Transcript Language Education and ELT in China

Professional Awareness and
the Development of Foreign
Language Teachers
ZHOU Yan
National Research Center for
Foreign Language Education, BFSU
Outline
I. Language education as a profession
II. Complexity in language education
III. Challenges in professional development
IV. Resources for professional development
Is There a Difference
between …
Teaching as a job and teaching as a
profession?
 English teaching and English
education?

Definition of Education

The process of training and
developing the knowledge, skill,
mind,character, etc. especially by
formal schooling.
-- Webster’s New World Dictionary
of the American Language
The Purpose of Education

Education means change:
moral
intellectual
psychological
physical
English Education


Promoting changes in those fields
through English learning
Producing people with English language
competence in various fields
University Education Is
a Privilege in China
Experts in a special field
 Critical and independent thinkers
 Leaders in all walks of life

The Challenges
We Teachers Face Today

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

High expectation from students, parents and
administrators
Teach and publish
Pressure to raise the passing rate of CET
Little difference between working life and
family life
The Attitude Determines


Teaching as a job:
Something you have to do to earn a living;
Teaching as a profession:
Something you enjoy doing to make
your life more meaningful.

Job
Teaching is daily routine work;

Profession
Teaching is your life career.

Job
You don’t want to think about it when
you are out of the classroom;

Profession
You forget the difference between in
and out of the classroom;

Job
Don’t want to make any changes in teaching
because it means more efforts;

Profession
Open to changes because they may lead to
improvement in teaching;
Attitudes Leads to Commitment

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Teaching focuses on texts
Education focuses on students
A Craftsman vs. A Professional
Increasing Our
Professional Awareness
By understanding our profession
 By making our teachers

professionals and educators
What Is a Profession?

An occupation requiring advanced
education and training, and involving
intellectual skills, as medicine, law,
theology, engineering, teaching, etc.
- Webster’s NWDAL



A profession needs constant upgrading of
the knowledge in the development of the
field.
A profession requires continuous
development on the part of the people
who engage in the field.
A profession takes a lot of research
efforts to increase its success and
efficiency in operation.
Teaching Is a Profession



It meets the above-mentioned standards.
It sets a high demand on the people who
engage in the field.
It provides opportunities for teachers to
develop in different aspects.
Personal Development
Working with the brightest young people
puts us under great pressure for
 Professional development
 Intellectual development
 Academic development
 Moral development
Professional Development

How to become a good teacher
competent
effective in teaching
caring
reflective
Intellectual Development
Cognitive competence
search
select
understand
critically evaluate
Communicative competence
express
Academic Development



Move up in the academic rank
Keep up with the latest development
Reach out to the world
Moral Development
As a model for the students, a teacher’s
 view of life
 social behavior
 value judgment
can have a direct impact on the growth of the
students
A Challenging Career



We are being evaluated by the brightest
young people in the country all the time.
We are being remembered for good or
bad by our students.
We can make all the differences in their
lives.
A Rewarding Occupation
Being a teacher allows you to grow in all
aspects;
Being a teacher enables you to become a
better and fully developed person in
time.
II. Complexity in Language Teaching

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Something special about language
teaching
Language learning process
Factors involved in language teaching
Factors at work in the learning process

What makes language teaching
different from the teaching of any
other subjects?

Language does not only have a
system of its own, it carries
meanings, ideas, philosophical
understanding and the value
judgment of the target culture.

In the process of language
learning, the students are exposed
to all these cultural aspects. While
learning the language, they are
absorbing the culture, the belief
and the ideology of the target
country.
Language Learning Is
S
ocial in Nature
Learning through interactions
Learning from all sources
pair work and group work
Language Learning Process
input
practice
competence
output
review
Factors Involved
in Language Teaching
language competence
linguistic competence
cultural awareness
learning process
psychological support
personal confidence
affective
……
Keeping Them All
Under Control
 You are more than a teacher or a
craftsman;
 You are a professional;
 You can be an educator.
Factors at Work in the
Process of Learning a Language
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Positive beliefs
Good learning strategies
Efforts
Self-confidence
Attitude
Interest
……
Language learning
Research Findings
Correlations
 Positive beliefs about the language/LL
 Good learning strategies
efforts
self-efficacy
attitude
 Learning achievement

