Citation

Schrier LL. Foreign Lang. Ann. 2008; 41(2): 282-309.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1944-9720.2008.tb03293.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

For the last two decades the foreign language education profession has spent considerable energy establishing professional guidelines for foreign language teacher preparation. This article discusses research that suggests that the profession should now direct its energies toward developing protocols to assist preservice teachers whose mental health challenges place them at risk in their quest to become foreign language teachers. Further, the article discusses why teacher educators are ill prepared to cope with the substantial mental health issues undergraduates currently face. Examples are presented from a teacher education program that modified its supervision process to facilitate the development of strategies for coping with the stressors related to foreign language teaching in particular. Suggestions are made for research and policy changes to meet the mental health needs of current and future novice foreign language teachers.