Standard 4: Content Knowledge:

The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the
disciplines he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the
discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.
Artifact 2 Article Review and a Journal Entry
Class: FL 561 & FL 694
National Standards for Foreign Language Learning: 1.1,1.2,3.1,3.2, 5.1, 5.2
One of my first assignments in the MATL program was an article review that I wrote for
FL 561. The theme of the article was how important it was for a FL teacher to be able to speak
fluently the language she was teaching. Actually the article specifies that a teacher should at
least have an advanced low proficiency rating on the ACTFL Proficiency guidelines. The article
speaks about the fact that not all states have this requirement and that often times the teachers of
L2 have not yet attained the advanced low proficiency rating.
This article offers ideas as to how teachers can improve the L2 skills in the language that
they are teaching. One of them of course is study abroad and another is that they should use the
TL as much as possible outside of the classroom. I think my review on this article demonstrates
that I am conscious of the need to know the languages that I will be teaching and everyday to
make an effort to improve my skill in those languages.
I agree with the fact that FL teachers should be able to speak the language they teach
well. As I was progressing through my FL 694 class, I wrote a journal entry on this topic based
on Cazdens view of the teacher knowing the subject matter she teaches. In her book she was
actually talking about a math teacher when she states, This lesson calls attention to the
importance of the teachers understanding of mathematics beyond what may seem to be required
in the students curriculum (p. 53). She also quotes historian Lawrence Cremlin who wrote
about the Progressive Education movement of the 1930s and 1940s. He states:
...A teacher cannot know which opportunities to use, which impulses to encourage, or
which social attitudes to cultivate without a clear sense of what is to come later. ...with
respect to intellect this implies a thorough acquaintance with organized knowledge as
represented in the disciplines. To recognize opportunities for early mathematical
learning, one must know mathematics.
We could just as easily insert foreign languages into that quote to replace the word mathematics.
To recognize opportunities for early foreign language learning, one must know that
foreign language.
As a FL teacher, I must know the language that I teach. That is not to imply that I know
everything about that FL. Few, if anyone at all, even know everything about his or her own
native language. Nevertheless, to provide comprehensible input to my students, first and
foremost, I must be able to speak the TL well.
Cazden, C. B. (2001). Classroom Discourse: The language of teaching and learning.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Chambliss, K. (2012). Teachers oral proficiency in the target language: Research on the role in
language teaching and learning. Foreign Language Annals, 45, S141-S158