Curricular Infusion in the Secondary Foreign Language Classroom: Does One Size Fit All?

Abstract

Across the nation, public schools are focusing on increasing student achievement on standardizedtests at the state and national levels in order to comply with federal legislation under the No Child LeftBehind Act that requires all students to score at or above proficiency levels in math and reading by theyear 2014 (United States Department of Education). In response to this emphasis on accountabilityand increasing student performance-primarily in the "core" subjects such as English, math and science manypublic schools have adopted professional development plans designed to infuse their curriculumwith general, effective teaching methods that are to be implemented by all teachers, in all subject areas(i.e. curricular infusion). The impetus behind this reform is rooted in educational research; however, theresearch supporting these models of curricular infusion is often based on the core subjects and largelyignores the non-core or elective subjects such as foreign language. As a result, secondary foreignlanguage instructors who are required to adapt general educational research to their areas of expertisemay be left wondering about the effectiveness of applying such instructional techniques that are notdirectly related to foreign language pedagogy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to adapt ageneral model of instructional improvement methods to foreign language instruction and assess itsperceived importance among secondary foreign language instructors in a Midwestern state.