Relevance of Knowledge of Second Language Acquisition:
FINDINGS
Desire for a Different kind of Reading Materials
Prior to each class meeting, teacher-learners were required to read from three to eleven articles on a given topic. The selected readings for the course reflected the instructor’s view of what SLA is and what counts as SLA research (see Table 1 in “The Effects of Training in Linguistics on Teaching: K-12 Teachers in White Mountain Apache Schools SOCIOLINGUISTIC TOPICS COVERED”). That is, many of the readings for this course were about “what people do when they were learning languages...” For the instructor, “testing linguistics . . . and trying to make sense of data before coming to a coherent theory” (Interview, 10-13-01) is what counts as SLA research (Interview, 10-13-01) rather than classroom application.
There were also two other purposes for the readings. First, the readings provided detailed information and various perspectives on second language acquisition. Second, the readings could also be used as supplemental materials for the instructor as she could not “cover everything” in class during the limited time. The instructor stated,
... But at least from these readings they know where to look and find things if they want to... I just cannot cover everything [in the lectures]. So the readings, especially [since] this is a graduate class, the readings can go into much better detail about some of the topics and show how things are done and different ways of thinking about things. (Interview, 11-13,2001)
Peiling did not appreciate the kind of readings selected for this course. Often classroom applications or even practical implications were not included in the reading materials. For Peiling, these readings merely addressed “how [learners] acquire a language” rather than how “[teachers] can use such knowledge to teach kids” (Interview, 11-08-02). For example, while the instructor expected that readings could show the teacher-learners how SLA research was conducted and had them reflect upon different ways of thinking about different aspects of SLA, Peiling felt that the most research-oriented papers were simply different experiments that had little to do with the real classroom situations. She explained:
Because OK those [types of] research [feature] different kinds of experiments. I think it’s not something happening in our real world. It’s just OK I want to test something and I have those experiments… But I think the world is not like that. (Interview, 10-11-01)
The kind of reading that Peiling preferred reflected her theoretical orientation. In addition to research- and experiment-oriented papers, Peiling wished that her SLA course could have included readings with more personal connections and meaningful contexts (Interview, 10-11-01). By “personal connections,” Peiling meant something related to “real classrooms” for teaching as opposed to labs for experimental research. She elaborated further later:
I personally prefer research . . . [when] it’s more related to real teaching situations. It’s just like what happens in daily classrooms. (Interview, 11-08-01)
Natural settings (e.g., “real classrooms” vs. labs) provided a meaningful context for Peiling to make sense, draw connections, and thus made her reading easier.
Most of the time for me there is a meaningful context. For example, this article talks about what students do in the classroom and what they talk about...because I used to be elementary school student and I taught in elementary school. OK, I can understand more easily. (Interview, 03-15-02)
In other words, without the so-called “meaningful context,” Peiling felt that she had to spend more time making sense of the readings because the texts did not make much sense to her based on her background knowledge. She claimed:
When I go through the readings [with a meaningful context], if I don’t know the meaning in the first paragraph and I can read, read and read and I can figure out what the article is about. I figured that I could not [read] that way for the SLA readings because even though I went through [reading it] ... several times, ... I don’t even know what it’s about. I have to read it in detail. It takes a lot of time. I don’t understand at all if I … read it only ... one time. (Interview, 03-15-02)
