‘Developing Effective Teacher Talk’ : A Critical Self-Examination of an ESP Course Designed for Korean In-Service Teachers

Abstract

This paper presents and examines the suitability and effectiveness of an ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course entitled ‘Developing Effective Teacher Talk’ which was designed to meet the occupational needs of Korean secondary English teachers, and also satisfy the aims of the institutional administration and the Korean Ministry of Education. In order to investigate the suitability of the course, feedback data was collected through surveys as well as oral feedback meetings with Korean in-service secondary school English teacher trainees, course instructors, and administrators over the course of 6 one-month intensive training programs at Korea’s largest provincial government-supported training center. Further survey data was collected from in-service teachers one month after the completion of the course to investigate its overall effectiveness. Criteria within existing literature were used for systematic review and critical examination, and this included investigating to what extent learners, course instructors, and administrators were satisfied with the course; and to what extent the learners’ teacher talk was affected. The results of this investigation found that the ‘Developing Effective Teacher Talk’ course satisfies various key internal and external evaluation criteria components and thus, may serve as a positive model for similar courses around the world.