Books by Paula Garrett-Rucks
Dimensions, 2024
This volume 59 focuses on bridging the Language Education fields of Bilingual, Dual Language, Her... more This volume 59 focuses on bridging the Language Education fields of Bilingual, Dual Language, Heritage Language, and World Languages Education. These areas of language teaching and learning are often understood as separate disciplines with distinct pedagogies. The focus of this special issue is on the ways in which these language fields share knowledge, theories, and best practices. Arguably, at the heart of each field there is a common goal to foster learners’ ability to function across languages and cultures in spoken and written communications.
Dimensions, vol 58, 2023
The Editor then uses a double blind peer review process to review the manuscripts. That is, the n... more The Editor then uses a double blind peer review process to review the manuscripts. That is, the names and academic affiliations of the authors and information identifying schools and colleges cited in articles are removed from the manuscripts prior to review by members of the Editorial Board, all of whom are published professionals, committed to second language education at research universities. Neither the author(s) nor the reviewers know the identity of one another during the review process. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two members of the Editorial Board, and one of the following recommendations is made: "accept as is, " "request a second draft with minor revisions, " "request a second draft with major revisions, " or "do not publish. " The Editor then requests second drafts of manuscripts that receive favorable ratings on the initial draft. These revised manuscripts are reviewed a second time before a final decision to publish is made. The Editor of Dimensions 2023 invited prospective authors at all levels of language teaching to submit original work for publication consideration without having to commit to presenting a paper at the annual meeting of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching. Starting as a conference proceeding under the name Dimension with the organization's inception in 1967, the journal has long been the official peer-reviewed journal of SCOLT that annually publishes national and international authors. Recognizing the plurality of dimensions of teaching and learning languages represented by authors in the journal, the Board voted to change the journal's name to Dimensions in 2023. Contributing authors' research findings and pedagogical implications are shared at the SCOLT conference opening ceremony with attendees and beyond. To improve visibility of the authors' work, the Board voted to publish the journal on the SCOLT website in an open access format for all publications from 2003 to present. SCOLT Dimensions is indexed with the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education that connects 12 million users-researchers, educators, policy makers, and students from 238 countries. ERIC metric biannual reports indicate that Dimension articles are being viewed or downloaded over 6,000 times
Dimension, 2022
This Special Issue of Dimension focuses on online, hybrid, and flipped language course design, a ... more This Special Issue of Dimension focuses on online, hybrid, and flipped language course design, a critical topic during the global pandemic that has propelled an exponential growth in online teaching and learning worldwide. This edition showcases empirical and theoretical papers that focus on effective online, hybrid, and/or flipped language teaching, learning, and/or assessment within meaningful cultural contexts, especially online language courses that incorporate the communicative language teaching approach, ACTFL’s World Readiness Standards (National Standards Collaborative Board, 2015) and Proficiency Guidelines (ACTFL, 2012), as well as high leverage and/or core teaching practices (Glisan & Donato, 2017).
SCOLT Dimension, 2021
An edited collection of manuscripts on the teaching and learning of languages
Dimension, 2020
A collection of chapters on Spanish Heritage Language Learning
An edited collection of manuscripts on the teaching and learning of languages
This year’s volume contains seven chapters that build on the momentum started last year by author... more This year’s volume contains seven chapters that build on the momentum started last year by authors Linwood J. Randolph Jr. (University of North Carolina—Wilmington) and Stacey Margarita Johnson (Vanderbilt University) in their 2017 Dimension chapter, Social Justice in the Language Classroom: A Call to Action. That article formed part of a constellation of recent events that all point to a sharp upward trajectory for the topic of social justice in language education, including, of course, the 2014 publication of the ACTFL book Words and Actions: Teaching Languages through the Lens of Social Justice (Glynn, Wassell, & Wesely) and the 2017 establishment of the ACTFL Critical and Social Justice Approaches Special Interest Group (SIG), whose creation was spearheaded by Johnson in 2016. While critical pedagogy and social justice are not new topics in the field by any means, we find ourselves in a new chapter in which social consciousness and transformative action are quickly gaining prominence in language teaching organizations and among their members.
