This new book is published by Routledge and is edited by Laura Molway, Senior Lecturer at the University of Oxford Department of Education, specialising in second language teacher education and Anna Lise Gordon a PGCE tutor who now has leadership and research roles at St Mary's University, Twickenham. Key topics, as described in the book, include:
- Roles and responsibilities of mentors
- The subject knowledge and understanding required by beginning languages teachers
- The lesson planning process
- Guidance on teaching core skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening
- Development opportunities for languages teachers
- Observations and pre- and post-lesson discussions
Contributors include some well-known teachers from MFL community, for example Bernadette Holmes (NCLE), Suzanne Graham, Robert Woore, Caroline Conlon, Juliette Claro, Crista Hazell, Adam Lamb, Gillian Peiser and Judith Rifeser. There are five sections and 18 chapters in all. The book is aimed at university and school-based mentors of languages teachers.
Here is a summary of the reasons for the focus of the book:
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Mentoring language teachers specifically is the focus given the unique nature of language teaching and teacher learning.
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Effective teacher development happens when training is closely linked to subject-specific content and pedagogy.
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Language teaching differs from other subjects since teaching happens through the target language itself, unlike most disciplines where content and language are separate.
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L2 teachers must make complex decisions about when to use the target language (L2) or students’ first language (L1), balancing language exposure and comprehension.
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Teachers in England often have diverse educational and cultural backgrounds, with many trained abroad or having lived in other countries.
In sum, mentors need to be aware of the varied experiences and needs of language teacher trainees, which may differ significantly from those in other subjects.
A significant starting point of the book is this:
"Most would agree that the essential function of a language is to communicate, and therefore that teachers should support their pupils to use their language as a communicative tool. However, the predominant model of language teaching in this country has been a “weak” version of communicative language teaching where key features of a language (e.g. vocabulary and grammar) are isolated, practiced and assessed within discrete topics, but pupils are rarely given opportunities to try to communicate ideas that are meaningful to them, making use of the language they have learned in communicative tasks" (Woore et al., 2021).
Since the book is not highly focused on methodology, perhaps it is unsurprising that the communicative theme is not developed through the book. As far as teaching approaches are concerned, the authors refer to the contested nature of various methodologies before stating:
"It is within this context that mentors need to support beginning teachers to experiment with and make sense of contested ideas about what works best in language teaching, developing personal, practical, and research-informed theories to underpin their practice within a specific school context."
(This is an important principle - the authors are taking the position that trainees should not be taught one method or that one approach is better than all the others. I like this.)
I'll now run through, in brief summary form, the chapters of the book, making occasional observations, before reflecting on its overall value.
Chapter 1 usefully lays out the various functions a mentor may fulfill, including the role as instructional coach, and describes the non-statutory guidance (2016) available to mentors. The authors make clear than the nature of mentoring will vary according to context and that subject-specific guidance is crucial. Discussion questions and tasks are provided for reflection, as in all the chapters. All in all a valuable opening chapter, supported with copious research references.
Chapter 2 looks at the beliefs of mentors, the teacher 'self' and their mentoring styles (for example nurturing or authoritative), citing research from various sources including, notably, the Borg teacher cognition model and Kelchtermans’ concepts of ‘self-understanding’, ‘subjective educational theory’, and the interference of ‘systemic demands'. The importance of the mentor's personal role is stressed, since trainees may be more influenced by the lived experience of someone they know than information from books or research. The chapter warns against adopting too behaviourist a role, i.e. assuming that demonstrating good practice and getting trainees to copy it is enough. Plenty of good advice here, based on research and personal experience.
Chapter 3 explores in more detail 'what makes a good mentor' and the values that underpin effective mentoring. The authors here stress that trainees need to be clear about the uniquenes of language teaching, as opposed to other subject disciplines. They write "languages teachers do not simply want their pupils to learn about the target language; rather, they want them to acquire the skill of using the language for communicative purposes. Various aspects of processing the language need to become automatised through extensive practice." I like the fact that the reader is invited to consider various scenarios based on the authors' own experience. The authors are against a sort of checklist approach to mentoring, but prefer principles which founded in (fashionable) Self-Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan) - fostering teachers' sense competence, relatedness and autonomy. However, as the authors note: "...it may be very difficult to realise, particularly in contexts where what is to be taught and how it should be taught are tightly prescribed, leaving the individual teacher very little opportunity to use critical judgement within their practice." This seems to sadly more and more the case in secondary schools where lessons often have to follow fixed procedures across different subjects. This chapter is another example of thoughtfully explored guidance.
Chapter 4 gets into the practicalities of organising the relationship between mentor and mentee. The author states that by the end of the chapter mentors should be able to:
- Understand some of the key factors that can determine the success of a beginning teacher's initial entry into a mentoring partnership and socialisation into a languages department team
- Identify a range of actions that you can take before the arrival of a new mentee, and in the early stages of the mentor-mentee relationship to help ensure they make a good start
Practical necessities are explored, including planning for a first meeting, involving the whole department, explaining how the department and the syllabuses are organised and so on. The stress is on partnership between mentor and mentee, encouraging their creativity. I liked the references to personal experience in this chapter.
