Language Teachers Studying Abroad

In This Issue

In both the school environment and teacher education, sustainable development is usually linked to the natural and social sciences and is rarely incorporated into language education or encouraged as part of language teacher education. As more research is needed on the practical implementation of sustainable development in language teaching and language teacher education, this study elucidates Finnish pre-service language teachers’ perceptions of sustainability dimensions (i.e. ecological, economic, social, and cultural) and their role in language teaching. We used a questionnaire comprising open-ended and Likert-scale questions to examine pre-service language teachers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards themes under all sustainability dimensions, and their feeling about their ability to integrate them into their teaching. Pre-service teachers ( n = 26) recognized the importance of the social and cultural dimensions in language teaching and felt more capable of addressing personal environmental actions than global problems in the language classroom. Some pre-service teachers produced concrete practices linking sustainability issues with language teaching, but they were mostly teacher-centred. The pre-service teachers did not link equality as tightly to the cultural and social aspects of language teaching as they did in their personal lives. These findings help in developing language teaching and teacher education programmes toward the educational sustainable development goals. Moreover, the questionnaire can be used to analyse the consideration of sustainability themes in language teaching and language teacher education.

Teacher supervision plays a pivotal role in the improvement of education system and the way in which teachers and student teachers perceive it. Consequently language teacher supervisors can utilize appropriate supervisory models to keep teachers update and promote them professionally. The present study investigated the role of language teacher supervisors in student teachers and in-service teachers’ professional development in Iran. To have a representative sample, some 210 EFL teachers practicing in the secondary schools and a total of 215EFL student teachers studying English at some Iranian state and Azad universities participated in the study. A 43-item questionnaire regarding EFL teachers’ attitudes about the impact of supervisory practice on their professional development with a format of a 5-point Likert-type was distributed among them. Also, ten percent of the participants were interviewed. Then the frequencies related to each item were calculated and a Chi-Square was used. Subsequently, qualitative data were transcribed. The results indicated that in-service and pre-service teachers have the same perceptions towards the role of their supervisors in their professional development. However, according to the findings it was concluded that the models of language teacher supervision in language teacher education are different from the models practiced in in-service classes where mostly traditional models are common.

This book focuses on the study abroad experiences of pre-service and in-service language teachers and language teacher educators, discussing their psychological experiences in cognitive, affective and social terms.

This chapter addresses the issue of theory for second language teachers on in-service courses, defined as the propositional knowledge accumulated in the field of applied linguistics. Johnson (2009: 23) defines this as 'scientific or disciplinary' in contrast to teachers' 'personal theories' or practitioner knowledge (2009: 22). The concept of theory will be discussed in relation to the in-service teacher development courses available for English language teachers in the Greek state education system, the context in which I have been working for the last 20 years. I will first argue for the necessity to invite the teachers to 'taste the apple' of theory in in-service teacher education, and second, make suggestions of ways which could be used to 'seduce' the teachers to 'eat the apple'. My discussion will use metaphors to illustrate personal experiences on the issue.

The Douglas Fir Group Framework as a Resource Map for Language Teacher Education

The field of second language teacher education has recently focused on issues of social justice through different interventions in language teaching preparation programmes and the analysis of the identity formation of pre-service and in-service language teachers. However, little is known about the identities of teacher educators in second language teacher education programmes. This article, adopting a social justice and critical perspective, retrospectively focuses on the 28-year journey of an English language teaching preparation BA Programme and the identity of three teacher educators (the co-authors of this article) who have been part of the programme. Zooming in on the views and identity negotiation of these three teacher educators through autoethnographic vignettes, this study analyzes the original design and the two consecutive renewals/reforms of the aforementioned BA programme at a public university located in Oaxaca, the most culturally and linguistically diverse state in Mexico (Author 1). Pursuant to the article’s autoethnographic methodology, by which the researcher or author explores her/his own personal experience as having relevance to the community at large, the purpose of this article is to explore the impact of ELT curricular reforms on the identity of the three teacher educators and the connection between identity and issues of social justice.

