Deadline to Submit: August 1, 2019
“Elementary-level Foreign Language Instruction: From Theory to Practice”
Editor: Ekaterina (Katya) Nemtchinova, Seattle Pacific University, katya@spu.edu
Successful elementary level language courses are crucial for a foreign language program as they can lay a foundation for further language and culture study, instill the love for language, and populate upper-level courses with students. One way to ensure that the pursuit of the language continues beyond the first year is to sustain learner’s interest, confidence, and motivation from the start by supporting language instruction with engaging activities and contextualized practice. This edited volume aims to facilitate teaching language at the beginning level by exploring a wide range of critical research and practical issues of interest to instructors of the first-year language classroom. To this end, you are invited to submit proposals for articles that address research or pedagogical issues with the focus on classroom implications for novice levels of adult language proficiency.
The articles in this volume will:
• focus on adult learners in a formal classroom setting (e.g. college or university classes);
• address facilitation of linguistic, communicative, and cultural competence in the framework of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills;
• describe successful instructional strategies and collaborative projects;
• discuss empirical research findings and their implications for classroom teaching;
• present innovative materials and techniques that enhance teaching and learning;
• offer practical teaching suggestions that would work in any adult elementary-level language classroom.
Given the relative scarcity of materials targeting adult novice-level instruction, the ideas, methods, techniques, and practical recommendations contained in the book will strengthen the elementary curriculum as they appeal to various learning styles, build learners’ confidence, and help stimulate language production in the context of classroom-specific uses.
The book will consist of the following tentative sections:
• Grammar and vocabulary
• Speaking and listening
• Reading and writing
• Intercultural competence
• Assessment and evaluation
• Teaching with technology
Your Article Proposal should include:
• Book section to which your article is being submitted
• Article title
• Author name(s) and affiliation(s)
• 500-word overview of the article (not including references)
• A sample of relevant references
• 100-word biography for each author
Article proposals should be submitted electronically (Word document, APA style guidelines) to Katya Nemtchinova at katya@spu.edu by August 1, 2019
Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 15, 2020
This volume has been discussed with Routledge, which expressed an interest in the project. Once article proposals are finalized, a full book proposal will be sent to the publisher. Upon acceptance by the publisher, potential article authors will be invited to submit full articles (up to 6,000 words) and will be sent guidelines for preparing articles along with submission deadlines. Articles should be original work and should not be submitted for publication elsewhere. All submitted articles will undergo a blind review process.