Double Talk: Deconstructing Monolingualism in Classroom Second Language Learning

Intended for current and future foreign language teaching professionals, volumes in the Theory and Practice in Second Language Classroom Instruction series examine issues in teaching and learning in language classrooms. The topics selected and the discussions of them draw in principled ways on theory and practice in a range of fields, including second language acquisition, foreign language education, educational policy, language policy, linguistics, and other areas of applied linguistics. Double Talk draws on six real-life stories of second language use and their implications for teaching today's language students by challenging the notion of a monolingual standard for our classrooms while pursuing a bilingual objective.

Virginia Scott received a B.A. from Eckerd College, an M.A. from Florida State University, and a Ph.D. in French and Applied Linguistics from Emory University. She joined the Department of French and Italian at Vanderbilt University in 1988 where she has served as Director of the French Language Program, Director of Vanderbilt-in-France, and Department Chair.

Since coming to Vanderbilt Professor Scott has received the Madison Sarratt Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching, the Earnest A. Jones Faculty Advisor, and the Cuninggim Women’s Center mentoring award.

In 2005 she was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the French Minister of Education. In 2007 she received the Jacqueline Elliot Award, given annually by the Tennessee Foreign Language Teachers Association for outstanding contributions to the profession.

Professor Scott has published a number of articles on second language acquisition and foreign language teaching in The Modern Language Journal, The French Review, and Foreign Language Annals, among others. Her book, Rethinking foreign language writing (1996, Heinle), explores cognitive processes involved when students generate ideas, write, and revise. SLA and the Literature Classroom (2001 AAUSC volume), co-edited with colleague Holly Tucker, centers on how the study of literature in a foreign language promotes second language acquisition. Scott’s edited volume, Principles and Practices of the Standards in college foreign language education (2009, AAUSC) explores the role of the Standards at the college level.

Before coming to the United States in 1968, Professor Scott lived in France, Madagascar, Kenya, and Denmark. She speaks English, French, Danish, and German and enjoys reading Spanish and Italian.