Disentangling teachers’ enactment of materials: a case study of two language teachers in higher education in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT This case study examines an under-explored domain of teaching, namely, teachers’ use of curriculum materials to enact instructions. It focuses on English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers’ enactment of instructions through utilising prescribed textbooks in Higher Education (HE) in China. Drawing on interviews and lesson observations from two Chinese EFL teachers in two successive years in one university, four interactive processes of teachers’ materials use in classroom settings were identified. Deploying Keller and Keller’s ‘cognition in tool use’ and Vygotsky’s ‘mediation theory’, teachers’ cognitive processes were unpacked and the mediated relations among teachers, students and other stakeholders that underpinned the processes of materials use were disentangled. Findings revealed that teachers’ enactments of materials at the classroom level was situated, dynamic and complex. Recommendations for professional development, materials development, and future research are also provided.