Abstract
<p style="text-align:justify">Owing to the rapid expansion and development of newly upgraded undergraduate colleges and universities in China, the Ministry of Education implemented the College English Language Teaching Reform (CELTR) to improve College English language teaching and learning at higher institutions. This reform aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The present study aims to identify potential factors influencing the EFL teachers’ professional development in the context of the College English language curriculum reform in mainland China. In total, 92 EFL college teachers from a newly upgraded university located in Nanyang City, Central China participated in this study, and data were collected using a survey questionnaire. Overall, the findings indicate that the EFL teachers’ professional development improved during the implementation process of CELTR and the potential factors that contributed to their professional development were teachers’ understanding, self-reflection, and teaching practice.</p>
Highlights
The democratisation of education in the late 20th century witnessed the rapid development of higher education institutions all over the world
The results indicated that the mean scores of teachers’ understanding (M = 3.64, SD = 0.52), attitudes (M = 4.05, SD = 0.47), self-learning (M = 3.28, SD = 0.63), teaching practice (M = 4.02, SD = 0.45), self-reflection (M = 3.67, SD = 0.46), and professional development (M = 3.62, SD = 0.58) were at a moderate level, except for teachers’ academic communication activities (M = 2.77, SD = 0.78) which displayed a low score
The results revealed that 55.8% of the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) could be explained by the predictor variables, namely teachers’ understanding, teachers’ attitudes, academic communication activities, teachers' self-learning, teaching practice, and teaching reflection
Summary
The democratisation of education in the late 20th century witnessed the rapid development of higher education institutions all over the world. In China, nearly 53% of the undergraduate colleges and universities were either upgraded or newly constructed over the past two decades. Tang (2010) stated that the rapid development resulted in an increase in student enrolments in colleges and universities, especially for the newly constructed or upgraded institutions. The demand for EFL teachers and various English language courses or programmes requires an overall re-evaluation of the current implementation of College English language programmes in China. Wang (2010) stated that the College English language is viewed as a public and basic course that requires English language teachers’ professional knowledge and teaching abilities. With the rapid expansion and development of higher education programs across China, EFL teachers are faced with the challenging task of improving the teaching and learning processes in EFL classrooms
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