An edited collection of manuscripts on the teaching and learning of languages
We are delighted to present this collection of manuscripts that focus on various aspects of Inter... more We are delighted to present this collection of manuscripts that focus on various aspects of Intercultural Competence in this Special Issue of Dimensions 2016. Our hope for this Special Issue is not only to bring attention to the innovative programmatic changes and best teaching practices presented in the following chapters, but also to stimulate discussion in the field on the convergence of the diverse terminology used for a common end goal of fostering learners’ intercultural competence. The development of language learners’ intercultural competence—or more completely stated, intercultural communicative competence—engages them in a most profound educational experience, one that will serve them well throughout life. This competence enables learners not only to understand other peoples, but also to understand themselves better, and to be able to compare and contrast cultures in ways not otherwise possible. Most of all, it enables them to develop successful relationships with other people, both within and across cultures. This, we consider to be at the heart of our work.
There is pressure on world language educators to prepare learners with 21st century skills to mee... more There is pressure on world language educators to prepare learners with 21st century skills to meet the challenges of an increasingly interconnected globalized world. The need for change was summarized in the 2007 report of the MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages that suggested the implementation of curricular reform by developing students' " translingual and transcultural competence " (p. 3) which allows someone " to operate between languages " (p.237). However , the integration of such a meaningful cultural component in instructed language learning is a complex topic. This book recognizes the difficulty world language educators face to achieve the goals of the MLA report, particularly at beginning levels of instruction in target language use classrooms. Accordingly, this book informs instructed language learning and teaching by bridging developmental theories from the fields of intercultural competence with second language pedagogies—particularly communicative language teaching (CLT) and literacy-based approaches—providing examples of practical applications inside the classroom and beyond. It is intended to support the many FL educators who have consistently reported that they are struggling to incorporate meaningful cultural instruction into their practice (Fox & Diaz This book provides a framework to foster learners' deep cultural reflection at beginning levels of instruction while preserving target language use policies, bridging CLT pedagogies to intercultural communicative competence (ICC) literacy-based approaches. It starts by synthesizing prominent definitions of culture and culture learning models and then summarizes disparate sources of research findings on culture learning projects (which primarily take place at advanced levels of language learning) to the Standards-based classroom at all levels of instruction, K-16. Although research on fostering learners' intercultural competence at beginning levels of language instruction is in its infancy, it is of utmost concern given that the vast majority of U.S. language learners rarely continue to advanced levels of instruction (Zimmer-Lowe, 2008). In addition, this book challenges FL educators to advocate for their FL programs and to give greater visibility and credibility to the profession in institutional internationalization efforts. The theoretical components of this book deconstruct the connections between language, thought and culture and problematize developmental models in the IC field that neglect to consider the important role of language. This book provides K-16 FL educators with the discourse needed to 1) explain to administrators, parents and students how world language study prepares learners to compete in an increasingly global market beyond the learner's development of linguistic proficiency and 2) convince administrators of the value in and the need for world language study in order to support institutional internationalization efforts. The last chapter of this book provides guidance and suggestions on ways to expand K-12 teacher preparation programs and continuing education training to foster learners' intercultural communicative competence while preserving a Standards-based curriculum. In sum, this book is intended to 1) support all K-16 world language educators with their program advocacy and instruction; 2) serve as a reference manual or course book in teacher preparation programs; 3) serve as a reference manual or course book for research and graduate courses on the teaching and learning of languages.
