Difficulties with team teaching in Hong Kong kindergartens

Abstract

This article draws on qualitative classroom observation and interview data from a case study of one native-English speaker teacher (NEST) teaching in a Hong Kong kindergarten. Features of the NEST’s teaching are identified, namely their professional limitations, their part-time involvement in teaching, and their limited collaboration with the local English teacher (LET) whose L1 is not English. These features are analysed to explore the feasibility of team teaching, which has been suggested as a beneficial form of collaboration between NESTs and LETs. The results show that, in this case study, there are more obstacles to, than opportunities for, successful team teaching (enabling features at the pedagogical, logistical, and interpersonal levels were absent). The results also highlight the challenges of effectively deploying NESTs in an EFL kindergarten. Implications relevant to practitioners in the EFL classroom and policymakers in similar Asian contexts are discussed.