CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS

This chapter presents concepts, practices, opportunities, and challenges related to the continuing professional learning (CPL) of language teachers, and the role of language program directors and administrators (LPAs) in that learning. Using a praxis lens, the chapter targets CPL beyond the required coursework and initial supervised teaching experiences that postsecondary language teachers complete for their degree or certificate programs. To be impactful, CPL experiences should be multifaceted, praxis-oriented, and contextually relevant. Moreover, in designing and implementing these experiences, LPAs should seek teacher input and collaboration, encourage critical engagement with research, provide opportunities for reflection on practices and beliefs, and consider institutional, educational, and social expectations. CPL that attends to these considerations can lead to adaptive expertise, or the ability to move beyond the routines, skills, and knowledge emphasized in initial professional learning experiences, and to skillfully modify, improvise, and problem-solve under various instructional conditions. To help LPAs design and implement CPL, this chapter presents research-based findings and concepts in which to ground CPL and then discusses CPL activities that reflect these findings and concepts. The chapter concludes with opportunities and challenges for creating coherent and sustained CPL experiences.