Papers by Paula Garrett-Rucks
There is pressure on world language educators to prepare learners with 21st century skills to mee... more There is pressure on world language educators to prepare learners with 21st century skills to meet the challenges of an increasingly interconnected globalized world. The need for change was summarized in the 2007 report of the MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages that suggested the implementation of curricular reform by developing students' " translingual and transcultural competence " (p. 3) which allows someone " to operate between languages " (p.237). However , the integration of such a meaningful cultural component in instructed language learning is a complex topic. This book recognizes the difficulty world language educators face to achieve the goals of the MLA report, particularly at beginning levels of instruction in target language use classrooms. Accordingly, this book informs instructed language learning and teaching by bridging developmental theories from the fields of intercultural competence with second language pedagogies—particularly communicative language teaching (CLT) and literacy-based approaches—providing examples of practical applications inside the classroom and beyond. It is intended to support the many FL educators who have consistently reported that they are struggling to incorporate meaningful cultural instruction into their practice (Fox & Diaz This book provides a framework to foster learners' deep cultural reflection at beginning levels of instruction while preserving target language use policies, bridging CLT pedagogies to intercultural communicative competence (ICC) literacy-based approaches. It starts by synthesizing prominent definitions of culture and culture learning models and then summarizes disparate sources of research findings on culture learning projects (which primarily take place at advanced levels of language learning) to the Standards-based classroom at all levels of instruction, K-16. Although research on fostering learners' intercultural competence at beginning levels of language instruction is in its infancy, it is of utmost concern given that the vast majority of U.S. language learners rarely continue to advanced levels of instruction (Zimmer-Lowe, 2008). In addition, this book challenges FL educators to advocate for their FL programs and to give greater visibility and credibility to the profession in institutional internationalization efforts. The theoretical components of this book deconstruct the connections between language, thought and culture and problematize developmental models in the IC field that neglect to consider the important role of language. This book provides K-16 FL educators with the discourse needed to 1) explain to administrators, parents and students how world language study prepares learners to compete in an increasingly global market beyond the learner's development of linguistic proficiency and 2) convince administrators of the value in and the need for world language study in order to support institutional internationalization efforts. The last chapter of this book provides guidance and suggestions on ways to expand K-12 teacher preparation programs and continuing education training to foster learners' intercultural communicative competence while preserving a Standards-based curriculum. In sum, this book is intended to 1) support all K-16 world language educators with their program advocacy and instruction; 2) serve as a reference manual or course book in teacher preparation programs; 3) serve as a reference manual or course book for research and graduate courses on the teaching and learning of languages.
The aim of this study is to further the understanding of foreign language (FL) learners' dev... more The aim of this study is to further the understanding of foreign language (FL) learners' development of intercultural competence in an instructed learning environment. In this study, second-semester US French language learners enrolled in a Midwestern two-year technical school were ...
Despite the increasing number of U.S. born Latinos, placing heritage and native speakers in the S... more Despite the increasing number of U.S. born Latinos, placing heritage and native speakers in the Spanish curriculum is still a challenge (MacGregor-Mendoza & Moreno, 2020). The present article (a) addresses the unique needs of heritage speakers in the Spanish curriculum; (b) problematizes traditional grammar-based placement exams; and (c) describes a multiple-choice placement exam (free upon request) designed and used at Georgia State University (GSU), a major urban university in the Southeastern U.S. Taking a sociolinguistic approach to the dialectical nature of Spanish, the GSU Spanish Language Program Coordinator developed a placement test based on what students—heritage, native, and non-native—do when asked to perform language tasks. The placement test design is outlined using distinctions of linguistic norms, both local/ regional and general. Reference is made to the ways in which diverse types of Spanish speakers align linguistically with general Spanish. This essay responds to...
Researchers in pursuit of best practices to foster cultural understanding in instructed foreign l... more Researchers in pursuit of best practices to foster cultural understanding in instructed foreign language (FL) learning often measure changes in learners’ intercultural competence (IC) in response to pedagogical interventions. The purpose of this paper is to provide 1) a brief overview of different types of definitions of and assessment tools for intercultural competence found in the literature, 2) an argument for qualitative studies to investigate IC development and 3) a comparison of the merits of two of the most commonly cited IC models in the literature—Byram’s (1997) multimodal model of intercultural competence and Bennett’s (1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. The findings I present here come from a larger study in which I used both models to analyze the changes in beginning French language learners’ worldviews in weekly online classroom discussions centering on the French cultural practices of greetings, education and family life over the course of a 16 wee...
There is increasing pressure on world language educators to expand the cultural instruction in th... more There is increasing pressure on world language educators to expand the cultural instruction in their curriculum and to advocate for their language programs as a means to prepare learners with 21 century skills (The Four Cs: Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, and Critical thinking). In similar vein, ACTFL’s Global Competence Position Statement (2014) further described the need for language instructors to foster learners’ interactional abilities and behaviors to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from self. Yet many language educators are confused about best-teaching practices during this transition time from methods that focus primarily on students’ ability to use the language to communicate, to a time where it is increasingly emphasized that students should access content information through the language for meaningful cultural reflection. This paper demystifies some confusion about fostering lear...
