Pamela M. Wesely

Investigating the Community of Practice of World Language Educators on Twitter

This study investigated how an online community of teachers engaged in professional development using collaborative Web (Web 2.0) technologies. This community of practice (CoP) consisted of world language (WL) teachers using the microblogging platform, Twitter. The study approached teacher learning from a sociocultural perspective. Its central questions were as follows: What are the characteristics of this CoP of WL educators on Twitter? How do those characteristics relate to or reflect teacher learning? With a qualitative, netnographic approach, data sources included over a year of participant observation, nine interviews with community members, and numerous online documents from blogs, wikis, and other sources. Findings demonstrated how the domain, community, and practice characteristics of this online CoP could also be linked to sustained and significant teacher learning. The study concludes with considerations for the future of similar online communities.

A review of research on content-based foreign/second language education in US K-12 contexts

This review of the extant research literature focuses on research about content-based language instruction (CBI) programmes in K-12 foreign/second language education in the USA. The review emphasises studies on one-way language immersion (OWI) and two-way language immersion (TWI) programmes, which are school-based and subject matter-driven. OWI primarily targets majority-language students and TWI a combined student population of minority- and majority-language learners. Reference to the few studies on non-immersion CBI programmes in the USA is also included. This article presents a review of the research in relationship to four broad themes: student outcomes, classroom language use and development, the hidden curriculum, and teacher preparation and practice. The research review is followed by a discussion of the research methodologies and theoretical frameworks used in these studies and concluding sections that set suggestions for paths for future inquiry in four areas: student diversity, the role of English in classrooms, teacher development, and achievement research.

The “Extra Boost”: Parental Involvement and Decision Making in Immersion Programs

This qualitative study explores how parents decide to enroll their children in one-way immersion programs and how the decision is made to continue in those programs at the middle/junior high school level. A total of 131 parents responded to a survey with open-ended questions about these two decisions. Analyzed thematically and within a conceptual framework of parental involvement, these answers showed that parents at initial enrollment and during the school transition described themselves with strong role construction and self-efficacy. Enrollment decisions were based on encouraging language and culture learning, while continuation decisions were focused on educational opportunities and allowing the child to decide.

Development of a medication monitoring attitude measure using a mixed methods item development process

Medication monitoring is important for safe and effective medication use; however, no attitudinal measure exists for a health care providers medication monitoring attitude. The objectives of this study were to (1) create a measure of a community pharmacist medication monitoring attitude; (2) test concurrent validity using a validated measure of medication monitoring behaviours; and (3) report community pharmacist attitudes towards medication monitoring.

Student Attrition from Traditional and Immersion Foreign Language Programs

This paper describes the research that has been conducted on the phenomenon of student attrition from traditional and immersion foreign language (FL) programs. It includes an explanation of the relevant terminology and a brief review of how researchers have studied FL student attrition. After providing this background, the article explores the four major factors in FL student attrition identified in the research studies on the topic: instruction, academic success, anxiety, and motivation. This summary of the studies and synthesis of their findings reveals both powerful insights and important lacunae in the literature on the phenomenon. The paper concludes with some recommendations for instructors hoping to reduce FL student attrition in their programs, as well as for individuals designing future studies about FL student attrition.

When school language and home language differ: one parent’s lived experience

ABSTRACT This phenomenological study investigated the relationship between parenting and schooling for one parent whose home language was not the same as the language used in the school. The central question for this phenomenological inquiry was: What is it like to parent a child who is attending school in a language that differs from the home language? The participant was one English-speaking mother who was sending her son to a French-medium school in Québec, Canada. Data sources included email journal entries collected over two years, plus one interview at the end of the two-year period. Four major elements contributing to the structure of the lived experience of this mother were identified: that she considered varied community opinions, that she made firm guesses from unclear information from the school, that she ‘[went] in waves’ about language, and that she maintained her parental role. Together, these elements reflect an essential structure that echoes and adds to the literature on parental decision making, communication and collaboration with teachers, and support for schooling in the home. Implications for researchers, educators, and school programs are shared.

When culture is content: Applications for content-based instruction in the world language classroom

Content-based instruction (CBI) is a pedagogical approach used in the second/other language classroom that commits to addressing both language- and content-learning objectives. Scholars have found that, particularly in the planning stages, teachers struggle with achieving that balance (Donato, 2016; Lyster, 2007). This study examines world language (WL) teachers’ planning for CBI via these research questions: (1) When experienced teachers from traditional WL classroom contexts design CBI unit plans, what do these plans reveal about the pathways they take towards CBI in a traditional WL settings? (2) What broader challenges and opportunities related to using CBI in the traditional WL context are revealed? The data sources in this qualitative lesson analysis study are 36 unit plans developed as the final project for a graduate-level course on CBI in one US institution. The three investigators examined the content–language dichotomy and the academic content-cultural content dichotomy in each lesson and identified patterns. The findings reveal that teachers often chose content that was more cultural than academic in nature, and they were challenged by several aspects of relating the language and content objectives. Implications for researchers, teacher educators, and teachers present a broader discussion of CBI as a viable curricular option in WL classrooms.