Does Reading the Research Make a Difference? A Case Study of Teacher Growth in FL German

Abstract

Although the research literature on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has increased exponentially over the last few decades, it is not at all clear how its findings may or may not contribute to teacher growth or otherwise influence actual classroom praxis. The case study presented here shows one instructor, a native speaker of German, translating theory into practice in a beginning German as a foreign language college classroom. The theory employed in this case concerns corrective feedback in oral production, and the format follows an action research model. We note the instructor's initial treatment of spoken classroom errors, then his reaction to research articles on oral corrective feedback encountered in a pedagogy seminar, and finally how he implements those ideas in an action plan of his own design, for his subsequent teaching. Throughout the process, we find a series of cultural and conceptual filters at work that influence the reading of the research, the selection of ideas for the action research plan, and the way those ideas appear and mutate in actual classroom use. The study suggests (a) that the act of reflection itself, in tandem with the results and suggestions of the literature, produces change; and (b) that an emic view of classroom actions and reactions, where the instructor interprets his behaviors in light of a theoretical framework, is a critical component of classroom analysis.