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In this cutting-edge book on L2 teacher education, experts Johnson, Verity, and Childs demonstrate how praxis-oriented pedagogy grounded in the principles of Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (VSCT) can have a meaningful impact on L2 teachers’ development. Starting with a clear definition of praxis-oriented pedagogy, the authors lay out a theoretical foundation and document how appropriately designed praxis-oriented L2 teacher education pedagogy supports the development of novice teacher reasoning. Drawing from a longitudinal study of L2 novice teachers, chapters address the teachers’ understanding, learning, and cognitive development and how their capabilities grow in creating and implementing engaging language learning environments for their ESL students. At the core of the book lies a unique set of pedagogical concepts: linguistically compact, conceptually rich chunks of language that function as psychological tools for learning and teaching. By covering teachers’ changes in understanding, reasoning, and pedagogical activities, the book reveals the role that pedagogical concepts play in praxis-oriented pedagogy.
Essential reading for language teacher educators, language teachers, and researchers, this book makes the VSCT principles that inform praxis-oriented pedagogy both clear and accessible.
Karen E. Johnson is Kirby Professor of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Deryn P. Verity is a Teaching Professor in Applied Linguistics and Director of ESL/EAP Programs at The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Sharon S. Childs is an Associate Teaching Professor and Chair of the MA TESL Program at The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series
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Concepts, Principles, and Pedagogy
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Praxis-oriented Pedagogy for Novice L2 Teachers
Developing Teacher Reasoning
Karen E. Johnson, Deryn P. Verity, and Sharon S. Childs
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PRAXIS-ORIENTED PEDAGOGY
FOR NOVICE L2 TEACHERS
Developing Teacher Reasoning
Karen E. Johnson, Deryn P. Verity, and Sharon S. Childs
The right of Karen E. Johnson, Deryn P. Verity, and Sharon S. Childs to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
ISBN: 978-1-032-21568-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-21408-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-26898-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003268987
Typeset in Bembo by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
To Glenn, Elizabeth, and Lillian
To the life and memory of Steve Cornwell, extraordinary teacher educator and dear friend
To Karen and Deryn for mediating my professional growth throughout this journey
FOREWORD
It was Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Outside, the lush green, rolling hills of central Pennsylvania were punctuated by orange day lilies, drenched in the warmth of a July sun. But we—Karen, Deryn, Sharon, and Paula—opted to be inside the windowless four walls of the fluorescent-lit conference room in the Department of Applied Linguistics at Penn State. We were just beginning a two-day discussion about each of the initial subsets of data representing the journeys of novice L2 teachers who had graduated from the MA TESL Program at Penn State.
I now reflect on those initial days of impassioned dialogue and the final book that Karen, Deryn, and Sharon (KDS) have written through the dialectic of being/becoming, a conceptualization through which we, as language teacher educators, typically understand our novice L2 teachers. At that point in time, this book was in the process of organically being/becoming as KDS engaged in thinking together and writing themselves into meaning. How does one craft a theorized, compelling, readable book condensing an abundance of data covering a two-year process of teacher development while foregrounding the teachers’ voices? KDS decidedly do this in Praxis-oriented Pedagogy for Novice L2 Teachers: Developing Teacher Reasoning through the revolutionary pedagogy of their language teacher education program. I use the words ‘revolutionary pedagogy’ in the Vygotskian sense, where learning and development are conceptualized as being in a dialectic, through which people make meaning using conceptual tools in socioculturally situated, goal-oriented activities. The book is also revolutionary in the Vygotskian way it actualizes the program as a research laboratory, and, thus, highlights teacher development through their voices within these intentional learning-to-teach activities.
The explanation and exploration of pedagogical concepts through the teachers’ voices is the most theoretically profound yet practical contribution of this
book. The book shows how KDS introduce pedagogical concepts, or “theoretical insights packaged for use by novices” (p. 26), in three pillar courses. They show how novice teachers increasingly make sense of their teaching through conceptual tools; that is, by thinking together with their classmates and teacher educators, they increasingly talk about their instructional activity through the pedagogical concepts, and their practical activity of teaching facilitates a deeper understanding of the concepts. Crucial to this is that as teachers talk through their understandings of their instructional practice through specific pedagogical concepts, the teacher educators gauge teachers’ reasoning, identify emerging growth points, co-construct ZPD activity, and engage in responsive mediation. This book enables readers to witness this through what is rare in many published materials—longitudinal, in-depth highlighting of teachers’ voices as they externalize their intimate, emotional, individual experiences with learning-to-teach in increasingly reasoned and self-regulated ways. It similarly traces these teacher educators’ own understandings and use of these pedagogical concepts, their own being/becoming.
What this book refutes is that teachers do not develop their expertise simply by teaching. The intentionality and quality of the teacher educator mediation in all three courses demonstrates how and why language teacher educators/education matters and the centrality of the novice L2 teacher/teacher educator relationship. The excerpts demonstrate how responsive mediation can be enacted as the teacher educators listen, offer emotional support, offer an instructional alternative, or probe teachers to consider the effects of their instructional choices in the process of teaching the practice teach or after tutoring and teaching in the practicum. What is revolutionary is that the mediation is intentional, orienting, emergent, holistic, and focused on development while enabling teachers to interact with students more thoughtfully in the next class/tutoring session.
KDS note that people ask them “How could I possibly implement these ideas when I’m in a traditional MATESL program and do not have such likeminded colleagues?” I can attest that these pedagogical concepts do ‘travel’: I use them in my undergraduate TESL certificate program with first-time teachers, where I do not have such like-minded colleagues. What this book provides is a vision of possibilities for language teacher education inspired by Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory. This book challenges us as teacher educators to externalize our own being/becoming to create the kinds of intentional and structured mediational spaces that support the teachers with whom we work in their own being/becoming expert language teachers.
Paula Golombek University of
Florida
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We want to express our enormous debt of gratitude to the many novice L2 teachers who welcomed us into their learning-to-teach experiences for the two years they spent in our MA TESL program. It is their insights, struggles, joy, and passion for becoming language teachers that make up the lifeblood of our work as teacher educators and it is their voices that bring life to this book. We are lucky to teach in a setting where exploration of praxis-oriented pedagogy is not only welcomed, but nurtured. Professor James P. Lantolf, a mentor, colleague, and inspirational researcher into Vygotsky’s theory of mind and human development, has for years been a sounding board for our ideas and questions. His influence is evident in the openness and support we have for our collaborative quest to create innovative educational contexts for our teachers. We also wish to thank the multitude of graduate students in the Department of Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University who labored over intricate transcriptions of hours of digitally recorded classroom data. They allowed us to see into our teachers’ ‘inner worlds’ in ways that would not have been possible otherwise. We also thank the many instructors who allowed us to come into their classrooms to record lessons and carry out observations, and who thoughtfully mentored our MA TESL students in their practicum teaching experiences. A special thanks goes to our long-time colleague and friend, Paula R. Golombek (University of Florida), who offered us insightful feedback on an initial draft of this book and who pushed us to fully articulate the true potential of praxis-oriented pedagogy for the development of L2 teacher reasoning. We are very grateful to Jacob Rieker for his meticulous copyediting and attention to clarity in the written word. Finally, we would like to thank the reviewers commissioned by Routledge for their constructive feedback and the acquisitions editor, Karen Adler, and series editor, Eli Hinkel, for their professionalism and recognition of the book’s potential contribution to the ESL and Applied Linguistics Professional Series.
