Language teachers recognize that improving their foreign language proficiency is an ongoing process. New ways of evaluating teachers' language skills, and curriculum changes emphasizing performance highlight skill inadequacies. Many teachers have not reached functional language levels, and language skill upgrading is a more relevant issue than…

This digest discusses the professional development of foreign language teachers at a time when the foreign language teaching profession is facing a number of new challenges, such as a rapidly changing student clientele, the development of national standards for foreign language education, and advances in technology. The first section of the digest…