This introductory chapter is a state-of-the-art (SOA – of sorts) on second language teacher education (SLTE). However, it is not the usual type of SOA review (for a recent excellent review see Wright, 2010) one would normally read because I maintain that second language teacher education is in a state (i.e., a negative state) and so this chapter is more of a reality check for second language educators that we need to be doing something different. Part of the reason for the state we may be in is that we may have lost sight of whose needs teacher educators are addressing when preparing second language teachers: their own or their teacher learners’ needs? This is not an easy question to answer because there are many stakeholders involved within second language teacher education and each can have a different agenda than the other, but as you will see in this chapter I agree with Faez and Vaelo (2012) when they suggest that teacher preparation programmes should reconsider how programme content needs could be aligned more closely with the needs of novice teachers.
