Multilingual Instructor (eBook)

Claire Kramsch and Lihua Zhang use an ecological approachand a complexity thought model to examine the identities,experiences, and practices of foreign language teachers asnative or non-native speakers, multilingual instructors, andprofessional educators. What is their sense of legitimacy?How do they bridge the historical and cultural gaps betweenthem and their students? What stories do they share in theclassroom? Which do they not share? How do they viewtheir ethical responsibility? Drawing on primary researchwith teachers at the college level in the US, the book exploressome of the key issues related to teaching languages in anera of increasing global mobility, institutional control, andeducational uncertainty. In this landmark publication, Kramsch and Zhang showus the challenges facing the multilingual instructor andthe importance of understanding their experiences inorder to improve the quality of teaching and learning astransformative practices. The ecological framework providesa very useful model for future studies, while the attentionto the ethical role of the multilingual instructor is a timelyreminder to us all. Li Wei, Chair of Applied Linguistics,UCL Institute of Education, University College LondonClaire Kramsch is Emerita Professor of German and Professor of theGraduate School of Education at University of California, BerkeleyLihua Zhang is Lecturer of Chinese and Chinese LanguageProgram Coordinator at University of California, BerkeleyOxford Applied Linguistics Series Advisers:Anne Burns and Diane Larsen-Freeman