Spanish Language Development and Support in a Bilingual Teacher Preparation Program

ABSTRACT

This is a case study of supplementary support sessions for Spanish proficiency offered in a bilingual teacher preparation program in Texas throughout an academic year. The support sessions were created to assist pre-service bilingual teachers in further developing their command of Spanish through extra practice, feedback, and test preparation in Spanish. The tutorial sessions stimulated pre-service bilingual teachers to make sense of their own bilingualism in connection to their emergent professional identity, as well as their perceptions of their own preparation/preparedness to teach bilingually. The case study analyzes the effectiveness of the support sessions as evidenced in written and oral samples excerpted from the recorded sessions. This research calls for rethinking how bilingual teacher preparation programs can provide explicit and systematic language support to meet the needs of bilingual educators preparing for their future professional practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual pre-service teachers
• Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test (BTLPT)
• metalinguistic awareness
• Spanish development

Acknowledgments

This paper is dedicated to the participants of this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Blanca Caldas

Blanca Caldas is a transnational indigenous/Latina scholar and assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her research focuses on bilingual teacher education, minoritized language practices, and critical pedagogy. She presents her work in local, national, and international conferences (including ethnographic performances), and publishes in both English and Spanish.