Powerful pedagogies in languages education

ABSTRACT In recent debates about curriculum, Young (2008, p. 101) has proposed school learning must Involve Initiation Into the 'powerful knowledge' of the disciplines that underpin subject domains, thereby 'giving students the tools to think the unthinkable'. Opponents query whether such knowledge Is available In subjects such as modern languages, or propose that accessing powerful knowledge Is only a potential of subjects, and that its realisation rests on the use of powerful pedagogies (Roberts, 2010; White, 2013). At the espoused level, the powerful concepts to be met in language learning are clearly recognised in the curricula of English speaking countries; yet In practice, modern languages education In these countries Is a falling enterprise, empowering few to approach the hitherto unthinkable. A key factor In this Is the impoverished preparation of language teachers in short, generic programs. The lack of thorough professional education precludes teacher candidates developing the ability to teach powerfully, the product as Schoenfeld (2014, p.405) puts It, of a deep understanding of their specific language and culture and skilled use of personal and material resources so as 'to create procedures, concepts and contexts In the classroom that reflect that understanding, engage students In the Issues, and lead them beyond their current experience'; and in doing this, 'to create and maintain an environment of productive Intellectual challenge that Is conducive to the linguistic development of all the students In the room. ' If it Is not to see Its asplratlonal hopes wither, the field of modern languages education needs to unite In modelling In Its own practices and the commercial resources It accepts to employ, the powerful pedagogies It espouses In Its school curricula, and to fight for the conditions In which realising them would be possible. KEY WORDS powerful pedagogies, languages Instruction, language teacher education, Intellectually rich resources [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Foreword: Opening remarks President of the AFMLTA, Kylie Farmer, Members of the AFMLTA Executive, Invited Guests, Colleagues: I would like to thank you for the honour of being invited to give the Keith Horwood Memorial Lecture, the event which allows all of us to acknowledge the contribution of Keith Horwood to the development of modern languages education in Australia, and not least at this, my own, university. I have studied at the Horwood Language Centre at The University of Melbourne, and I have taught at the Horwood Language Centre, and I have known it as a large, vibrant centre of learning in many languages and also, under the direction of my colleague and friend June Gassin, as the national heart of innovation in technology-assisted language learning. To give the Horwood Memorial lecture is thus a particularly meaningful task for me and one which I accept with considerable pride as it also places me on a list of very distinguished colleagues who have performed the task in prior years. I would like us to remember Keith Horwood not only as an indefatigable advocate of language learning but, most importantly, as one who, well ahead of his time, recognised language learning from the first lesson as legitimately belonging on a university campus. Years before the emergence of the many findings from Linguistics and Applied Linguistics that are common currency now, he understood the intellectual challenges of the task language teaching and learning creates for teacher and student. We need to be strengthened by this as we struggle still with those who from ignorance believe what they call 'language instruction' is just a set of rules and exercises to be followed, with no intrinsic educational value or intellectual depth at all and hence with no rightful place on campus. It is a view which has some links with what I am now going to talk about. Introduction About a year ago my colleague, Claudia Prescott, drew my attention to a renewed debate in the educational discourse about the notion of power. …