NOTES ON TRANSCRIPTION
T teacher
TE teacher educator
S student (not identified)
S1, S2, etc.: identified student
Ss several students at once or the whole class CM classmate, CM1, classmate 1
[ [do you understand? overlap between teacher/student, student/ student
= turn continues, or one turn follows another without any pause (.) a dot indicates a just noticeable pause (2.0) a number indicates a timed pause, e.g., 2 seconds ? rising intonation—question or other emphatic speech, usually on a word
CAPITALS speech that is hearably louder than surrounding speech
wo (h) rd (h) to indicate the word is expressed with laughter
wor- a dash indicates a word that has been cut off wo:rd colons indicate elongation of a sound (word) a guess at unclear or unintelligible talk () talk occurs but unintelligible ((laughter)) indicates paralinguistic sounds like laughter, crying, etc. ((italics)) notes on gestures, actions, eye gaze, etc.
Source : Adapted from van Lier (1988) and Johnson (1995).
xiv Notes on Transcription
References
Johnson, K. E. (1995). Communication in second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
van Lier, L. (1988). The classroom and the language learner. London: Longman.
PART I
DEFINING PRAXISORIENTED PEDAGOGY FOR L2 TEACHER EDUCATION
1 VYGOTSKIAN SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Concepts and principles
While past L2 teacher cognition research has critically examined what language teachers know, believe, and think (i.e., their mental lives), limited progress has been made in addressing fundamental questions about the developmental trajectory of L2 teachers (people) and teaching (activity) expertise. Kubanyiova and Feryok (2015) maintain that the field of L2 teacher cognition has barely begun to answer fundamental questions about developing L2 teacher/teaching expertise: “How do language teachers create meaningful learning environments for their students?” and “How can teacher education, continuing professional development, and the wider educational and sociocultural context facilitate such learning in language teachers?” (p. 435). That is, the question of “what constitutes a meaningful and worthwhile impact of L2 teacher education is far from resolved” (p. 436).
The dominant discourses that typically get invoked when people talk about teacher education reflect notions such as ‘too much theory, not enough practice’ and ‘teachers learn to teach by teaching.’ Surprisingly, even teachers who have gone through teacher education or certificate programs sometimes claim that they did not really learn how to teach until they got into their own classrooms. When we enter the realm of L2 teacher education, an even more misguided notion is typically invoked: ‘If you can speak the language, you can teach it.’ Often, both language teachers and language learners find themselves buying into this notion: for teachers, ‘I speak English, but I don’t know how to teach it,’ or ‘my English is not good enough to teach’; for students, ‘I would prefer to study English with a native speaking teacher.’
This book offers a counter narrative to these dominant discourses. We crucially reject the notion that a person can learn to teach ‘only by teaching’ or can be entrusted with the task of teaching on the basis of being a ‘native speaker’ of a language. To support this perspective, we make our praxisoriented pedagogy explicit by longitudinally documenting our interactions with the novice teachers in our MA TESL program, whose L1s may or may not be English, and their responses to our interactions as they unfold within our classrooms and institutional context. At the same time, we explore the influences and consequences of this praxis-oriented pedagogy on the development of novice L2 teacher reasoning. We argue, as Vygotsky (1935/1994) did, that school learning is not the same as learning in the everyday world. Instead, he characterized school learning as ‘artificial’ in the sense that it relies upon the artifacts of formal and intentional mediation: the classroom (in this case, the classroom for novice teachers) is an ideal venue for systematic, intentional, goal-directed instruction where new psychological tools (artifacts, concepts, and symbols) can be introduced with the goal of restructuring both thinking (teacher cognition) and activity (language teaching). We also argue that language teacher educators can intentionally shape the social situation of development (i.e., the social environment) by creating structured mediational spaces where novices can grow into becoming L2 teachers. Therefore, language teacher educators are essential participants in the process of seeing, supporting, and enhancing the development of novice L2 teacher reasoning.
This book lays out a theoretical foundation for praxis-oriented pedagogy as systematically and intentionally informed by the principles and concepts of Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (VSCT). The book has four primary aims:
• To define praxis-oriented pedagogy as educational innovations that embody the dialectical principle that changes in social activities/relations affect cognitive development
• To document how appropriately designed L2 teacher education pedagogy supports novice teacher understanding, learning, and cognitive development
• To highlight the role that pedagogical concepts, as expressed in brief and accessible phrases, play in praxis-oriented pedagogy and in the development of novice teacher reasoning and instructional expertise
• To trace the developmental trajectory of L2 novice teacher reasoning as well as their emerging capabilities to create and enact engaging language learning environments for the English learners they teach
Specifically, we present and discuss data from our two-year graduate-level L2 teacher education program (MA TESL). The data document how, as language teacher educators, we create cohesively structured, intentionally designed, mediational spaces that expose novice teachers to relevant academic and pedagogical concepts as they engage in a variety of mediated teaching/tutoring activities. To provide more context for the course-driven data, we discuss the intentional design features of three required praxisoriented courses, Teaching ESL, Tutoring Internship, and Teaching Practicum, what we refer to as our ‘pillar’ courses. We designate these courses as pillars because they hold up the theoretical framework of the approach we call praxis-oriented pedagogy. In essence, we offer a VSCT theorized rationale for the decision-making processes that lie behind our intentional design features. We hope by making the VSCT principles that inform the courses both clear and accessible, readers may find avenues for making their own L2 teacher education programs more principle-driven, cohesive, and praxis-oriented. We then present empirical data that traces the developmental trajectories of novice L2 teachers from two cohorts of teachers in our MA TESL program as they move through the three pillar courses. These courses, which lie at the center of this book, engage novice teachers in learning how to understand teaching as a reasoned and agentive activity, more so on how to teach, rather than on what to teach. Through our voices and the voices and experiences of the novice L2 teachers in our program, we illustrate how praxis-oriented pedagogy contributes to crucial intersections of theory and practice, where professional, intentional, and reasoned activity is modeled, enacted, and explored. Our longitudinal findings document the emerging capabilities of novice L2 teachers to articulate, create, and enact engaging language learning environments for the learners they teach. We highlight a unique set of interrelated pedagogical concepts (see Figure 1.1, also Appendix 1), designed to function as psychological tools, that we ask the novice L2 teachers to engage with in order to orient them toward taking on a more reasoned, dialogic, interactive, responsive instructional stance as they plan for and engage with their learners. Our findings are supplemented with post-program interviews with recent MA TESL graduates. These practicing L2 teachers reflect on the significant concepts, experiences, and/or realizations that have traveled with them from our praxis-oriented pedagogy into their early professional years and how these concepts have become important facets of their own pedagogy. We conclude with implications, propositions, and design options for L2 teacher educators interested in implementing VSCT-informed, principle-driven, cohesive, praxis-oriented pedagogy.
