Abstract:
This thesis examines cognitions and practices of teachers of Spanish in New Zealand secondary schools. Cognitions are personal frameworks of knowledge and beliefs through which teachers interpret and interact with their professional environments. While previous studies have signalled the complex interaction between cognitions, practices and contexts, there is little evidence concerning the linguistic and pedagogic decisions of native speaker and non-native speaker teachers of languages other than English in secondary school contexts. A multifaceted research design in two stages was used to capture teachers’ cognitions, teachers’ decision-making processes, and teachers’ practices. Responses from 64% of participants in a national survey were triangulated with data from an in-depth study of twelve teachers gathered through interviews, classroom observations, document analysis and introspective reflection. Analysis of explanations of formal aspects of the language provided evidence of teachers’ pedagogical and linguistic reasoning. Findings support the argument that language teachers’ instructional decisions and practices are grounded on their cognitions; they are contextually determined, and result from the judicious application of theoretical constructs. The study found that teachers’ cognitions integrated teachers’ knowledge of the language and pedagogy, as well as their experiences as language learners and language teachers. In addition, cognitions were informed by a range of theoretical constructs that teachers pragmatically applied in their practices, rejecting a unique and immutable view of pedagogic and methodological paradigms. Analysis of the language methods and the strategies used by teachers to explain formal aspects of the language revealed that teachers’ pedagogical and linguistic decisions were strongly influenced by students’ characteristics and needs. Teachers’ consideration of their students was embedded in the broader contexts and characteristics of schools where academic expectations place particular demands on teachers. Comparative analyses between native speaker and non-native speaker teachers indicated that differences in cognitions ascribed to language background were overridden by contextual factors. This study argues that, guided by their cognitions, New Zealand teachers of Spanish engage in differentiated and purposive practices that dynamically respond to the demands of their contexts.