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Research on the implementation of high‐leverage practices (HLTPs) in World Languages (WL) has gained momentum over the past decade. While the field has largely focused its attention on HLTPs in preservice teacher preparation, our research seeks to illuminate how in‐service WL teachers self‐report utilizing the HLTPs in classroom instruction. This qualitative case study examined the self‐reported teaching practices of 54 in‐service K‐12 WL teachers in the U.S. Data were collected through a survey and a follow‐up semi‐structured interview with nine of the 54 participants. Our analysis focused on two of Glisan and Donato's (2017) HLTPs, Facilitating Target Language Comprehensibility (HLTP #1) and Building a Classroom Discourse Community (HLTP #2). The findings revealed that the majority of participants self‐reported what could be considered “effective” implementation of HLTPs #1 and #2, while a number of participants indicated “developing” or “ineffective” micro‐practices associated with HLTPs more broadly. The implications of this study may inform both the work of teacher development programming for in‐service teachers and research on HLTPs.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stephen Krashen developed Monitor Theory—a group of hypotheses explaining second language acquisition with implications for language teaching. As the L2 scholarly community began considering what requirements theories should meet, Monitor Theory was widely criticized and dismissed, along with its teaching implications. What happened to these ideas? We argue that many of them have evolved and are still driving SLA research today—often unacknowledged and under new terminology. In this essay, we focus on three of Krashen's five fundamental hypotheses: The Acquisition‐Learning Distinction, The Natural Order Hypothesis, and The Input Hypothesis. We argue that these ideas persist today as the following constructs: implicit versus explicit learning, ordered development, and a central role for communicatively embedded input in all theories of second language acquisition. We conclude with implications for language teaching, including a focus on comprehensible input and communication in the classroom. The Challenge Krashen's Monitor Theory first appeared some 40 years ago. Does it belong to the “history of language teaching”? Or do Krashen's ideas still drive second language acquisition research—unacknowledged and under different names—and thus still have relevance for teaching? We argue that they have survived and are still relevant

Metacognition is a topic of increasing interest in the field of instruction and learning, but its relation to actual teaching behaviors is seldom investigated in second language (L2) classroom research. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how language teacher metacognition and executive function are linked to high-leverage teaching practice. We recruited foreign and second language teachers (N = 937), including bilingual/ESL teachers, from public schools across the southern United States. We obtained a direct measure of teachers' executive function and an indirect measure of metacognitive capacity. Using the Tripod (7Cs) framework, we also assessed specific aspects of high-leverage teaching practice under 3 broad conceptual areas: personal support, curricular support, and academic press. We examined the mediating role of teacher metacognitive capacity between executive function and exemplary classroom practice, and tested an alternative model. Analyses returned stronger support for our hypothesized model over the alternative, indicating that teacher metacognitionz—teachers' adaptive capacity to monitor, interpret, evaluate, and intervene on L2 classroom events—constitutes an important mediating condition for building classroom environments that are engaging, demanding, and supportive of learners' L2 development.

Research has identified 10 high‐leverage teaching practices (HLTPs) that can impact student learning of a foreign language. While acknowledging the importance of this work, more research is needed to inform the preparation of novice teachers to enact these practices. In response, the researchers conducted a case study involving two foreign language teacher preparation programs in the United States and Germany, to better understand how the two very different programs prepare their candidates to implement HLTPs, which HLTPs are emphasized, and how successful they are at preparing their aspiring teachers to implement one practice that has been identified in the research as particularly important (facilitating target language comprehensibility). Survey, teaching observation, and interview data collected from teacher candidates and their instructors suggested the critical nature of select HLTPs, that some of the subcomponents of one of these practices may be more challenging for novice teachers to master than others, and that there may be multiple approaches to preparing foreign language teachers to implement HLTPs. The Challenge Research has identified a set of 10 high‐leverage teaching practices that when implemented well can have a positive impact on student learning. To what extent are these practices emphasized in foreign language teacher training programs? How successful are novice teachers at implementing them, and are some subcomponents more challenging to master than others? Answering these questions will help to guide the preparation of foreign language teacher candidates to implement these critical practices in their classrooms.

The purpose of this mixed‐methods study was to uncover how high‐achieving university Spanish instructors engage in the core practice of building a classroom discourse community at a doctoral‐level university in the southwestern United States. The second goal of this study was to determine whether student performance on reading and writing assessments was impacted by a focus on oral communication. Findings indicated that high‐achieving university Spanish instructors employed the use of personalized contexts for interaction and purposefully conceptualized planning and enacting of communicative tasks, although specific approaches in creating a classroom discourse community varied by the instructor. Despite the focus on oral communication in the participants' classes, student performance in courses taught by high‐achieving instructors was significantly higher in reading and writing assessments than the performance of students in courses taught by other instructors in the same course and language program. Findings support the notion that high‐leverage teaching practices have a palpable, practical impact on student learning. The Challenge The enactment of high‐leverage teaching practices in world languages has become increasingly relevant in current discussions on teaching and learning. What can peering into the classrooms of high‐achieving language instructors tell us about their practices? What impact do these practices have on student performance?

This commentary reflects on this issue's contributions to the retrospective of the work of Stephen Krashen on second language acquisition.

The Challenge Does leadership matter? In K‐12 world language programs, will a program leader or primary evaluator who is a world language specialist have an impact on teacher practices? The lack of attention to school leadership in our field has left us guessing. Its time to focus research on the importance of program leadership. This large‐scale study used a survey to collect data on K‐12 world language program leadership and instructional practices in Massachusetts public schools, investigating associations between the presence of a program leader or primary evaluator who is a world language specialist and instructional practices, curriculum, and assessment. The study resulted in 383 individual teachers completed responses, representing 188 school districts. Multilevel regressions were fit for groups of questions focusing on different categories of instructional practices by educational level (elementary, middle school, and high school). Results indicate positive associations between a world language specialist in the role of program leader or primary evaluator and a number of teacher practices. Further research is needed to expand understandings of the role and impact of world language leadership at the K‐12 level. Program leadership is an important component of the school system that has largely been omitted in world language educational research.

This article argues for the field of foreign languages to begin to identify and define our Grand Challenges, which are difficult yet solvable problems facing our field. Seeking answers to these challenges can provide new opportunities for collaboration and can spur new directions and innovation within language learning and teaching. Researchable questions that emerge from these Grand Challenges can form a research trajectory, build community support, and contribute to changing public opinion about the role of languages in greater society. Challenges What will foreign language education look like in 5, 10, or even 50 years? How can our field create an organized and interconnected path into the future? This article contemplates our grand challenges, which are difficult yet solvable problems facing foreign language teaching and learning.

Recent discussions in the field of teacher education call for more practice‐based professional development as a way to provide pre‐service teachers with the necessary skills to significantly advance student learning. High‐leverage teaching practices (HLTP) are a core set of teaching practices that, when executed proficiently by accomplished novice teachers, are said to promote higher gains in student learning over other teaching practices. In this review, we define and identify possible practices within specific teaching domains against the backdrop of the history of HLTP in the field of mathematics education, a pioneer in this area. We then extend and apply the work in mathematics to foreign language (FL) education. Examining HLTP from the perspective of mathematics education provides a useful initial framework to the FL education community to identify and establish its own set of practices and ground future research in this area.

This article analyzes and synthesizes the major theoretical frameworks for building intercultural communicative competency (ICC) within the domain of the foreign language classroom. Researchers used a pragmatist orientation as a venue for the translation of theoretical models into usable, accessible guidelines for classroom teachers in order to provide a deeper understanding and clarity of ICC and its implementation in the language classroom. Video and Discussion