This symposium brings together four teacher educators who involve pre-service language teachers in action research projects. Presenters will share insights and challenges related to conceptual and practical questions including selecting an action research question, research ethics and IRB approval, research design, data analysis, and implications for continuing professional development.

Two foreign language (FL) teachers collaborated in a project from which they both benefited as teachers and learners. Bringing together different perspectives as pre-service FL teacher and FL teacher educator, and based on principles of self-reflective inquiry, they engaged in collaborative exchange and experienced professional growth via situated, experiential learning.

This conceptual presentation seeks to advance the notion that study abroad opportunities can be developed in ways that better support the needs of (future) foreign language teachers. We draw specifically on our recent experiences launching two new study abroad programs and share our plans for research related to these programs.

This presentation will report on the impact of JOINT (Japanese Online Instruction Network for Teachers), an online professional development program for Japanese language teachers. It will outline the successes and challenges of the JOINT program and discuss the effectiveness, limitations, and potentials of online professional development for language teacher education.

This paper describes a subject-matter focused, research-based and community-centred project, which involves teachers, teacher educators, and researchers working in Language Education. Based on the story so far, the enquiry analyses its members' collaborative professional talk, searching for signs of professional transformation and learning occurring in the sociocultural exchanges and interactive moments.

Study Circles are small, facilitated, practitioner learning groups that meet to discuss issues of relevance to their classrooms. Organized around a specific topic, practitioners read and discuss research, then implement and reflect on instructional practices. Presenters describe a study circle used successfully in Minnesota with instructors of pre-literate ESL adults.

This session shares findings from a research study that explored secondary content teachers' knowledge base and beliefs about second language acquisition as a result of their participation in a nine-month, professional development cohort program for English as a Second Language. Implications for in-service professional development programs are addressed.

This study explores how teacher educators and teacher-learners can foster praxis. We document teacher-learners' reconceptualization of SLA theory through their own inquiry. It connects personal language learning and teaching experiences, interviews with fellow teachers and learners, observations of practices, and research relevant to teacher-learners' own theories about SLA.

Language teacher education is required to instill an understanding of language systems. Language teachers have to develop from language users to language analyzers. Their education involves a shift in meaning-making capacity. This presentation demonstrates how three objectives from adult development can inform the design of a successful introductory linguistics course.

Students benefit when World Languages teachers engage in long-term, rich, collaborative professional development. A group of Minneapolis Public Schools World Language teachers co-creating a dynamic array of professional development activities and supports will share stories illustrated by evidence of student results.

This symposium is inspired by recent European research focusing on "Inclusive Academic Language Teaching" (IALT) as the way to meet the needs of young people learning English as an additional language. We examine possibilities and constraints in the provision of IALT in in-service education in England, Scotland, and New Zealand.

This paper aims to analyze how differentiated instruction was employed in a series of workshops for an English Language Learner (ELL) teachers' professional development in a northwest city in the United States. Challenges that instructional coaches faced when giving differentiated instruction to teachers will be discussed and suggestions will be provided.

This paper session will explore the theoretical and practical implications of the integration of group development theory into the knowledge base of language teacher education. Topics addressed include K-12 group development models and strategies, willingness to communicate (WTC), and L1 use in support of cooperative/collaborative L2 learning.

This presentation describes a university language teacher education program that incorporates research and methods for teaching learning strategies in its coursework. Teacher candidates over a four-year period completed a self-assessment questionnaire after taking the third course that included language learning strategy instruction; results will be described.

This study focuses on the perceptions of non-native speaker teachers (NNSTs) of Spanish. Interviews of in-service NNSTs of Spanish reveal insights regarding both advantages and disadvantages of being a NNST of Spanish, which in some ways parallel the research on NNSTs of English. Results and implications are discussed.

Stories provide authentic, meaningful contexts for learning. They are also engaging and powerful tools for novice teachers. The presenters provide an introduction to narrative theory, offer classroom examples of stories and storytelling, and share a model of language teacher education in which novice teachers are prepared to use storytelling in action.

Using a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical approach, this presentation conceptualizes how narrative mediates the cognitive processes of L2 teachers through three distinct yet permeable functions--narrative as externalization,verbalization, and systematic inquiry--and illustrates their interplay by tracing teacher professional development in two teacher-authored narrative inquiries.

This symposium features 5 diverse approaches for preparing in-service and pre-service mainstream or content area teachers to effectively teach ELL students. Discussion between the presenters and audience will focus on program objectives, audiences, activities and outcomes, and current gaps in research.

Lafayette's immersion programs count six to eleven sections at each elementary grade, allowing for strong curriculum and material development and collaborative training. Practices of kindergarten teachers were examined to identify reasons for and eliminate differences in student oral language production. This presentation documents the action research's findings and its impact on teacher training.

This paper reports on a study that sought to determine L2 teachers' beliefs and practices about the L2 as the language of instruction. A comparison of teachers' beliefs and practices, the ratio between L2 and L1 use, and purposes for which the teachers used the L1 will be presented.

This study investigates the relationship between Spanish teachers' oral language proficiency and their engagement in the third turn in typical Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) exchanges with students. Using the case of the feedback turn, the study explores the potential impact that teachers' language proficiency has on communication in the classroom.