Teachers' Sense of Efficacy: An Important Factor in School Improvement

Over the last years, language learning has been described as a complex dynamic system, encompassing different interacting subsystems, such as autonomy. In this article, I argue that autonomy development is a complex, dynamic and fluctuating process in which a point of arrival cannot be defined, as autonomy is experienced in a nonlinear and continuous way throughout life, with moments of advances, stability and setbacks, involving the interaction between a large number of processes, elements, agents, among other subsystems. In this paper, I present the Complex Dynamic Model of Autonomy Development (CDMA). This model explains the dynamics of autonomy in learners’ language learning trajectory in light of the complexity paradigm. The model has been used in research and activities with a focus on language learning and language teacher education. It has been discussed with language majoring students, pre-service and in-service language teachers as a tool for reflection, self-awareness and self-regulation, as it enables a comprehensive view of the dynamism and complexity involved in the process of developing both learner autonomy and teacher autonomy.

Earlier research has established that language teachers’ identity work is intertwined with emotions and called for incorporating emotions in language teacher education. Yet, there is limited research investigating how teacher education programmes pedagogize identity, emotions and agency to help pre-service teachers gain critical emotional reflexivity. To respond to this gap in the literature, we pedagogized Kayi-Aydar’s emotion–identity–agency triangle via three teacher learning activities in a critical practicum course in a pre-service English language teaching programme in Turkey: reflective emotion diary; auto-ethnography; and critical issues analysis and advocacy project. In this study, we explore a Korean pre-service language teacher's (Iris's) case to demonstrate how she navigated her emotions, identity and agency throughout the practicum course with the help of these teacher learning activities and critical, dialogical supervision in our course. At the beginning of the term, Iris expressed anxiety due to her novice non-native pre-service teacher identity. Yet, as she gained critical emotional reflexivity, Iris could reflect on her emotions critically, transform her internalized deficit view of her identity as a novice non-native pre-service teacher and perform her multicultural and multilingual identity in her emerging pedagogy. We argue that findings from this study offer evidence that when intentionally and systematically supported by second language (L2) teacher educators through the design of teacher learning activities, pre-service L2 teachers can develop critical reflexivity of their emotions and emotion labour and recruit this awareness for teacher agency even over a short period of time and in contexts of power imbalance such as pre-service practicum experience. We offer recommendations for L2 teacher educators.

Research in language teacher leadership has increased significantly over the past decade resulting in the emergence of various conceptualizations of what leadership entails at both the organizational and classroom levels. Although there is growing acknowledgment of the importance of language teachers being leaders inside and outside of the classroom, little empirical attention has been paid to how leadership qualities and characteristics can be integrated into and fostered through language teacher education programs. Thus, this qualitative exploratory study investigates stakeholders’ perspectives on the essential features of leadership in language teacher education in the South Korean context and how these features may be nurtured in teacher-learners in pre-service teacher education programs. Data were collected in two stages: first through semi-structured life-world interviews with 15 Korean public in-service secondary school English teachers and 15 English teacher educators in South Korea and then through follow-up interviews with the in-service teacher participant group. Findings suggest that essential language teacher leadership features include an integrated combination of possessing strong interpersonal skills, being contextually aware and situationally adaptive, and acting as a good language and learner model for students. Furthermore, in-service teachers felt that these essential features of leadership can be nurtured through interaction with knowledgeable peers, lesson observation and feedback, practicum and teaching experiences, and reflection. Based on these findings, we propose a conceptual model for nurturing essential leadership features in pre-service language teacher education programs that can be used as a point of reference when planning and designing language teacher leadership–focused seminars, workshops, courses, and programs in South Korea and wider global contexts.

