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EDITORS MESSAGE

Research across disciplines in the social and basic sciences shares the same fundamental processes and goals.
 First, researchers observe and wonder about the world around them; they ask

Why? and How come? and What if? The ACTFL Research Priorities Initiative, begun in 2010, provides a framework designed to help organize and focus research questions on three areas of study: the participants, the process, and the outcomes. The articles in this issue represent each of these three domains and pose essential questions about the teaching and learning of languages and cultures, particularly languages other than English.  Researchers also systematically seek information to answer their questions using carefully formulated and standardized datacollection procedures. The articles in this issue of Foreign Language Annals reect large and smallscale investigations in which both single and mixedmethod procedures yielded varied and thoughtprovoking qualitative and quantitative evidence.  Although some research is certainly motivated by the pure joy of discovery, most research seeks to describe patterns, relationships, and consequences in order to inform more effective and meaningful action. The authors whose work is shared in this issue of Foreign Language Annals have taken care to draw from their data novel, generalizable, and signicant implications for curriculum design, instructional practice, and assessment that will guide future research and translate into classroom practice. The ten articles in this issue of Foreign Language Annals follow the traditional research modelquestions, observations, implicationsand provide diverse perspectives on each of the three domains that comprise the ACTFL Research Priorities framework.

Participants
Students bring to the classroom differing personal traits, interests, attitudes, motivations, needs, and beliefs about languages, language learning, and cultures. Similarly, teachers personal characteristics, beliefs, content knowledge, skills, and certication experiences have a direct impact on the quality of students opportunity to learn and on students learning outcomes. The rst three articles focus on these issues and provide a deeper understanding of the participants component of the research framework.
 Because many factors work collectively to promote second language prociency,

including a teachers knowledge and skills as well as his or her ability to successfully create and maintain a positive learning environment, Peter Swanson investigated the relationship between Spanish teachers selfreported sense of humor and their students scores on the AATSP National Spanish Exams.

Foreign Language Annals, Vol. 46, Iss. 2, pp. 143145. 2013 by American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. DOI: 10.1111/flan.12032

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 Understanding that students bring to the

Student Learning Outcomes

The nal four articles focus our attention on the third component of the research priorities framework: student learning outcomes. These articles address the ways in which outcomes are dened and consider how, and to what extent, students make progress toward advanced levels of prociency.
 Beverly Boyson, Martha Semmer, Lynn

classroom a variety of preconceived notions, Isabelle Drewelow investigated university students existing images, cultural representations, and beliefs about the French language and culture and offers suggestions for carefully strengthening students understanding of culture while confronting students stereotypes.  Scott Kissau and Bob Algozzine describe and compare the beliefs, general professional knowledge, and contentspecic pedagogical knowledge of second language teacher candidates, university supervisors who had previous training and/or foreign language teaching experience, and supervisors who did not have second language training or experience.

Teachinglearning Process
The next three articles address the second component of the research framework the teachinglearning process.
 Paula GarrettRucks describes an instruc-

tional model that engages students in sustained analysis of crosscultural practices, products, and perspectives during online cultural discussions and presents data that document growth in students levels of intercultural sensitivity.  Mareike Mller considers the teaching of pronunciation from two points of viewpronunciation in isolation and pronunciation as languageusing the MLA Report as a point of departure for discussion of current research and teaching approaches.  Nike Arnolds content analysis of eleven commonly used methods textbooks provides a detailed picture of what prospective teachers may be taught about computerassisted language learning and offers suggestions for assessing the breadth and depth in which technology is treated in contemporary teacher certication programs.

Thompson, and Marcia Rosenbusch present the results of a veyear study that examined students oral prociency and listening comprehension at the end of Grades 5 and 8 for both a shortsequence Grade 58 program and an extended Grade K8 program.  Eileen Glisan, Elvira Swender, and Eric Surface examine Oral Prociency Interview scores for 2,881 foreign language teacher candidates who were tested in 11 different languages from 2006 to 2012 to determine the extent to which candidates attained the required level of prociency and to investigate the impact of language, year tested, and university program on candidates levels of success.  Yoshiko Mori and Toshiko Calder compare the bilingual prociency of high school students attending weekend hoshuukoo (supplementary Japanese academic schools) with their native counterparts and explore the relationship between students knowledge of vocabulary and the age at which students arrived in the United States.  Anne ReynoldsCase presents data on students comprehension and production of regionspecic linguistic forms as a means of measuring the impact of short term study abroad programs on students language development. Taken together, these ten articles add depth and richness to our understanding of the interactions among the participants, the teaching and learning process, and the

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outcomes of instruction. Video abstracts and video discussions are available for a selection of articles in this issue and offer an informative and engaging opportunity for the reader to connect more meaningfully with these authors. In her Presidents message, Toni Theisen writes Students expect learning that matters; learning connected in timely ways to the real world and learning that engages their interests. I hope that the articles in this issue of Foreign Language

Annals allow you to more clearly make connections between the authors research questions and realworld teaching practices, to pose and seek answers to personal essential questions about effective teaching and learning, and to translate the ndings of formal studies, as well as less formal, action research, into daily teaching practice. Anne Nerenz, Editor Foreign Language Annals