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Language Instructors Learning Together: Using Lesson Study in Higher Education

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Foreign Language Proficiency in Higher Education

Part of the book series: Educational Linguistics ((EDUL,volume 37))

Abstract

The post 9/11 context brought a heightened awareness of the critical need to develop translingual and transcultural competence in language learners. This chapter takes up the question of what role—and what form—professional development for language instructors can take in the overall task of increasing students’ language proficiency levels. It details a qualitative, interventionist study which examined how participation in an inquiry group mediated the conceptual development of three world language instructors in higher education. The study is framed by both activity theory, which informs an understanding of the inquiry group’s situatedness in their sociocultural-historical context, and microinteractional analysis, which allows a view into how the turn-by-turn construction of meaning in the inquiry group created affordances for teacher inquiry. The findings of this study support the view that a combination of periodic workshops and sustained instructional inquiry groups can be particularly effective in promoting teacher conceptual development.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The symbol £ indicates laughter while talking (as distinct from laughter apart from words). Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an Introduction. In G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation Analysis: Studies from the first generation (pp. 13-23). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

  2. 2.

    In this case, I coded for Turn Relevant Places (TRP). A TRP marks the place where it would be acceptable for a speaker change to take place. It is marked in the transcripts as ∣

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Woodring College of Education, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

    Beth Dillard

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  1. Beth Dillard
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Correspondence to Beth Dillard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Second Language Studies Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Paula Winke  & Susan M. Gass  & 

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Dillard, B. (2019). Language Instructors Learning Together: Using Lesson Study in Higher Education. In: Winke, P., Gass, S.M. (eds) Foreign Language Proficiency in Higher Education. Educational Linguistics, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01006-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01006-5_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01005-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01006-5

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