Foreign-language teaching in Tasmanian secondary schools and colleges : a sociological perspective

The research reported upon in this thesis aimed to identify . the major social forces which influence the development of foreign-language teaching style. A conceptual framework adapted from sociology of education theory was used for this purpose. The study population comprised 118 foreign-language teachers in Tasmanian secondary-level schools and colleges. A further total of 15 teachers participated in the pilot survey. The approach taken in the thesis is based on the assumption that the development of teaching style occurs within, and is significantly affected by, social situations in which 'correct' professional behaviour is clearly defined and where the individual teacher's professional views and behaviour are usually largely in conformity with a shared, professional Weltanschauung. To test the assumption that most Tasmanian foreign-language teachers were professionally socialized into particular modes of professional behaviour the study population (i.e. all participants in the empirical survey) was asked to compare present use of such techniques as grammatical explanation and vocabulary list memorization with the use of the techniques in the foreign-language classroom when the respondents were foreign-language pupils and students. In addition to an examination of the teachers' pedagogic training, information was gathered by questionnaires and interviews about a range of institutional pressures such as reference group advice and Schools Board requirements. The information gained about the professional pressures which the teachers experienced was closely examined in association with the details gathered about their foreign-language teaching style and professional ideology. Two main aims of this investigation were to establish: whether a professionally derived and defined view of knowledge existed among Tasmanian foreign-language teachers; and, whether this \shared ideology\" is methodologically innovative or conservative."