The Science Daily – – Staff Writer 
Foreign language teachers play a pivotal role in creating global citizens, but some teachers lack confidence in their ability to speak in their nonnative tongue, which could undermine the quality of language instruction, Michigan State University researchers argue. Peter De Costa, assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages, and Lorena Valmori, a recent Ph.D. graduate of the second language studies program, surveyed nine teachers in an Italian high school system, some of whom taught in college prep schools and some in vocational schools. The study, published recently in the journal System, is the first qualitative study examining how teachers maintain foreign language proficiency.(more)