Karen E. Johnson

In this cutting-edge book on L2 teacher education, experts Johnson, Verity, and Childs demonstrate how praxis-oriented pedagogy grounded in the principles of Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (VSCT) can have a meaningful impact on L2 teachers’ development. Starting with a clear definition of praxis-oriented pedagogy, the authors lay out a theoretical foundation and document how appropriately designed praxis-oriented L2 teacher education pedagogy supports the development of novice teacher reasoning. Drawing from a longitudinal study of L2 novice teachers, chapters address the teachers’ understanding, learning, and cognitive development and how their capabilities grow in creating and implementing engaging language learning environments for their ESL students. At the core of the book lies a unique set of pedagogical concepts: linguistically compact, conceptually rich chunks of language that function as psychological tools for learning and teaching. By covering teachers’ changes in understanding, reasoning, and pedagogical activities, the book reveals the role that pedagogical concepts play in praxis-oriented pedagogy.Essential reading for language teacher educators, language teachers, and researchers, this book makes the VSCT principles that inform praxis-oriented pedagogy both clear and accessible.

In this cutting-edge book on L2 teacher education, experts Johnson, Verity, and Childs demonstrate how praxis-oriented pedagogy grounded in the principles of Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (VSCT) can have a meaningful impact on L2 teachers’ development. Starting with a clear definition of praxis-oriented pedagogy, the authors lay out a theoretical foundation and document how appropriately designed praxis-oriented L2 teacher education pedagogy supports the development of novice teacher reasoning. Drawing from a longitudinal study of L2 novice teachers, chapters address the teachers’ understanding, learning, and cognitive development and how their capabilities grow in creating and implementing engaging language learning environments for their ESL students. At the core of the book lies a unique set of pedagogical concepts: linguistically compact, conceptually rich chunks of language that function as psychological tools for learning and teaching. By covering teachers’ changes in understanding, reasoning, and pedagogical activities, the book reveals the role that pedagogical concepts play in praxis-oriented pedagogy.Essential reading for language teacher educators, language teachers, and researchers, this book makes the VSCT principles that inform praxis-oriented pedagogy both clear and accessible.

Taking a Vygotskian sociocultural stance, this book demonstrates the meaningful role that L2 teacher educators and L2 teacher education play in the professional development of L2 teachers through systematic, intentional, goal-directed, theorized L2 teacher education pedagogy. The message is resoundingly clear: Teacher education matters! It empirically documents the ways in which engagement in the practices of L2 teacher education shape how teachers come to think about and enact their teaching within the sociocultural contexts of their learning-to-teach experiences. Providing an insider’s look at L2 teacher education pedagogy, it offers a close up look at teacher educators who are skilled at moving L2 teachers toward more theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices and greater levels of professional expertise.First, the theoretical foundation and educational rationale for exploring what happens inside the practices of L2 teacher education are established. These theoretical concepts are then used to conduct microgenetic analyses of the moment-to-moment, asynchronous, and at-a-distance dialogic interactions that take place in five distinct but sometimes overlapping practices that the authors have designed, repeatedly implemented, and subsequently collected data on in their own L2 teacher education programs. Responsive mediation is positioned as the nexus of mindful L2 teacher education and proposed as a psychological tool for teacher educators to both examine and inform the ways in which they design, enact, and assess the consequences of their own L2 teacher education pedagogy.

Taking a Vygotskian sociocultural stance, this book demonstrates the meaningful role that L2 teacher educators and L2 teacher education play in the professional development of L2 teachers through systematic, intentional, goal-directed, theorized L2 teacher education pedagogy. The message is resoundingly clear: Teacher education matters! It empirically documents the ways in which engagement in the practices of L2 teacher education shape how teachers come to think about and enact their teaching within the sociocultural contexts of their learning-to-teach experiences. Providing an insider’s look at L2 teacher education pedagogy, it offers a close up look at teacher educators who are skilled at moving L2 teachers toward more theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices and greater levels of professional expertise.First, the theoretical foundation and educational rationale for exploring what happens inside the practices of L2 teacher education are established. These theoretical concepts are then used to conduct microgenetic analyses of the moment-to-moment, asynchronous, and at-a-distance dialogic interactions that take place in five distinct but sometimes overlapping practices that the authors have designed, repeatedly implemented, and subsequently collected data on in their own L2 teacher education programs. Responsive mediation is positioned as the nexus of mindful L2 teacher education and proposed as a psychological tool for teacher educators to both examine and inform the ways in which they design, enact, and assess the consequences of their own L2 teacher education pedagogy.

'… A beautifully written, articulate and compelling argument for a sociocultural perspective on second language teacher education . . . Essential reading for all who wish to understand this perspective.' – David Nunan, University of Hong Kong'…Significant and timely. Johnson is masterful at writing in an engaging, transparent prose about complex concepts. It’s a rare scholar who can write prose like this. Throughout my reading I wanted to engage in dialogue with her – this is a sure sign of a great book." – Diane Tedick, University of Minnesota, USAThis book presents a comprehensive overview of the epistemological underpinnings of a sociocultural perspective on human learning and addresses in detail what this perspective has to offer the field of second language teacher education. Captured through five changing points of view, it argues that a sociocultural perspective on human learning changes the way we think about how teachers learn to teach, how teachers think about language, how teachers teach second languages, the broader social, cultural, and historical macro-structures that are ever present and ever changing in the second language teaching profession, and what constitutes second language teacher professional development. Overall, it clearly and accessibly makes the case that a sociocultural perspective on human learning reorients how the field understands and supports the professional development of second language teachers.

'… A beautifully written, articulate and compelling argument for a sociocultural perspective on second language teacher education . . . Essential reading for all who wish to understand this perspective.' – David Nunan, University of Hong Kong'…Significant and timely. Johnson is masterful at writing in an engaging, transparent prose about complex concepts. It’s a rare scholar who can write prose like this. Throughout my reading I wanted to engage in dialogue with her – this is a sure sign of a great book." – Diane Tedick, University of Minnesota, USAThis book presents a comprehensive overview of the epistemological underpinnings of a sociocultural perspective on human learning and addresses in detail what this perspective has to offer the field of second language teacher education. Captured through five changing points of view, it argues that a sociocultural perspective on human learning changes the way we think about how teachers learn to teach, how teachers think about language, how teachers teach second languages, the broader social, cultural, and historical macro-structures that are ever present and ever changing in the second language teaching profession, and what constitutes second language teacher professional development. Overall, it clearly and accessibly makes the case that a sociocultural perspective on human learning reorients how the field understands and supports the professional development of second language teachers.

This volume offers an integrated view of communication in second language classrooms, one that acknowledges the importance of what teachers and students bring to the class environment, as well as what actually occurs during face-to-face communication within the classroom. Drawing on actual classroom transcripts from a range of instructional settings, Johnson constructs a conceptual framework through which teachers can recognize how patterns of classroom communication are established and maintained, how these patterns affect students’ participation in classroom events, and how their participation shapes the ways they use language for learning and their opportunities for second language acquisition. Relevant research is presented from the areas of classroom discourse, language in communities, teacher cognition, classroom learning, and second language acquisition.