Language teachers spend a lot of time with their students, both in the classroom
during teaching and learning activities, and outside during, for example, offi ce hour
visits or fi eld trips. Teachers are constantly attending to their students’ performance
in the second language, noting their pronunciation, the breadth and accuracy of
their vocabulary, their use of syntactic rules, and the appropriacy of their language
use. If asked, for example, how Richard is doing in French, or what progress Paola is
making in her English class, most teachers can come up with an evaluation of their
students’ learning, perhaps something like, ‘Well, Paola’s pronunciation is pretty