Adult Learning in the Language Classroom

Stacey Margarita Johnson has written a highly accessible analysis of adult beginners in a Spanish class, revealing how their learning is much more than acquiring competences. It transforms their lives and understanding of the world, and thus provides a much needed counter-balance to impoverished instrumental justifications for language teaching. Language learning enriches. -- Michael Byram, Professor Emeritus, University of Durham, UK This is an important piece of scholarship that challenges traditional assumptions and expectations on the goals of adult language learning. This book will certainly be an invaluable resource and guide for any college professor who wishes to incorporate transformative learning experiences into the novice or intermediate language class. -- Linwood J. Randolph Jr., University of North Carolina, Wilmington, USA Johnson presents a carefully constructed case for focusing language classes on helping students to achieve transformative learning in addition to improving language skills. While the book combines arguments about college and adult settings, it provides clear, relatable information that could help language instructors at all levels to modify their practices. -- Mariya Gyendina, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA * Language and Education, 30:6 * This book reports a very interesting study in an adult foreign language class from a new perspective. The findings are exciting and encouraging to language educators, language learners, and program developers. They help us look at lower-level foreign language classes from a new interdisciplinary perspective and help us see the value of these classes in promoting deeper and more reflective kind of learning among the students. These kinds of learning are not only the goals of language education but also of the undergraduate education in general. This book is, in some sense, an eye opener for practitioners in the area of foreign language education. -- Hongying Xu, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, USA * LINGUIST List 27.3096 * Johnson's book presents a refreshing and positive view of the effects that FL teaching and learning can have on college students. Her work is an invitation for teachers of adult FL to reflect on ways they can make their courses more relevant to the lives of adult learners. It is also an invitation for practitioners and researchers to establish connections between the fields of adult learning and adult FL teaching. In addition, the book reports on best practices while teaching FL to college students that are applicable to other settings teaching adult learners (...) For all of these reasons, I believe this book to be interesting, relevant, and useful, and I recommend it to everyone interested in adult learning and research. -- Clarena Larrotta, Texas State University, USA * Adult Education Quarterly 2016, Vol. 66(2) 188- 193 * Postsecondary educators interested in the application of adult learning theory in the L2 classroom will find an honest and informative case study of an elementary level Spanish class in Johnson's latest work. Reflecting on the practical benefits of language learning, this book showcases the "transformative potential" of studying a foreign language and emphasizes the applied skills that can be acquired in just a single semester's worth of study. -- Alexis McBride, Vanderbilt University, USA * The Teaching and Learning of Cultures SIG Newsletter, 3:1, January 2016 *

Stacey Margarita Johnson is currently at Vanderbilt University as the Assistant Director for Educational Technology in the Center for Teaching and Senior Lecturer in Spanish. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Hope College. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the Culture SIG for ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages). Her research includes L2 teaching methodology, adult learning, and technology in language education.

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Adult Learning Theory Chapter 3: Adult Language Education Chapter 4: This Class Chapter 5: How the Class was Taught Chapter 6: What Students Learned Chapter 7: Transformation and Development Chapter 8: Applications References Appendix