The Western Washington University Teaching Partnership Project: Improving Teacher Education in Linguistics through Partner Teaching and Curriculum Design

语言学许多语言学家特别感兴趣的一个领域是如何将语言的科学研究有效地融入到K-12教育中。K-12教师也意识到对语言进行科学研究的必要性，特别是为了满足当前国家问责要求中所阐述的目标，即要求学生表现出高水平的读写、写作和口语技能。教师需要对语言的结构和使用有广泛的了解，以帮助学生理解语言是如何工作的，这样他们就能在日益多元文化和多语言的课堂上很好地使用语言进行阅读、写作和说话。尽管语言学家和教师共同致力于K-12课程中语言研究的重要性，但教育语言学研究对公立学校教学的影响很小。将语言科学融入学校教学的关键是加强教师的准备和培训。虽然一些教师教育项目提供语言学课程，但教授这些课程的语言学家对K-12教育知之甚少。因此，提高教师教育取决于提高教师教育教师的专业知识：教授教育课程的语言学家必须了解语言学的哪些领域对K-12教师最重要，以及如何在K-12课堂上最有效地教授这些材料。主要研究人员（两人都是教授教师教育课程的语言学家）正在与活跃的K-12教师合作，确定对教师最重要的语言问题，并确定如何将语言科学最有效地整合到当前的K-12课程中，以满足教师的目标。这项工作还确定了将语言知识扩展到当前教学法之外的方法，并设计了有效的方法，通过活动、练习和其他方法（从活跃的教师那里输入）将扩展的语言知识应用到K-12课堂。该项目还设计了基于早期实地考察的本科教师教育方法。更多的教材正在设计中，包括讨论的主题、活动、练习和指导阅读的学生，以及K-12教学活动和迷你课程。该计划旨在解决职前教师教育中一个长期存在的问题，即教师需要对语言有科学的理解，以便他们能更有效地在课堂上运用语言。更广泛的影响正在开发的本科教师教育系列课程模块正在通过支持该项目的国家专业组织（全国英语教师委员会，美国语言学会和应用语言学中心）广泛分发。这对K-12学生有潜在的重大影响，他们从许多方面受益于改进的语言教学：更好地理解语言的结构、变化、变化、使用和多样性；并加深他们的批判性思维技能，以便在写作、阅读、科学、数学和其他内容领域取得高成就。其他影响包括提高州评估成绩，更成功地满足了州一级教育问责制的要求。

Linguistics (84) An area of particular interest to many linguists is how the scientific study of language can be productively integrated into K-12 education. K-12 teachers are also aware of the need for scientific study of language, particularly in order to meet the goals articulated in current state accountability requirements that demand that students demonstrate high-level literacy, writing, and speaking skills. Teachers need a broad understanding about the structure of language and its use to help their students understand how language works so that they can use it well for reading, writing, and speaking in the increasingly multicultural and multilingual classroom. In spite of the joint commitment of linguists and teachers to the importance of the study of language in the K-12 curriculum, research in educational linguistics has had only a minimal impact on public school teaching. Key to integrating linguistic science into the schools is improving teacher preparation and training. Though some teacher education programs offer courses in linguistics, linguists who teach such courses know little about K-12 teaching. Improving teacher education thus depends on improving teacher education faculty expertise: linguists who teach education courses must understand which areas of linguistics are of most importance to K-12 teachers, but also how that material can be taught most effectively in the K-12 classroom. The principal investigators (both of whom are linguists who teach teacher education courses) are partnering with active K-12 teachers to identify language issues of most importance to teachers, and to determine how linguistic science can be most effectively integrated into current K-12 curriculum to meet teacher goals. This work is also identifying ways to expand linguistic knowledge beyond the borders of current pedagogy and is designing effective ways to implement expanded linguistic knowledge into the K-12 classroom through activities, exercises, and other methods (with input from active teachers). This project is also designing approaches to undergraduate teacher education that are informed by its earlier fieldwork. Additional materials are being designed, including topics for discussion, activities, exercises, and guided reading for students, as well as K-12 teaching activities and mini-lessons.Intellectual MeritThe project addresses a persistent problem in pre-service teacher education, namely the need for teachers to have a scientific understanding of language that they can apply more productively in their classrooms.Broader ImpactsThe series of course modules for undergraduate teacher education that are being developed are being broadly distributed through national professional organizations that support the project (The National Council of Teachers of English, The Linguistic Society of America, and The Center for Applied Linguistics). There is the potential for a major impact on K-12 students who are benefiting from improved teaching about language in a number of ways: a better understanding of language structure, change, variation, use, and diversity; and a deepening of their critical thinking skills for high achievement in writing, reading, science, math and other content areas. Other impacts include improved performance on state assessments and more success in meeting state level education accountability requirements.