This is who I am: The role of the professional development portfolio in foreign and second language preservice teacher education

Within the past ten years, foreign and second language teachers and researchers have become increasingly curious about the real and potential role that portfolios play in language learning and teaching methodology. There exist many types of portfolios for both students and educators, all with varying goals and objectives. This has created much confusion in the field not only about their function and form, but also about what they ultimately accomplish for the completer and the evaluator. Teacher educators want and need to know what specific skills and abilities portfolios measure and how valid portfolios are as a measure of teacher competence. This study focused on foreign and second language pre-service teachers and the role that the Professional Development Portfolio played in their teacher education, and how it indicated teaching readiness.; The study combined both qualitative and descriptive quantitative procedures and analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the Portfolio and its role in second language teacher education. It examined interns' perceptions of the role of the Portfolio in their own teacher preparation and the ways in which the Portfolio indicates readiness for teaching, comparing information about how the Portfolio and the Profile for Evaluation measure teacher readiness.; The four major research questions that framed the study focused on pre-service teacher perceptions of the Portfolio and its completion process, the role the Portfolio played in developing reflective practice, and how it enabled interns to identify strengths and weaknesses in pedagogy, language proficiency, and content knowledge.; As a result of this study, five principal conclusions can be drawn from the data: (1) Pre-service teachers perceived the role of the Portfolio to be positive in their professional training. (2) The Portfolio process enabled pre-service teachers to engage in and develop the practice of critical reflection. (3) A Portfolio's contents must be more substantive than a "showcase" portfolio and must include both iterative and summative reflections. (4) In conjunction with the Profile for Evaluation, the Portfolio provides the most complete information about an intern's readiness for teaching. Alone, neither evaluative measure presents a complete set of information. (5) The Portfolio provides important program information for teacher education faculty.