language teacher organizations. They serve on the boards of ACTFL and the AATs and play leading roles in the Academic Alliances' foreign language collaboratives. Working regularly with high school teachers, methodologists serve as judges for the Rockefeller grants competition and as consultants to the College Board's Students at Risk program. They write reviews for professional journals and for publishers and thereby influence the next generation of textbooks.
On their own campuses, methodologists train undergraduate teacher trainees and graduate teaching assistants. Some are supervisors or coordinators of language programs; others direct programs abroad or language houses. They bring in grant money from state sources as well as from the US Department of Education. While participating in college- and university-wide committees, especially those dealing with curriculum, reaccreditation, and the evaluation of teaching, they make other faculty members aware of their expertise and may form bonds with colleagues outside foreign languages who share their values. Often, methodologists become departmental publicists, recruiters, and chief student advisers, enduring endless open houses and dorm get-togethers for the cause. Each of these activities, time-consuming in itself, forms a fraction of the methodologist's total endeavor.
Foreign language methodologists, at their best, are practical philosophers who identify problems and concoct solutions that must work for other people. They must be able to filter their intuitions of what might work through a lens of empirically obtained findings. They must be able to absorb material from many different sources and then decide what is possible in any foreign language classroom, not just their own. Moreover, they belong to a field that is international in scope, highly organized, and constantly reassessing itself. There are specialists and generalists, titans and neophytes. While methodologists may feel a missionary zeal about their work, they rarely try to impose their views on others. Better understood by their colleagues, they can make an even greater contribution to their departments and universities.
The author is Associate Professor of Spanish at Northeastern University.
© 1989 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
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