This paper highlights a project aimed at devising an appropriate training scheme for foreign language teaching assistants in Britain and encouraging as many universities as possible to adapt the scheme to their own institutional settings. The scheme entitled DOPLA (Development of Postgraduate and Language Assistants) originated at the University of Birmingham in England and has been extended, trialled, and tested over the past 3 years by a consortium of British universities. The program focuses on reflective practice. Sections 2-4 of the paper consider the theoretical basis of reflective practice and its application to the distinctive pedagogy of modern languages. Sections 5-8 show how these theoretical issues are embodied in the specifics of DOPLA training. Appended are: Small Group Teaching: Strategies for Dealing with Problems; Russian Lesson Worksheet; and Lesson Evaluation Sheet. (Contains 27 references.) (Author/VWL)