Patricia A. Richard-Amato

Patricia Richard-Amato BIOGRAPHY Dr. Patricia Richard-Amato synthesizes cognitive and sociocultural theories and applies them to second and foreign language teaching. She is Professor Emerita at California State University, Los Angeles where she coordinated graduate programs in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Her experience includes 19 years in U.S. public schools and teaching at several TESOL Institutes and Academies in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Richard-Amato was a co-recipient of the Mildenberger Medal from the Modern Language Association for developing with John Oller, Jr. the 1983 outstanding research publication Methods that Work. Her recent textbooks include Making It Happen: From Interactive to Participatory Language Teaching: Evolving Theory and Practice (4th edition) and Academic Success for English Language Learners: Strategies for K-12 Mainstream Teachers (with M. A. Snow). She is one of the founders of the Pikes Peak Chapter of the United Nations Association, USA and is a founding member of the Institute for Language and Education Policy. BELIEFS ABOUT SECOND AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING Following theories of Vygotsky, Freire, and many others, Dr. Richard-Amato argues that the field of second and foreign language teaching needs to again head closer to the sociocultural end of the teaching continuum. However, she is convinced that aspects of cognitive theory must continue to inform a broader and more inclusive paradigm in which western and nonwestern perspectives are considered. Although Dr. Richard-Amato believes that method as magical formula will not fit this paradigm, she thinks that method as a resource critically examined can serve as a useful component in the right environments. She suggests that the field move away from grammar/skill-based teaching and again toward interactive, content-based teaching (including relevant tasks and proficiencies/skills). She argues that explicit grammar and skill instruction appropriately timed need to play an important role. In addition, dialogical language testing if properly developed could make testing processes much more like instructional processes. While emergent participatory language teaching has found its way into many classrooms in spite of the current push to "teach to the test," she thinks it would be a mistake to define it as a method or an approach. For it transcends both and gets to the very heart of the student-teacher relationship. It can now and in the future involve students more intimately in their own learning if allowed to do so. Even more important to a postmodern world that could emerge if future circumstances support its development, will be teacher attributes such as openness to students' needs and the willingness to self-reflect.