Negative Attitude/Attribution
The highest correlation is found
between these two variables. It shows
that students with rather negative
attitude towards English learning will
likely attribute their undesirable
performances to such factors as
teachers, time, luck and other factors.
Learners’ Inappropriate
Beliefs about LL
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EL is just like learning any other subjects:
memorizing the rules, reading …
EL means a lot of rote learning and gapfilling/MC
Blind faith in a large size of vocabulary
EL means passing all the required exams
EL is only a tool for future career
A Vicious Circle in EL
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Test-oriented learning
Selective noticing
Problematic strategies
Undesirable scores
Lack of motivation
Lack of confidence
III. Challenges We Face in PD
Tools of the tool
Slaves to publications
Small potatoes
Institutional loners
Teachers’ View of Themselves
While belittling themselves as such on the
one hand, they are also very self-confident
and individualistic on the other.
The Trapped Teachers
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Instrumental
Overwhelmed
Frustrated
Wander along with the tide
Forget about their professional
responsibility
Needs to be empowered
ELT in China

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Test-driven
Focused on language only
Instrumental and practical
Something is seriously missing in this
approach to language learning.
What Is Missing in
China’s ELT ?
The concern for the overall
development in both learning
and teaching
A Cultural & Educational
Understanding of LT


Deconstruct the grammatical
structure
Explain the meaning of the content
More Important Tasks

Cultivate their minds
to appreciate different points of views
to critically evaluate different cultures

Develop their abilities
to work with others
to speak up in public
to build up their own confidence …
What Leads to Effective Teaching?
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Commitment
Command of the language
Confidence
Care for the students
Communicative
……
IV. Resources
for Professional Development
Findings from
an ASS-funded Research Project

A Study of the Models of
Professional Development for
University Teachers of English in
China
Models for PD in China
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A summer institute-DUTE
( formal/intensive/comprehensive)
The visiting-scholar program (informal/off
campus)
A project-based teacher-learning community
(in-service)
An MA in TEFL program (formal/on campus)
A theme-based short-term model for PD
Methods
49 universities in 6 regions
 920 valid questionnaires
 More than 30 interviews
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Finding 1:
Discrepancies
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Between teachers’ espoused needs and real
needs for effective teaching
Between their claimed beliefs in language
teaching and their classroom behavior
Between their real interest and real needs
Why Is It So?

The current promotion policy that emphasizes
number of published papers rather than their
classroom performance

Pedagogical content knowledge and
competence has been a missing link in our
teacher development programs.
Finding 2:
Each Playing Its Own Role
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Teachers develop steadily in a supportive
teaching community.
Teachers learn most efficiently in the process
of doing projects.
Teachers grow professionally in the process of
sharing and interacting with their colleagues.
Finding 3:
Optimizing the Limited Resources
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Visiting Scholars’ program should be
used for more experienced teachers with
clear ideas about their development.
Young teachers have better chances for
development in a supportive teacher
learning community
Finding 4:
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Theme-based short-term programs are
more effective and approachable by inservice teachers
They should be made available to
teachers during the vacations.
The themes of each program should meet
the needs of the teachers.
Finding 5:
Administrators’ Role in PD
Vision
 Genuine concern for teachers’ PD
 Creating positive and supportive
communities
Professional development is not a personal
choice, it is a social obligation.

A Very Good Book
for All Teachers of English

Psychology for Language Teachers:
A Social Constructivist Approach
-Marion Williams & Robert L. Burden
语言教师心理学初探
外研社/2000年
Summary
Understanding our profession
 Factors involved in language teaching/learning
 Professional Development through teaching
 Resources for professional development
 Optimizing the limited resources to promote
professional development
language teaching
language education

Thank You!
[email protected]
2009.04.11