This article begins by synthesizing research findings concerning the increasingly important role ... more This article begins by synthesizing research findings concerning the increasingly important role graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) play in fostering undergraduate learners’ oral proficiency. Despite this important role, our review of TA training practices in the literature found a lack of research on the preparation TAs receive prior to beginning their foreign language instruction. Accordingly, the present study examines incoming TAs’ perceptions of their command of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) techniques presented at an interdepartmental, pre-service orientation at a large Midwestern research university. Using a qualitative approach, we investigated the unique ways in which this orientation influenced novice and experienced TAs differently in the analysis of thirteen focus participants’ semi-structured interviews. The discussion speaks to the critical elements of the pre-service orientation that appeared to promote TAs’ appropriation of various aspects of CLT as w...
Research in Comparative and International Education, 2020
Since the emergence of models and frameworks for college and university internationalization in t... more Since the emergence of models and frameworks for college and university internationalization in the early 1990s, post-secondary world language education has remained a core dimension of internationalization in theory (American Council on Education, n.d.; Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007; Hudzik, 2011; Rudzki, 1995; Spencer-Oatey & Dauber, 2016). Yet, a report by the American Council on Education (ACE, 2017) found that, in actuality, most institutions have afforded little attention to developing students’ second language proficiency despite the considerable benefits of language learning experiences to prepare learners for the challenges of a global workforce in the 21st century. This manuscript argues that developing an informed intercultural mindset paired with proficiency in at least one language other than English is essential for graduates to take advantage of the many professional, societal, and educational opportunities of today’s global community. To thi...
Calico Journal, Dec 18, 2014
This study extends current research about L2 hypermedia texts by investigating the combined use o... more This study extends current research about L2 hypermedia texts by investigating the combined use of audiovisual features including: (a) Contextualized images, (b) rollover translations, (c) cultural information, (d) audio explanations and (e) comprehension check exercises. Specifically, student perceptions of hypermedia readings compared to traditional print texts are investigated in this study to address theoretical concerns that the combined use of multiple audiovisual annotations might split learners' attention from their reading comprehension. Additionally, student perceptions of the usefulness of the annotation features afforded by the hypermedia texts were investigated. Data were collected from 70 French language learners across four intermediate and advanced French courses at a large Midwestern research university. Participants in each course were assigned hypermedia readings, each of which being paired with an analogous traditional print reading of the same genre, with a similar word count and reading difficulty level, followed by a format preference survey. Results from data analysis of the format preference surveys showed statistically significant differences for user preference of the hypermedia texts and a user belief that the hypermedia format facilitated reading comprehension with less effort than print readings. Research findings about the reported usefulness of the annotation features are situated within Mayer's (2005) cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Directions for future research into the optimal design of hypermedia texts are discussed.
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Books by Paula Garrett-Rucks
Papers by Paula Garrett-Rucks
Empirical evidence reveals the ways in which an intercultural communicative approach to foreign
language instruction can foster learners’ intercultural competence (Garrett-Rucks, 2016). Yet, in the
U.S., there remains a disconnect in the distribution of federal funds for internationalization efforts to
foster learners’ intercultural understanding and the support given for world languages study, in which
enrollment continues to fall (MLA, 2018). This position paper is intended to raise awareness of the
crucial role of foreign language (FL) learning in fostering learners’ intercultural understanding in
order to put into question the underestimated role of FL learning in U.S. educational policies and
internationalization efforts. Despite the lack of financial, political and educational policy support,
current World Language teacher certification practices in the U.S. require candidates to provide
evidence of their intercultural approach to language instruction. This paper describes the emphasis on
cultural reflection in current U.S. World Languages teacher certification practices and provides a
review of meaningful culture learning projects to encourage all language instructors to take an
intercultural communicative approach to their instruction.
For these reasons, we submit that our collective end goal, aided by the learning of a second language and developing intercultural competence, be reframed; to wit: to enable students to develop positive and meaningful relationships within and across cultures. While this is obviously important to achieve with speakers of other languages and cultures, we must not forget that similar abilities are also important for developing positive and meaningful relationships right here at home—with classmates, friends, and neighbors who, in our diverse society, often represent diverse backgrounds. The development of second language and intercultural abilities aids these processes. And, by focusing on the development of successful relationships both within and across cultures, we appropriately unite the fields of diversity and intercultural communication in a single effort.
To understand why this is so, it may help to clarify the nexus between language, culture, and worldview; the power of transcending and transforming our initial way of seeing things; and how second language-culture experiences broaden our understanding and appreciation of those around us, both near and far, here at home and across an ocean. It may also help to explore further the process that enables us to do all this—the development of intercultural communicative competence