Teacher and University Educator Perspectives on Teaching Languages in Rural Settings: A Sonata Form Case Study

Abstract

The experience of teaching languages in rural schools differs markedly from teaching languages in urban contexts, in relation to the size and nature of communities and their interactions, numbers of teachers of languages, in and out of school contact, and in the cultural and language backgrounds of students and their likelihood of opportunities to interact with users of the language being learned. The rewards, rather than the challenges of teaching languages in rural contexts are explored in this paper by a classroom languages teacher and a tertiary languages teacher educator and researcher, in a 'sonata form' (two-voiced, dialogic and reflexive) conversation, aimed at providing insights into the importance and significance of languages education for rural Australian students, and the pleasures for teachers of this crucial work when engaged in rural settings.