1.1 Pedagogical Concepts in L2 Teaching (Continued)
FIGURE
FIGURE 1.1 (Continued)
Instruction and Cognition: Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development
Vygotsky’s theoretical stance on the relationship between instruction and cognitive development is that attention to what learners can do independently at any given point in time says little about the trajectory of learners’ development or what their potential may be. A more productive measure, Vygotsky argued, is the difference between independent performance and aided performance, framed conceptually as the zone of proximal development (ZPD). In Vygotsky’s own words:
The zone of proximal development of the child is the distance between his actual development, determined with the help of independently solved tasks, and the level of the potential development of the child, determined with the help of tasks solved by the child under the guidance of adults and in cooperation with his more intelligent partners. (1978, p. 86)
The ZPD can be thought of as a metaphoric space where individual cognition originates in the social collective mind and emerges in and through engagement in social activity. It is not a physical place or a mental level; learners do not have a ZPD per se, but during the activity of aided performance, a ZPD can emerge, and it is in this activity, or arena of potentiality, where we can see what an individual might be able to do with assistance; one’s potential versus what one has already internalized and thus can do on one’s own. In other words, knowing what a novice teacher can do on her own tells us little about her potential to learn something new. When we see/hear how this same teacher interacts with someone who is more capable while accomplishing a task that is beyond her abilities, this creates a window through which we can see her potential for development and her capabilities as they are emerging. Because the bulk of what we do as teacher educators is to help novice L2 teachers do what they are not yet able to do on their own within the limited time frame of a teacher education program, mediation directed at this metaphoric space of potentiality is essential in developing those maturing capabilities. Attention to the quality and character of that mediation and learners’ responsiveness to it are signals of potential cognitive development (Johnson & Golombek, 2016; Poehner & Lantolf, 2021). This is why we approach our L2 teacher education program using praxis-oriented pedagogy.
Critical to the ZPD is the notion of change, and of deliberately creating new circumstances, or the social situation of development , where change can occur (Newman & Holzman, 1993). In Vygotsky’s (1935/1994) later work, the study of child development (pedology) entailed the study of the environmental structure (the social situation of development ) as it relates to the psychological organization (higher-level consciousness) of the developing child. It is not the environment itself, which may be constant, but the child’s personally meaningful experiences and relationship with that environment that guides the process of higher cognitive development. By design, our praxis-oriented pedagogy should forge ZPD activity, putting teachers ahead of themselves, changing the social situation/circumstances so that change in teaching practices, new dispositions, or habits of the mind, and new views of teaching/ learning can take hold or be internalized. And in that new social situation of development , an ideal needs to exist as the end product of development. In VSCT-informed praxis-oriented pedagogy, the ideal is represented by the way we conceptualize teaching as dialogic mediation (Johnson, 2009) and the development of reasoning teaching (Johnson, 1999). Yet, the processes and outcomes of ZPD activity cannot be predetermined or pre-specified—they instead emerge from the relations that form during ZPD activity—so while novice teachers and teacher educators are engaged in joint activity, “learning and development emerges from the fluid social relations and forms of discourse that teachers and teacher educators bring to that activity” (Moll, 2014,
p. 78). This being the case, teacher educators cannot predict the nature of their interactions with novice teachers—these must be negotiated and constituted in situ through and by the relational features while co-constructing ZPD activity. ZPD activity is, thus, from this understanding, the crucible of praxis, the space where theory and practice become inseparable from one another.
The Dialectical Unity of Theory-practice: Praxis
To the best of our knowledge, Vygotsky did not specifically write about the concept of praxis [практика], yet his entire enterprise to formulate a new psychology in the early 1900s was based on the notion that there is, or should be, an unbreakable interdependence between theory and practice. The notion of praxis, from the viewpoint of Vygotsky’s theory, is the dialectic unity of theory and practice. This means that theory cannot stand alone from practice, or vice versa, but rather the two ways of understanding must be conceptualized as equal partners. From this perspective, theory guides practice but practice, in turn, influences theory. A theory without practice is empty verbalism; practice enacted without theoretical knowledge is mindless activity. Vygotsky understood human consciousness, and in particular the development of higher-level human consciousness, as premised on this synthesis, the reciprocal relationship between theory and practice. In Vygotsky’s own words:
Previously theory was not dependent on practice; instead, practice was the conclusion, the application, an excursion beyond the boundaries of science, an operation which lay outside science and came after science, which began after the scientific operation was considered completed. Success or failure had practically no effect on the fate of the theory … Now the situation is the opposite. Practice pervades the deepest foundations of the scientific operation and reforms it from beginning to end. Practice sets the tasks and serves as the supreme judge of theory, as its truth criterion. It dictates how to construct the concepts and how to formulate the laws.
(1926/2004, p. 304)
The ‘pervading’ unity of theory and practice discussed in this quote is what scholars of VSCT mean by the notion of praxis: “material activity adapted to specific goals and informed by theory, while simultaneously testing those same theoretical principles” (Sanchez Vasquez, 1977, p. 95). Vygotsky’s ultimate goal was to create a new methodology to uncover the development of human consciousness, which he believed could not be accomplished by looking at a fully formed adult, but instead had to be traced in its formation either from child to adult or from novice to expert. One of Vygotsky’s greatest contributions to the theoretical study of human development was his insistence that the
process (the trajectory of development) and not just the product (a static, testable outcome) must be considered to fully understand how humans learn and how human cognition develops. Vygotsky’s life challenge was to reimagine the psychology of his day by proposing a new psychology based on the principles of dialectical materialism—a psychology to explain the human ability to use symbols to mediate their psyche. He argued that everything in human life (beyond basic biological drives) is derived from and dependent on cultural activity; that is, it is through socially organized practical activity that humans create and change the material conditions in which they live, and in doing so change themselves. He argued that the goal of psychological research was to show how external knowledge and abilities in children become internalized tools of thinking. And because he viewed the development of human consciousness as a profoundly social process, he emphasized the role of dialogue, social relations, and engagement in goal-directed activity all via language as powerful mediators of the development of higher-level cognitive processes.
