Language Proficiency in an Era of Accountability: Using the Target Language to Learn How to Teach

This article presents a qualitative study of integrating target language (TL) materials and activities within a world language (WL) teacher preparation program at a large, Midwestern public university. Based on document and interview data, I analyze how teacher candidates engaged with curricular materials written in the respective TL, how they interacted with their peers in the TL about those materials, and how they described the effect of both on their learning. As the analysis demonstrates, candidates reported that these experiences integrating language and language-teacher learning helped them extend their TL proficiency into pedagogical and professional domains. Moreover, they reported that this work helped them more fully understand the complexities of teaching.