The articulation of novice foreign language teacher needs in relation to teaching contexts and discourse about languages and language learners

This dissertation identified and traced historical and contemporary societal discourses about languages and language learners as they relate to the articulation of novice foreign language teacher needs at the classroom level. For the purposes of this study, teacher needs were specifically related to resources, school and classroom conditions, training, and professional opportunities that affected the research participants' practices.; The first level of research analyzed textual examples of historical and contemporary discourses about languages and language learners culled from 20th-century documents, recent newspaper and magazine articles, and the Internet. This analysis made the case that the U.S. record on language education (foreign language, English as a second language [ESL], bilingual, deaf, and language teacher preparation) is lacking and that the problems are the result of a complex combination of discursive, structural, and contextual factors. The second level of analysis focused on what two novice foreign language teachers (Spanish and American Sign Language [ASL]) in Utah described as their needs in the realm of specific foreign language content area preparation as well as other needs determined by their teaching contexts. This dissertation, using Bakhtinian and sociocultural theoretical perspectives, examined how and why those needs are articulated within the context of language ideologies and school structures as well as how they contest, reify, or otherwise relate to hegemonic ideologies.; The results showed a definitive, recursive link between novice foreign language teacher needs, discourse, and the institutional structures that have been influenced by those discursive elements. The results also emphasized the importance of individual teaching contexts in the articulation of teacher needs. The implications of the study included a reexamination of foreign language teacher preparation and the ways in which teacher educators may be able to appropriately address the complex needs of their students without perpetuating a system that fosters a monolingual society.