Overview of the Book
In Part I, Chapter 1, we lay out the principles and concepts of VSCT that inform the goals, design, and enactment of the three required pillar courses that we offer in our MA TESL program. Part I is more theoretically focused than the remainder of the book. This choice is intentional in that to understand praxis-oriented pedagogy, readers need accessible, situated understandings of some of the core concepts and principles of VSCT. However, this section is not a Vygotskian primer but a weaving of VSCT concepts and principles into a coherent rationale for the goals, design, and enactment of praxisoriented pedagogy with the ultimate aim of developing novice L2 teacher reasoning during experiential coursework in L2 teacher education programs. In Chapter 2 , we define the essential elements and design features of praxisoriented pedagogy for L2 teacher education. This includes the essential principles of praxis-oriented pedagogy, including structured mediational spaces/ means, concept development, responsive mediation , teaching as dialogic mediation, and reasoning teaching. We then provide an overview of the deliberate design features of praxis-oriented pedagogy, including the intentional ways that praxis-oriented pedagogy creates mediational spaces/means that foster ZPD activity, restructures the social situation of teacher conceptual development, and fosters reasoned instructional choices and practices.
In Part II, which includes Chapters 3 and 4, we document how praxisoriented pedagogy supports novice teacher development and offer an overview of the key components of our MA TESL program. While several aspects of our pillar courses will be familiar to those in the field of L2 teacher education, the purpose of Part II is to illustrate for the reader the stance of the courses, that is, praxis-oriented pedagogy. It includes detailed descriptions
and intentional design features of the three pillar courses and the capstone projects MA TESL students must complete to earn the degree. It is important for the reader to know where the empirical data for this book come from. Over four years, ten MA TESL students in cohort one and 17 in cohort two gave us Institutional Review Board permission to collect all of the digitally recorded instruction and written reflections they completed during each of the three pillar courses. Importantly, we, as principal investigators, did not know who had given us permission to access their data until after they had graduated from the MA TESL program. Moreover, these data represent requirements of each course and include not only the novice teachers’ talk, actions, and reflections, but also our mediation, both oral and written, on all course requirements.
This massive database includes the following items:
Teaching ESL—Extended Team-Teaching Project (teams of 2, 3, or 4 novice teachers):
• Nine digitally recorded practice teach sessions (55–75 minutes each)
• Nine digitally recorded actual teach sessions (55–75 minutes each)
• Nine audio recorded stimulated recall sessions (1 hour each)
• 27 written reflection papers (five to seven pages each)
Tutoring Internship
• c. 980 weekly written reflection posts with Internship Supervisor responses
• 27 final written reflection papers (eight pages each)
Teaching Practicum
• c. 351 weekly reflective journal entries with Practicum Supervisor responses
• 27 final reflective journal entries with Practicum Supervisor responses
• 81 digitally recorded teaching sessions (55–75 minutes each)
• 27 teaching philosophies
MA TESL Graduates
• Seven interviews with graduates who had participated in the original research project (c. 1 hour each)
Our novice L2 teachers represent a number of countries and L1s and have taught in a variety of educational contexts. Figure 1.2 (see also Appendix 2) provides a snapshot of their backgrounds and the number of years of teaching experience they bring to the MA TESL program.
In Part III, we trace the developmental trajectory of novice teacher reasoning. In Chapters 5 – 8, we document how the internalization of the pedagogical concepts introduced in the three pillar courses foster novice teachers’ self-regulation of their teacher reasoning and teaching activity. We provide empirical evidence from our database of how our novice L2 teachers gradually move from the social plane, in which their thinking and activities are mediated through academic and pedagogical concepts and interactions with us, to the internal plane, where they begin to appropriate the necessary conceptual resources to regulate their own thinking and activities. VSCT defines this process as internalization (Leont’ev, 1981), not simply the transmission of knowledge and/or skills but a transformation of the self and one’s activities. We begin Part III, Chapter 5, by discussing the overall role that pedagogical concepts, as expressed in brief and accessible phrases, play in praxis-oriented pedagogy and in the development of novice teacher reasoning and instructional expertise. In other words, what are pedagogical concepts and why do they matter in L2 teacher education? This chapter summarizes our understanding of how these
FIGURE 1.2 Novice L2 Teacher Demographics and Years of Teaching Experience
accessible, compact statements share and reflect our VSCT theoretical perspective. In Chapter 6, we focus on the role of responsive mediation and its effect upon teacher instructional stance. This chapter is designed to give readers a deeper understanding of how being the recipients of targeted, responsive, contingent mediation helps novice teachers learn how and why to provide responsive mediation to the learners they work with in various instructional roles. Chapter 7 traces the development of emotional orientation and engagement of novice L2 teachers and illuminates the role of growth points (‘collisions’) between emotions and cognition (see Veresov, 2017), in the context of their teaching/tutoring activity. The chapter is designed to introduce the reader to the core VSCT concept of perezhivanie, the way that lived experience is interpreted in terms of emotional understanding, which is central to the way we view L2 teacher education. We conclude this part, Chapter 8, by offering evidence of the ways in which novice teachers come to internalize the interconnectedness of pedagogical concepts, specifically, as they learn to control pedagogical concepts through strategic, responsive, and contingent selection, design, and sequencing of class activities. The chapter presents evidence from our database that shows the internalization of pedagogical concepts as novice L2 teachers gain fluency and versatility in reasoning their pedagogical choices. In Part IV, we provide readers with information relating to the outcomes, impact, and opportunities of our praxis-oriented pedagogy. Chapter 9 documents how our novice L2 teachers reorient and reconceptualize language teaching, highlighted through the various ways in which they have come to enact a teaching as dialogic mediation instructional stance. Chapter 10 turns to the post-MA TESL program professional activity of seven graduates of our program who participated in the original research project. This chapter is included to offer more detail about how pedagogical concepts and a VSCT orientation toward language teaching can carry over into future work once these teachers leave the context of graduate school. Chapter 11 concludes by providing readers with additional information about the way our praxis-oriented pedagogy offers other forms of mediational spaces and input for our novice teachers. It is provided in the hope that readers who want to explore applying some of the ideas laid out in this book will have a deeper understanding of the many kinds of opportunities that can be used for responsive, contingent, and socioculturally focused mediation of novice teacher reasoning.
References
Johnson, K. E. (1999). Understanding language teaching: Reasoning in action. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Johnson, K. E. (2009). Second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective. New York: Routledge.
Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (2016). Mindful L2 teacher education: A sociocultural perspective on cultivating teachers’ professional development. New York: Routledge.
Kubanyiova, M., & Feryok, A. (2015). Language teacher cognition in applied linguistics research: Revisiting the territory, redrawing the boundaries, reclaiming the relevance. The Modern Language Journal , 99(3), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1111/ modl.12239.
Leont’ev, A. N. (1981). The problem of activity in psychology. In J. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in Soviet psychology (pp. 37–71). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Moll, L. C. (2014). L.S. Vygotsky and education . London: Routledge. Newman, F., & Holzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary scientist. London: Routledge.
