THE KNOWLEDGE BASE FOR THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATOR

Content knowledge is at the top of Shulman’s conceptualization of the teacher edu-cation knowledge base, and this is as it should be; clearly one must know a subject in order to teach it effectively. In the context of foreign language education, this means that the foreign language teacher should have achieved a high degree of competence in the target language. This would seem to be axiomatic; it is somewhat puzzling to imagine a language being taught by someone who does not speak it well—and yet in all too many cases, that is in fact the case. In addition to language competence, content knowledge for the foreign language educator includes quite

an array of other aspects of language knowledge (see Franklin, Laurence, & Welles, 1999; Guntermann, 1993; Richards, 1998; Wallace, 1991). The language educator should not only speak, understand, read, and write the target language well, but should be familiar with it from both linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives. A formal understanding of the phonology and morphology of the language is essen-tial for the effective teacher, as is an awareness of the social and cultural contexts in which the target language is used. A knowledge of the historical development of the language is also valuable, as of course, is a broad and deep knowledge of the litera-ture of the language. What this all amounts to is that the language teacher must be thoroughly and deeply familiar with the target language and the speaker commu-nity, and must be so at both a pragmatic and theoretical level. Native speakers cer-tainly have some advantages in this regard, but merely being a native speaker of a language in no way prepares one to teach it.

Beyond content knowledge, there is general pedagogical knowledge which is necessary for effective teaching practice regardless of one’s area of specialization.

Included here, on Shulman’s account, “are those broad principles and strategies of classroom management and organization that appear to transcend subject matter”

(1987, p. 54). Such principles and strategies are not particularly difficult to iden-tify; they are, in essence, the knowledge and skills that often allow us to differenti-ate between successful and unsuccessful classroom teachers. An individual may well be a competent user of the target language without being effective (or even in control) of the classroom. Among the principles and strategies that can be consid-ered to be core pedagogical knowledge and skills are instructional planning, lesson presentation skills, questioning skills, interpersonal communication skills, class-room management skills, and knowledge of evaluation approaches and strategies (see, e.g., Cooper, 1990).

The language educator needs not only content and pedagogical knowledge, but also requires specific curriculum knowledge. In other words, it is important for the teacher not only to be competent in the target language, but also to know what as-pects of the language are generally taught at different levels. The teacher might well be very versed and knowledgeable about specific linguistic aspects of the tar-get language, but in a classroom context, this specialized knowledge must, to a cer-tain extent, be subjugated to the established and generally accepted curriculum.

Thus, in a basic Spanish course, a detailed discussion of the historical evolution of the subjunctive would be both inappropriate and arguably poor pedagogy, regard-less of the accuracy of the presentation. Similarly, the vocabulary emphasized at different levels of second language instruction will generally move from most gen-eral to increasingly specialized (see Schmitt, 2000).²Color terminology, for in-stance, is arguably an appropriate focus for a beginning language class, as would be terminology to describe family relationships. Terminology used to describe complex sociopolitical issues is probably less so.³Finally, an important part of cur-riculum knowledge on the part of the classroom teacher is an awareness of the an-cillary materials generally used by language teachers—realia, music, and so forth.

This brings us to what Shulman (1987) called pedagogical content knowl-edge, which is basically a powerful combination of content, pedagogical, and curricular knowledge. This combination, though, is an instance in which the total is greater than the sum of the parts, because it refers to the specialized articulated and unarticulated knowledge that language educators are able to manifest in classroom practice. This knowledge goes far beyond merely content or pedagog-ical knowledge; it is, at its base, the understanding not of the target language, but rather of how particular features of the target language are most likely to be ac-quired by learners.

The effective language educator must also have a detailed and in-depth knowl-edge of learners, learning and teaching styles, and barriers to learning. Included here would, of course, be the work of Gardner, whose work on multiple intelligences has the potential to revolutionize the teaching of languages and much else (see Gardner, 1991, 1983, 1993; Reid, 1998). Gardner (1993) argued that hu-man intellectual competence is far too complex to be captured by a single concep-tion of intelligence, and instead, proposed a model of at least eight distinct kinds of intelligence: verbal–linguistic, musical, logical–mathematical, spatial–visual, bodily–kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. Each of these intelligences can be effectively utilized in foreign language education, and good foreign language teaching will involve all of them in various contexts and settings (see Christison, 1998). It is increasingly important for foreign language educators to be familiar with students with special needs as well, although this is an area in which the education of future foreign language educators clearly is lagging behind the reality of the foreign language classroom.⁴

The language educator must also know about and understand the broader social and cultural context in which she or he is to teach. This includes not only an under-standing of the interpersonal interactions among students, but also underunder-standing power relations in the classroom, the school, and the society in general. To func-tion effectively as an advocate of second language learning, the language educator needs to be familiar with issues of educational governance and financing, as well as with the politics and policies in his or her community that impact foreign lan-guage learning and teaching.

Finally, the language educator must be able to demonstrate a clear and adequate knowledge of educational ends, purposes, and values, especially with respect to the teaching and learning of foreign languages. In other words, the language edu-cator should be able to clearly and forcefully articulate the rationale for foreign language study, and should be able to explain the ties of foreign language study to other aspects and goals of both liberal and vocational education.

All of this taken together would constitute the knowledge base of the language educator. It is important to understand that this compilation is in fact merely a heu-ristic device, since each individual foreign language educator must in fact con-struct his or her own knowledge base. Thus, although an impressive (and even, perhaps, somewhat intimidating) compilation, this conceptualization of the knowledge base for our field is still inadequate. It is inadequate because it relies on

an idealized, and somewhat simplistic, conception of what the language educator does, and indeed only hints at what the real tasks of the foreign language educator in the classroom actually are.