Chapter 5 explores the types of knowedge a trainee needs to develop. It is more philosophical in tone and therefore, ultimately, less useful for mentors, I would suggest. Knowledge should help teachers to understand why something is working or not. "The Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Review (Bauckham, 2016) outlines the evidence-informed key recommendations for our subject area, which in turn link again to the above-mentioned knowledge areas." Notwithstanding the large amounts of good guidance in that review, the Bauckham '3 pillars' model of phonics, grammar and vocabulary has been questioned. (Perhaps of note is that the authors of this chapter have reasons for citing Bauckham, being partly associated with NCLE which, by contract, has to assert the principles of the TSC Review.) In addition, the attachment to the Bruner spiral curriculum, part of the NCLE training materials, may also be questionable in MFL - it makes me think of those text books which would teach the perfect tense in Autumn of Y8, then return to it in Autumn of Y9 - not necessarily the best way to organise a curriculum for MFL. There are better models of curriculum design, notably in the work of Nation and Macalister.
Chapter 6 by Crista Hazell considers how to help mentees engage with the wider language teaching community. Bauckham (2016) is again given prominence in the list of knowledge areas trainees need to develop. The chapter moves on the 'Communities of Practice' trainees should be aware of - the ALL, local and regional hubs, online professional groups and the like. This chapter is richer in personal experience than research citations, and this is fine. It's also a bit of a promotion for the Association for Language Learning!
Chapter 7 is about helping trainees how to analyse the teaching they observe. The importance an challenges of observation are laid out. The risk of observing without a focus is explained. The complexity of teacher behaviours is made clear and trainees need to know that many experienced teachers may not even know why they do a particular thing. Possible elements of a successful observation are listed:
- Lesson Outlines
- Starting, finishing and linking the segments
- Oral Interaction: Teacher talk/Pupil talk
- Oral Interaction: Procedural instructions (for setting up activities)
- Oral Interaction: Questions and Answers
- Oral Interaction: Classroom Language
- Approaches to Reading
- Approaches to listening (to audio and video material)
- Pupil Writing
- Homework
The chapter then usefully gets into some of the nuts and bolts of teacher-pupil interactions. This was another well-chosen area to explore.
Chapter 8 is about lesson planning - planning both individual lessons and lesson sequences. The authors note a little contentiously: "In the early stages of their development, beginning teachers might adopt a very structured and teacher-led approach such as Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP), as this offers a reassuring and clear model, a default setting from which they can develop basic class management and teacher exposition skills." I did raise an eyebrow here since it does imply that that PPP is somehow a default approach from which to vary - the chapter could have chosen using a sentence builder or working with a written text. Plenty of reseachers would certainly question encouraging the use of PPP. A useful chapter overall, however.
Now, rather than summarise the remaining ten chapters, let me just mention more briefly what they cover before making some final observations. Chapter 9 is about helping teachers analyse their own planning and teaching. Chapter 10 covers observing mentees and giving written feedback. Chapter 11 is about pre- and post-lesson discussions. Chapter 12 considers ways to be a better coach and mentor. Chapter 13 focuses on helping trainees manage well-being and workload. This issue is really important, since despite many initiatives surveys show that workload and well-being remain major areas of concern. What's more, as Chapter 13 mentions, based on 2018 research, "...the percentage of teachers still in service after five years post training was the lowest in languages, with 56% compared to data close to 70% in Art, Design, or Music and 75% in Physical Education." It's a disturbing figure.
Chapter 14 looks at supporting struggling teachers in certain situations that might arise. Six teacher/mentors contributed to this chapter and scenarios inlcude the overconfident teacher, lack of subject knowledge and weak organisational skills. Chapter 15 by Suzanne Graham is about engaging with research. Perhaps more reference could have been made to using mediators who have already sifted through research, rather than talking about Oasis summaries which, by and large, are not particularly useful for teachers. Chapter 16 is about developing the wider professional role of the beginning languages teacher - the teacher's influence around the school, for example. Chapter 17 considers mentoring beyond the initial training period. Chapter 18 is about supporting expert language teachers.
This book can be thoroughly recommended. New teachers learn a lot about methods, techniques, procedures, syllabuses and so on, but no one is trained how to be a mentor. When I did the job of mentor to PGCErs or NQTs, I made it up as I went along, sharing my knowledge of methodology, listening to my trainees or NQTs, learning from them, supporting them and helping them to reduce their load. But I had no manual to learn from. I believe this book would be a valuable addition to any departmental library and could be read from start to finish or dipped into. The copious research references are balanced by the practical knowledge and personal experience of the authors, all of whom have worked in classrooms and supported language teachers. The particular emphasis on well-being and the personal relationship between mentor and mentee is appreciated. The words 'practical guide' in the book title are well chosen. The authors should be congratulated for putting together such a valuable resource.
The book can be found here. It is available as an e-book to buy or rent, readable via the VitalSource site.
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