The Role of Teaching a Novel Language in an SLA Content Course

Abstract

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) courses are often part of MA TESOL, or other similar language teacher preparation MA programs; however, evidence suggests that the future language teachers in these classes oftentimes have trouble connecting the theoretical aspects of the SLA course to their future language classrooms. This chapter illustrates an innovative approach to helping future language teachers better internalize SLA concepts by integrating a hands-on experience of language learning as part of the SLA course, which in turn will help to inform their future language teaching. The language lessons are beneficial to all students, regardless of their previous experiences with language learning; the language lessons give all of the students a shared experience to be used in class discussions and also ensure that each student has a recent language learning experience on which to actively reflect. The novel language of instruction in the SLA course described in this chapter is Turkish, but any language (preferably one with which the majority of the students aren’t familiar to enhance the “we’re all in this together” mentality) would work just as well. With a specific theme each week in the SLA course described in this chapter, the students (N = 14) wrote reflective journals synthesizing their understanding of the SLA concepts presented in class with past and current foreign language learning experiences, focusing on the novel Turkish language learning experiences integrated into the class. Although many themes arose from the reflective journals, this chapter specifically focuses on student versus teacher beliefs, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), conceptualizing an ideal teacher self, and positive interactions between languages with connections made between the SLA concepts and their careers as future educators. The data indicate that through the reflective journals, the students in the class internalized the theoretical SLA concepts presented, and thus, were cognizant of the benefits of the assignment.