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 Merit The 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 Impacts The 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.