This book explores digital literacy, digital pedagogies, digital technologies, and digital language teaching. The book responds to the need for language teachers to develop and improve digital competencies and digital language teaching strategies. It highlights five key elements of digital literacy: information search and evaluation; creation; communication; collaboration; and online safety. It provides a theoretical basis and a practical guide for language teachers and researchers with any degree of experience in technology-enhanced language teaching. It is a valuable resource for pre-service and in-service language teachers, teacher educators, and researchers.

Aim. This phenomenological study probes the experiences of pre-service English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in the practicum process. Thus, this paper aims at bringing a light to the effects of practicum experiences of pre-service EFL teachers on their professional identity.
 Methods. Based upon a narrative identity method, this phenomenological inquiry examines the experiences of pre-service EFL teachers (N= 20) in their practicum. A one-shot question was directed to the informants with the aim of clarifying their personal constructs.
 Results. Practicum has got a significant role in education faculties all over the world. The theories applied in teaching practicum are quite common and universal. However, the practices utilised in practicum may show variations among education faculties. Further, the practicum content, and the characteristics of teacher candidates and supervisors may cause practicum to be carried out in diverse ways. The practicum aspect of pre-service teacher education is contemporarily given significant emphasis all around the world. Further, the exact theory of practicum and the desired outcomes of the related practices are relatively identical in education faculties throughout the world. Nonetheless, the practicum practices represent diversities among institutions. Yet, the characteristics and experiences of pre-service teachers may lead the practicum to be carried out in diverse ways in dissimilar contexts.
 Conclusion. The results of the study suggest that teacher candidates developed both positive and negative cognitive constructs during their practicum. Related implications are provided to overcome the problems encountered during practicum, as well as to suggest ways to develop EFL pre-service teachers’ practicum process.
 Keywords: EFL teachers, pre-service EFL teachers, practicum, narrative identity, professional identity

In pre-service language teacher education contexts, it is challenging to provide hands-on training on task design for technology-mediated settings. This study presents insights from language teacher education activities that aim to tackle this challenge with a multi-step approach consisting of (1) pre-service teachers’ collaborative task design conversations in groups, (2) whole-class feedback sessions, (3) implementation of the tasks by actual L2 learners via video-mediated interaction, and (4) pre-service teachers’ reflective practices based on the recordings of video-mediated task implementations. We present two cases across these multi-step activities by closely examining the teacher training classroom interactions using Conversation Analysis and also by drawing on the written task design sheets and reflections on video-mediated interactions. More specifically, we document the central role that pre-service teachers’ resistance to teacher trainer advice plays in displaying and defending their knowledge about the technological and pedagogical aspects of their task design. We conclude that resistance practices create multiple teacher learning opportunities and maximise space for pre-service teachers’ displays of knowledge about task design for video-mediated L2 interactions.

Teacher identity has become an issue in teaching and teachers’ professional identity development since the identity influences teachers’ teaching pedagogies and teachers’ development. Many studies have explored teachers’ identity from in-service teachers’ perspectives. Somehow, small attention has been paid to teachers’ identity construction from pre-service perspectives in Indonesian context. To fill this gap, this research investigated how Indonesian pre-service teachers constructed and reconstructed their identities through peers’ feedbacks in a micro-teaching class. There were three pre-service teachers from Sanata Dharma University who participated in this study. The data were obtained through field observations and interviews. Using Yuan and Lee’s (2015) theory, the study investigated the cognitive, social and emotional processes of their teacher identity construction. The findings of the study suggested that pre-service language teachers developed and modified their identities through peers’ feedbacks in a teaching practicum. The findings also showed that feedbacks delivered positive and negative impacts to pre-service teachers’ identity construction. Although some of the pre-service teachers did not change their beliefs, they still used the feedbacks to prepare for their next teachings. The study supported the theory that teacher identity affected to pre-service teachers’ teaching pedagogies. This paper suggested some implications for policy makers, language teacher education, and pre-service teacher education. A further research with a longer duration is expected.