Taking a Vygotskian sociocultural theory approach to teacher learning in the form of activity theory, this qualitative case study examined how and the extent to which two pre-service teachers of Spanish in a university teacher education program interpreted and implemented the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach as a function of the goals and motives within the multiple activity settings (the university, elementary schools, and high school) in which they learned to teach. Data-gathering methods included classroom observations, post-observation interviews, in-depth interviews, and the analysis of coursework documents. Data sources were analyzed using the extended case method (Vaughan, 1992) and Engeström’s (2001) third-generation triangular model of activity.
The findings reveal that although the pre-service teachers were able to develop an understanding of the theoretical foundations that inform and motivate the practice of CLT (i.e., appropriating its conceptual underpinnings), in terms of implementing the conceptual underpinnings of this approach through classroom practice, they were not able to consistently execute lessons that reflect the tenets of a CLT curriculum as outlined in the relevant literature (Nunan, 1991; Richards & Rodgers, 2001; Savignon, 1997) as they transitioned from one activity setting to another. It was concluded, therefore, that the pre-service teachers appropriated CLT as a pseudoconcept (Vygotsky, 1994a, 1994b).
That is to say, there was some evidence of internal contradictions and inconsistencies in their implementation of CLT principles which were functions of the settings and subsettings in which they learned to teach. Primary, secondary, and tertiary tensions (Engeström, 1987, 2001) emerged as the pre-service teachers aimed to strike a balance among their own goals for teaching, the local realities of their activity settings, the goals and expectations of their mentor teachers, and the motives of their teacher education program. However, it was their working through these tensions that brought about learning opportunities which contributed to their theoretical understanding of CLT.
The findings suggest that concept appropriation, for the pre-service teachers in this study, was not a matter of merely transferring conceptual, physical, and practical tools from their university to their school settings, but a cyclical and interpretive process that consisted of role negotiation; expansive transformation; critical self-reflection; exercising relational agency; attempts to strike a balance of power; and aiming to resolve primary, secondary, and tertiary tensions within and between activity systems.