Poehner, M. E., & Lantolf, J. P. (2021). The ZPD, second language learning and the transposition—Transformation dialectic. Cultural Historical Psychology, 17(3), 31–41. https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2021170306.
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mistaken. Otherwise, I should have brought them away at the first moment.”
“I see,” said Mr. Carteret. “It is most unfortunate!”
“It is, indeed!” said Lady Violet; “but the matter will not be allowed to drop. They were brought to the meet by that young profligate, Lord Frederic Westcote.”
“You amaze me,” said Mr. Carteret. He bowed, started his horse, and jogged along for five minutes, then he turned to the right upon a crossroad and suddenly found himself with hounds. They were feathering excitedly about the mouth of a tile drain into which the fox had evidently gone. No master, huntsmen or whips were in sight, but sitting wet and mud-daubed upon horses dripping with muddy water were Grady dressed in cowboy costume and three naked Indians. Mr. Carteret glanced about over the country and understood. They had swum the brook at the place where it ran between steep clay banks and the rest of the field had gone around to the bridge. As he looked toward the south, he saw Lord Ploversdale riding furiously toward him followed by Smith, the huntsman. Grady had not recognized Mr. Carteret turned out in pink as he was, and for the moment the latter decided to remain incognito.
Before Lord Ploversdale, Master of Fox-hounds, reached the road, he began waving his whip. He appeared excited. “What do you mean by riding upon my hounds?” he shouted. He said this in several ways with various accompanying phrases, but neither the Indians nor Grady seemed to notice him. It occurred to Mr. Carteret that, although Lord Ploversdale’s power of expression was wonderful for England, it nevertheless fell short of Arizona standards. Then, however, he noticed that Grady was absorbed in adjusting a kodak camera, with which he was evidently about to take a picture of the Indians alone with the hounds. He drew back in order both to avoid being in the field of the picture and to avoid too close proximity with Lord Ploversdale as he came over the fence into the road.
“What do you mean, sir!” shouted the enraged Master of Foxhounds, as he pulled up his horse.
“A little more in the middle,” replied Grady, still absorbed in taking the picture.
“A little more in the middle”
Lord Ploversdale hesitated. He was speechless with surprise for the moment.
Grady pressed the button and began putting up the machine.
“What do you mean by riding on my hounds, you and these persons?” demanded Lord Ploversdale.
“We didn’t,” said Grady amicably, “but if your bunch of dogs don’t know enough to keep out of the way of a horse, they ought to learn.”
Lord Ploversdale looked aghast and Smith, the huntsman, pinched himself to make sure that he was not dreaming.
“Many thanks for your advice,” said Lord Ploversdale. “May I inquire who you and your friends may be?”
“I’m James Grady,” said that gentleman. “This,” he said, pointing to the Indian nearest, “is Chief Hole-in-the-Ground of the Olgallala Sioux. Him in the middle is Mr. Jim Snake, and the one beyond is Chief Skytail, a Pawnee.”
“Thank you, that is very interesting,” said Lord Ploversdale, with polite irony. “Now will you kindly take them home?”
“See here,” said Grady, strapping the camera to his saddle, “I was invited to this hunt, regular, and if you hand me out any more hostile talk—” He paused.
“Who invited you?” inquired Lord Ploversdale.
“One of your own bunch,” said Grady, “Lord Frederic Westcote. I’m no butterin.”
“Your language is difficult to understand,” said Lord Ploversdale. “Where is Lord Frederic Westcote?”
Mr Carteret had watched the field approaching as fast as whip and spur could drive them, and in the first flight he noticed Lord Frederic and the Major. For this reason he still hesitated about thrusting himself into the discussion. It seemed that the interference of a third
party could only complicate matters, inasmuch as Lord Frederic would so soon be upon the spot.
Lord Ploversdale looked across the field impatiently. “I’ve no doubt, my good fellow, that Lord Frederic Westcote brought you here and I’ll see him about it, but kindly take these fellows home. They’ll kill all my hounds.”
“Now you’re beginning to talk reasonable,” said Grady. “I’ll discuss with you.”
The words were hardly out of his mouth before hounds gave tongue riotously and went off. The fox had slipped out of the other end of the drain and old Archer had found the line.
As if shot out of a gun the three Indians dashed at the stake-andbound fence on the farther side of the road, joyously using their heavy quirts on the Major’s thoroughbreds. Skytail’s horse being hurried too much, blundered his take-off, hit above the knees and rolled over on the Chief who was sitting tight. There was a stifled grunt and then the Pawnee word “Go-dam!”
Hole-in-the-Ground looked back and laughed one of the few laughs of his life. It was a joke which he could understand. Then he used the quirt again to make the most of his advantage.
“That one is finished,” said Lord Ploversdale gratefully. But as the words were in his mouth, Skytail rose with his horse, vaulted up and was away.
The M. F. H. followed over the fence shouting at Smith to whip off the hounds. But the hounds were going too fast. They had got a view of the fox and three whooping horsemen were behind them driving them on.
The first flight of the field followed the M. F. H. out of the road and so did Mr. Carteret, and presently he found himself riding between Lord Frederic and the Major. They were both a bit winded and had evidently come fast.
“I say,” exclaimed Lord Frederic, “where did you come from?”
“I was cured by the Broncholine,” said Mr. Carteret, “amazing stuff!”
“Is your horse fresh?” asked Lord Frederic.
“Yes,” replied Mr. Carteret, “I happened upon them at the road.”
“Then go after that man Grady,” said Lord Frederic, “and implore him to take those beggars home. They have been riding on hounds for twenty minutes.”
“Were they able,” asked Mr. Carteret, “to stay with their horses at the fences?”
“Stay with their horses!” puffed the Major.
“Go on like a good chap,” said Lord Frederic, “stop that fellow or I shall be expelled from the hunt; perhaps put in jail. Was Ploversdale vexed?” he added.
“I should judge by his language,” said Mr. Carteret, “that he was vexed.”
“Hurry on,” said Lord Frederic. “Put your spurs in.”
Mr. Carteret gave his horse its head and he shot to the front, but Grady was nearly a field in the lead and it promised to be a long chase as he was on the Major’s black thoroughbred. The cowboy rode along with a loose rein and an easy balance seat. At his fences he swung his hat and cheered. He seemed to be enjoying himself and Mr. Carteret was anxious lest he might begin to shoot for pure delight. Such a demonstration would have been misconstrued. Nearly two hundred yards ahead at the heels of the pack galloped the Indians, and in the middle distance between them and Grady rode Lord Ploversdale and Smith vainly trying to overtake the hounds and whip them off. Behind and trailing over a mile or more came the field and the rest of the hunt servants in little groups, all awestruck at what had happened. It was unspeakable that Lord Ploversdale’s hounds which had been hunted by his father and his grandfather should be so scandalized.
