Research on Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK): Teachers’ Views on Language

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the views on language shown in the practices of six Chinese in-service teachers teaching College English at two universities in the south of China by using a qualitative multiple case study approach. These views on language were used to understand the characteristics of the participant teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) so as to make suggestions for in-service College English teacher education and development in mainland China. The study included three rounds of data collection (pre-, in-, and post-class teaching observation), and the college English classroom teaching content analysis approach was applied in the data analysis across the cases. Teachers’ views on language include structural, functional, and interactional views. In this study, most participant teachers showed interactional views on language. Another interesting point in the data was that different views on language could be held by a single teacher in one class. This is not really surprising because teachers’ views on language are reflected in their classroom pedagogical tasks.