Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

McGrath, Vincent R.

Committee Member

Burroughs, Susie

Committee Member

Xu, Jianzhong

Committee Member

Robbins-Herring, Kittye

Committee Member

Minchew, Sue

Date of Degree

12-9-2006

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Secondary Education

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to survey Mississippi foreign language teachers in regards to demographic information pertaining to their educational and professional experiences and how often they employ certain activities taken from the Mississippi Foreign Language Curriculum Framework (2000). The data were then examined to see if a relationship existed between specific teacher demographic data and how they implemented the state-mandated curriculum. A researcher-designed survey instrument was developed. In order to establish the validity and reliability of the instrument two samples were taken: Mississippi foreign language teachers and teachers subscribing to the on-line listserv FLTEACH. A total sample of n= 323 was obtained for reliability and confirmatory factor analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to empirically justify the reduction of the survey items into 4 of the strands found in the curriculum framework. The Mississippi teachers' surveys were separated from the total, retaining a sample of n = 116 for further study. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, and cross-tabulations, were used to analyze the data. Demographic data indicated that the majority of the foreign language teachers surveyed have obtained more than the minimum requirements in language study and pedagogy for certification in Mississippi. The survey also indicated that the majority of teachers surveyed employed a variety of instructional activities for their students, but that they relied most on vocabulary and grammar activities. A MANOVA was used to test the null hypothesis that increased teacher education in subject area and/or pedagogy did not increase the frequency of specific instructional choices of foreign language teachers. Results indicated that the frequency of certain instructional choices did increase as the number of hours in content hours of study increased, but it was not found to be statistically significant at an alpha of á = .05.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17213

Comments

curriculum||national standards||teacher education||foreign language

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