Mr. Carteret finally got within a length of Grady and hailed him.
“Hello, Carty,” said Grady, “glad to see you. I thought you were sick. What can I do? They’ve stampeded. But it’s a great ad. for the show, isn’t it? I’ve got four reporters in a hack on the road.”
“Forget about the show,” said Mr. Carteret. “This isn’t any laughing matter. Ploversdale’s hounds are one of the smartest packs in England. You don’t understand.”
“It will make all the better story in the papers,” said Grady.
“No, it won’t,” said Mr. Carteret. “They won’t print it. It’s like a blasphemy upon the Church.”
“Whoop!” yelled Grady, as they tore through a bullfinch.
“Call them off,” said Mr. Carteret, straightening his hat.
“But I can’t catch ’em,” said Grady, and that was the truth.
Lord Ploversdale, however, had been gaining on the Indians, and by the way in which he clubbed his heavy crop, loaded at the butt, it was apparent that he meant to put an end to the proceedings if he could.
Just then hounds swept over the crest of a green hill and as they went down the other side, they viewed the fox in the field beyond. He was in distress, and it looked as if the pack would kill in the open. They were running wonderfully together, the traditional blanket would have covered them, and in the natural glow of pride which came over the M. F H., he loosened his grip upon the crop. But as the hounds viewed the fox so did the three sons of the wilderness who were following close behind. From the hilltop fifty of the hardest going men in England saw Hole-in-the-Ground flogging his horse with the heavy quirt which hung from his wrist. The outraged British hunter shot forward scattering hounds to right and left, flew a ditch and hedge and was close on the fox who had stopped to make a last stand. Without drawing rein, the astonished onlookers saw the lean Indian suddenly disappear under the neck of his horse and almost instantly
swing back into his seat waving a brown thing above his head. Holein-the-Ground had caught the fox!
“Most unprecedented!” Mr. Carteret heard the Major exclaim. He pulled up his horse, as the field did theirs, and waited apprehensively. He saw Hole-in-the-Ground circle around, jerk the Major’s five hundred guinea hunter to a standstill close to Lord Ploversdale and address him. He was speaking in his own language.
As the Chief went on, he saw Grady smile.
“He says,” said Grady translating, “that the white chief can eat the fox if he wants him. He’s proud himself bein’ packed with store grub.”
The English onlookers heard and beheld with blank faces. It was beyond them.
The M. F. H. bowed stiffly as Hole-in-the-Ground’s offer was made known to him. He regarded them a moment in thought. A vague light was breaking in upon him. “Aw, thank you,” he said, “thanks awfully. Smith, take the fox. Good afternoon!”
Then he wheeled his horse, called the hounds in with his horn and trotted out to the road that led to the kennels. Lord Ploversdale, though he had never been out of England, was cast in a large mold.
The three Indians sat on their panting horses, motionless, stolidly facing the curious gaze of the crowd; or rather they looked through the crowd, as the lion with the high breeding of the desert looks through and beyond the faces that stare and gape before the bars of his cage.
“Most amazing! Most amazing!” muttered the Major.
“It is,” said Mr. Carteret, “if you have never been away from this.” He made a sweeping gesture over the restricted English scenery, pampered and brought up by hand.
“Been away from this?” repeated the Major. “I don’t understand.”
Mr. Carteret turned to him. How could he explain it?
“With us,” he began, laying an emphasis on the “us.” Then he stopped. “Look into their eyes,” he said hopelessly.
The Major looked at him blankly. How could he, Major Hammerslea of “The Blues,” tell what those inexplicable dark eyes saw beyond the fenced tillage! What did he know of the brown, bare, illimitable range under the noonday sun, the evening light on far, silent mountains, the starlit desert!
HOW MR. CARTERET PROPOSED
II
HOW MR. CARTERET PROPOSED
Barclay slowly guided his horse through the mounted throng to the spot where Mr. Carteret was sitting on a chestnut thoroughbred horse watching hounds as they came straggling out of the spinney. They had drawn blank. The fox was not at home. When Barclay reached his friend he pulled up casually as if he had come for no express purpose, and said nothing. After a few moments he began, as if an idea had just come to him:
“It has occurred to me, Carty,” he said, “that if we brought American horses to England, we could make a lot of money.”
“That idea has occurred to others,” replied Mr. Carteret, without turning his head. He was absorbed in the enjoyable discovery that the scene before him was like a hunting-print. The browns of the wood and bracken, the winter green of the hill pastures, the scarlet coats, the gray sky of the English winter, were all happily true to art. “As I say,” he went on, “the idea has occurred to others, but I have never heard that any one made money.”
“That is because they haven’t sent over good horses,” said Barclay. “Suppose we brought over only such thoroughbred horses as we raise on the Wyoming ranch.”
“I don’t think it would make any difference,” said Mr. Carteret. “There is a prejudice against American horses.”
“Exactly,” said Barclay; “and the way to meet it would be to have them ridden and handled by a well-known Englishman. In fact, I have the man in mind.”
“Who?”
“Young Granvil,” was the answer.
Why Barclay should be interested in making money out of a horse business or in any other way had perplexed Mr. Carteret, for it was not according to his habits of mind. Now it became clear to him, and he suppressed a cynical smile. “I don’t suppose Lady Withers has discussed this matter with you,” he observed.
“In a general way, yes,” replied Barclay; “but it was my suggestion.”
“Of course,” said Mr. Carteret.
Barclay paused awkwardly for a moment, then he said: “Why shouldn’t I talk it over with Lady Withers? She is a very intelligent woman, and a good judge of a horse.”
“An excellent judge of almost everything,” said his friend, “and especially of young men. My son,” he continued (Barclay was five years his junior), “it is commendable of Lady Withers to provide for the Hon. Cecil James Montague Granvil. He is her nephew and flat broke, and he needs people to look after him because he is almost less than half-witted. But that is no reason why you should be the person to look after him.”
“You are unjust to Cecil,” said Barclay, “and most unkind in your insinuations as to Lady Withers. This was my own idea entirely, and I think it would be profitable for both of us. You know you are always complaining because I don’t take more interest in the ranches.”
“If I have been unkind to Lady Withers,” said Mr. Carteret, “I am going to be much more so.”
Barclay looked challengingly. “What do you mean?” he demanded.
“Lady Withers,” said Mr. Carteret, “is a widow, aged forty-four,—you can verify that in Burke,—a man-eater by temperament and habit. You are twelve years younger than she, with a great deal more money than is good for you. Whether she intends to marry you I don’t pretend to know, but it is not unlikely. At any rate, you are unquestionably on the list as a source of income and supply.”
Somewhat to Mr. Carteret’s surprise, Barclay listened calmly.
“Do you really think Lady Withers considers me eligible?” he asked.
“She does, if she has any true conception of your securities.”
Barclay smiled a pleased smile. “I shall not stop to discuss Lady Withers’s age,” he said. “Have you any objections to her aside from that?”
