Developing Professional-Level Language Proficiency
Developing Professional-Level Language Proficiency
This book examines approaches to teaching students who aim to make the leap from "advanced" or "superior" proficiency in a foreign language to "near-native" ability. While there are an abundance of publications on classroom techniques and methods for lower levels of instruction, almost nothing exists about the transition, which is vital for those who intend to use foreign languages in high-level arenas. Compiled by leading practitioners in this area of foreign language teaching, the book fills the gap for those developing programs at the "advanced to distinguished" level.
- This is the first book to describe different approaches to and experiences of language teaching at the highest (near-native) level; there are no resources currently available
- The contributors are experienced professional language teachers from a variety of languages and specialisms
- It does for foreign language teachers at this level what the Cambridge Language Teaching Library offers to schoolteachers and ELT professionals
Reviews & endorsements
"This book is a particularly welcome addition to the professional language education literature (with) fascinating contributions." G. Richard Tucker, Carnegie Mellon University, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
"Leaver and Shekhtman's volume is a groundbreaking collection of 13 articles that explore important issues and set a research agenda for more work in this area...a 'must-read' for every language professional." Slavic and East European Journal
Product details
October 2002Paperback
9780521016858
324 pages
228 × 152 × 17 mm
0.44kg
3 b/w illus. 16 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- Foreword Richard Brecht
- Part I. Principles, Practices, and Theory:
- 1. Principles and practices in teaching superior-level students: not just more of the same Betty Lou Leaver and Boris Shekhtman
- 2. Toward academic-level foreign language abilities: reconsidering foundational assumptions, expanding pedagogical options Heidi Byrnes
- Part II. Programs:
- 3. Contexts for advanced language learning : a report on an immersion institute Heidi Byrnes
- 4. Bridging the gap between language for general purposes and language for work: an intensive superior-level language/skill course for teachers, translators, and interpreters Claudia Angelelli and Christian Degueldre
- 5. Learning Chinese in China: programs for developing superior- to distinguished-level Chinese language proficiency in China and Taiwan Cornelius C. Kubler
- 6. Developing professional-level oral proficiency: the Shekhtman method of teaching communication Boris Shekhtman and Betty Lou Leaver with Natalia Lord, Ekaterina Kuznetsova, and Elena Ovtcharenko
- 7. The reading four project: applied technology at the higher levels of foreign language acquisition Catherine W. Ingold
- 8. In the quest for level 4+ in Arabic: training level 2–3 learners in independent reading Elsaid Badawi
- 9. Teaching high-level writing skills in English at a Danish University Tim Caudery
- 10. Heritage speakers as learners at the superior level: differences and similarities between Spanish and Russian student populations Claudia Angelelli and Olga Kagan
- 11. Teaching Russian language teachers in eight Summer institutes in Russian language and culture Zita Dabars and Olga Kagan
- Part III. Learners:
- 12. Understanding the student at the superior-distinguished threshold Madeline Ehrman
- 13. Achieving multilingualism: preliminary findings from a study of twenty distinguished-level language users Betty Lou Leaver and Sabine Atwell.