Mr. Carteret looked at him with outward calm, but inwardly he was filled with horror. “Are you engaged to her?” he asked.
“I am not,” said Barclay.
“Then I shall tell you,” he went on, “that I have objections. Their nature I have no time to disclose at present further than to say that any woman who puts a nice girl like her niece upon the horse she is riding to-day is a bad lot.”
Barclay’s expression changed. “What is the matter with the horse?” he demanded.
“I’m not sure that I know all that is the matter with him,” said Carty, “but I wouldn’t ride him over a fence for the Bank of England.”
“Do you know that, or are you just talking?” said Barclay.
“I ought to know,” said the other. “I owned him. After what he did to me, I ought to have shot him. We’d better jog along,” he added, “or we shall get pocketed and never get through the gate.”
The huntsman had called his hounds and was carrying them to the next cover, and Mr. Carteret set his horse to a trot and struggled for a place in the vast scarlet-coated throng that surged toward the gate leading out of the meadow. At the same time Barclay disappeared.
The vast scarlet-coated throng that surged toward the gate
“I hope he tells Lady Withers about the horse,” said Mr. Carteret to himself. “If she doesn’t keep her hands off him, I shall tell her several things myself.”
Just at that moment the eddying currents of the human maelstrom brought him alongside a slender little figure in a weather-beaten habit and a bowler hat jammed down to her ears over a mass of golden hair. Although the knot of hair was twisted cruelly tight, and although the hat did its best to cover it, even a man’s eye could see that it was profuse and wonderful. It was unnecessary for him to look at the horse. He knew that he was beside Lady Mary Granvil, Lady Withers’s niece. “Good afternoon,” he said and she turned toward him. It was a sad rather than a pretty face, but one’s attention never rested long upon it, for a pair of gray eyes shone from under the brows, and after the first glance one looked at the eyes.
“Good afternoon,” he said again. The eyes rather disconcerted him. “Do you happen to know anything about that horse you’re riding?”
“It’s one that my aunt bought quite recently,” said the girl. “She and Cecil wished me to try it.”
“I hope you won’t think me rude,” said Mr. Carteret, “but I once owned him, and I think you’ll find this horse of mine a much pleasanter beast to ride. I’ll have the saddles changed.”
Lady Mary looked at him, and a light flashed in her gray eyes. “You are very good,” she said, “but this is my aunt’s horse, and my brother told me to ride it.” She forged ahead, and disappeared in the currents of the crowd.
“I did that very badly,” Mr. Carteret said to himself, and fell into the line and waited for his turn at the gate.
He and Barclay, Lady Withers, and many other people were stopping the week-end at Mrs. Ascott-Smith’s, who had Chilliecote Abbey, and when he got home that afternoon he went at once to the great library, where the ceremony of tea was celebrated. The daylight was fading from the mullioned windows as it had faded on winter afternoons for three hundred years. Candles burned on the vacant card-tables, while the occupants of the room gathered in the glow of the great Elizabethan fireplace and conversed and ate. As he approached the circle, Lady Withers put down her tea cup.
“Did you have another run after we pulled out?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Mr. Carteret; “rather a good one.”
Suddenly her eyes began to beam. There was a display of red lips and white teeth, and a sort of general facial radiation. It was an effort usually fatal to guardsmen, but it affected Mr. Carteret like the turning on of an electric heater, and he backed away as if he felt the room were warm enough. “I am so glad,” she said.
“Tell me,” she went on in her soft, delightfully modulated voice, “aren’t you interested with Mr. Barclay in some farms?”
“We own two ranches together,” said Mr. Carteret.
“Yes, that was it,” said Lady Withers; “and you raise horses on them?”
Mr. Carteret apprehended what was coming. “Yes; ranch horses,” he said dryly.
“And such good ones, as Mr. Barclay was telling me,” said Lady Withers. “He made me quite enthusiastic with his account of it all, and he is so anxious to have dear Cecil manage them in England; but before Cecil decides one way or the other I want your advice.”
Mr. Carteret looked at her and stroked his mustache. His opportunity to save Barclay had come. “My advice would be worth very little,” he said; “but I can give you all the facts, and of course Barclay—well, he can’t.”
A shade of apprehension crossed Lady Withers’s face. “And why not?” she demanded.
“I should rather not go into that,” said Mr. Carteret. “Of course the great objection to the scheme is that it would be unprofitable for Mr. Granvil, because no one would buy our horses.”
“But wouldn’t they,” said Lady Withers, “if they were good ones?”
“Major Hammerslea can answer that question better than I,” said Mr Carteret. He looked toward that great man and smiled. The Major was the author of “Schooling and Riding British Hunters,” and Mr. Carteret knew his views.
“No one,” said the Major, impressively, “would buy an American horse if he desired to make or possess a really good hunter.”
“But why advertise that they were American?” observed Lady Withers, blandly.
“How could you hide it?” said the Major.
“Exactly,” said Mr. Carteret.
“Furthermore,” observed the Major, his interest in the controversy growing, “the output of a single breeding institution would scarcely make it worth Cecil’s while to manage an agency for their distribution.”
“I think you don’t understand,” said Lady Withers, “that Mr. Carteret has a large place.”
“My friend the Duke of Westchester,” began the Major, “has in his breeding farm eight thousand acres—”
“But I’ve no doubt that Mr. Carteret’s is very nearly as large,” interrupted Lady Withers.
“I don’t think size has anything to do with it,” said Mr. Carteret, uneasily. “The fact is, we don’t raise the kind of horse that English dealers would buy.”
“I think size has much to do with it,” replied the Major
“I wish,” said Lady Withers, “that you would tell Major Hammerslea exactly how large your farms are.”
“I don’t know exactly,” said Mr. Carteret, uneasily.
“But, about how large?” insisted Lady Withers.
“There is something over a million acres in the Texas piece,” said Mr Carteret, with some embarrassment, “and something under six hundred thousand in Wyoming.”
Lady Withers and the Major both looked at him with eyes of amazement. But Lady Withers’s amazement was admiring.
“I thought so,” said she, calmly. The Major in silence walked over to the table and took a cigar. “Looking at it from all points of view,” she continued, “it would be just the thing for Cecil. He is intelligent with regard to horses.”
“But I don’t wish to go to Texas,” said the Hon. Cecil, who had joined the group. “They say the shootin’ ’s most moderate.”
“It isn’t necessary yet for you to go to Texas,” said Lady Withers, coldly. “Mr. Carteret and I are arranging to employ your talents in England.”
“Of course another objection,” said Mr. Carteret, “is that Granvil is too good a man to waste on such an occupation. The horse business is very confining. It’s an awful bore to be tied down.”
“You are absolutely right about that,” said the Hon. Cecil, with a burst of frankness. “You don’t know what a relief it is to be out of the Guards. Awfully confining life, the Guards.”
“I think,” said Lady Withers, apparently oblivious to the views of her nephew, “that Mr. Barclay takes rather the more businesslike view of these matters. It is he, I fancy, who looks after the affairs of your estates; and I should judge,” she continued, “that, after all, his advice to a young man like Cecil with a very moderate income would be wiser. I believe very much in an occupation for young men.”
Mr. Carteret saw that his time had come. He looked at Lady Withers and smiled sadly. “Of course I’m very fond of Barclay,” he said in a lower tone, “and of course he is an awfully charming, plausible boy —” Then he stopped, apparently because Major Hammerslea was returning with his cigar.
“What do you mean?” asked Lady Withers.
Mr Carteret made no direct reply, but moved toward the piano, and Lady Withers followed. “It is best to speak plainly,” he said, “because, after all, business is business, as we say.”
“Exactly,” said Lady Withers. Her teeth had ceased to gleam. The radiance had left her face, though not the bloom upon it. Her large, beaming eyes had contracted. She looked twenty years older.
“The fact is,” said Mr. Carteret, steadily, “that Barclay is not the business manager of our ranches. He is not a business man at all. It is true that he still retains a certain interest in the ranch properties but he has been so unbusinesslike that everything he’s got is in the hands of a trustee. He gets his income monthly, like a remittanceman. He is not in actual want; but—”
“I see,” said Lady Withers, coldly “I had misunderstood the situation.” She turned and crossed to one of the card-tables and sat down.
After she had gone, Mr. Carteret lighted a cigarette and went out. It was his intention to go to his room, have his tub, and change. His mind was relieved. He had no fear that Lady Withers would either beam or radiate for a young man whose fortune was in captivity to a trustee. He had saved Barclay, and he was pleased with himself. As he passed through the twilight of the main hallway, the front door opened, and Lady Mary Granvil and Barclay entered side by side. It was the girl’s voice that he heard first.
“Please have it dressed at once,” she was saying.
“But there’s no hurry,” said Barclay.
“Please, at once,” said the girl. There was something in her tone that made Mr. Carteret turn from the stairs and go forward to meet them.
“I’ve snapped my collar-bone,” said Barclay. “It’s nothing.”
The girl drew back a step into the heavy shadow of the corner, but Mr. Carteret did not notice it. “So old True Blue has put you down at
last,” he said.
“Yes,” said Barclay evasively; “that is—”
“He was not riding True Blue,” said Lady Mary resolutely “He was riding my horse. Mr. Barclay changed with me.”
“The horse was all right,” said Barclay, hurriedly. “It was my own fault. I bothered him at a piece of timber. It wasn’t the horse you thought it was,” he added rather anxiously. “It was one they got from Oakly, the dealer.”
Now, Mr. Carteret had sold the horse in question to Oakly, yet he said nothing, but stood and looked from one to the other. Disturbing suspicions were springing up in the depths of his mind.
The girl broke the silence. “You ought to get it set without any more delay,” she said; “you really ought. It will begin to swell. Go up, and I shall have them telephone for the doctor.”
“You are quite right,” said Mr. Carteret; “but I’ll see about the doctor.”
He turned and started toward the end of the long hall, searching for a bell that he might summon a servant. Presently it occurred to him that he had no idea of the doctor’s name, and that there might be several doctors. He stopped, turned, and came back noiselessly upon the heavy rug and all but invisible in the dusk of the unlighted hallway Suddenly he stopped. The girl had been watching Barclay as he went up the stairs. As he passed out of sight, she turned and dropped into a chair with a little sigh, like one who has been under a strain. On the table beside her lay the silk muffler in which his arm had been tied. She took it up and began folding it. Then she smoothed it with curious little strokings and touches, and then suddenly pressing it to her cheek, put it down and disappeared through the morning-room doorway in a confusion in which she had surprised herself. Mr. Carteret stepped back behind a curtain, and when he was sure that Lady Mary was not coming back, instead of ordering the doctor, he went to Barclay’s room.
“I should like to know,” he began, “how it was that you were riding Mary Granvil’s horse?”
Barclay met his look steadily. “I wanted to try it with a view to purchase,” he answered. “You know Lady Withers had said she wished to sell it.”
“Excuse me for being plain,” said Mr. Carteret, “but my opinion is that no man would have ridden that horse when hounds were running unless he wanted to marry either the woman who owned it or the woman who was riding it.”
“Well?” said Barclay.
“Well,” said Mr. Carteret, “is it Lady Withers?”
“No,” said Barclay decisively; “it isn’t Lady Withers.”
Mr. Carteret looked at his young friend with outward indifference. Inwardly he was experiencing much relief. “When are you going to announce your engagement?” he asked.
Barclay shook his head grimly. “I wish I knew,” he said. “I’m up against it, I fancy.”
“It’s not my business,” said Mr. Carteret, “but I should like to know what you mean.”
“Why, in a word, Carty,” said Barclay, “I’m not it, that’s all, and the situation is such that I don’t see what I can do to make her change her mind.”
Mr. Carteret looked perplexed. What he had seen in the hall gave him a feeling of guilt. “When did she refuse you?” he asked at last.
“She hasn’t refused me,” answered Barclay “You don’t ask a woman to marry you when you know that she cares for some one else.”
“So she cares for some one else?” observed Mr. Carteret.
“You could guess whom,” said Barclay.
“Supposing she does like Brinton a bit,” said Mr Carteret, “what’s to prevent you from getting into the race?”
“Can’t you see!” exclaimed Barclay. “If Lady Withers thought I wanted to marry her,—you know what she’d do.”
“Well,” said Mr. Carteret, “if she isn’t forced to marry your money, she’ll have to marry Tappingwell-Sikes’s, and, on the whole, I think she’d prefer your railroads to his beer.”
“What Sikes may do,” said Barclay, “is not my business; but I want no woman to marry me if she doesn’t want to.”
“Your sentiments are not discreditable,” observed his friend; “but, after all, she may want to. You can’t be sure until you ask her.”
“Yes, I can,” said Barclay. “Besides,” he went on, “am I anything wonderful that she should jump at me?”
“That is not an original suggestion,” said Mr. Carteret, thoughtfully, “yet it may be in point. However, it is a great mistake to act upon it when you are making love.”
“In the second place,” Barclay continued, “Captain Brinton has the inside track.”
“I don’t think so,” said Mr. Carteret, decisively; “they’re too much together in public.”
Barclay shook his head dismally. “Over here it means they’re engaged,” he said.
“Well, what do you mean to do about it?” asked Mr. Carteret after a pause.
“What is there to do?” answered Barclay. “Nothing but wait.”
“My boy,” said the older man, “I’m not surprised that you’re in love with Mary Granvil; I am myself, and, what’s more, I’m not going to have her thrown away on a bounder like Tappingwell-Sikes. If you
