Teaching American Civilization Effectively: A Melange of Professional Development Procedures

Abstract

In today’s technology driven-world, professional development affirms that it can open-up channels of communication, assure collegiality among peers, help gain practical classroom ideas, and result in attaining higher levels of learning among the students. A closer inspection of English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching at the University of Oran -2- reveals that such opportunities are not offered and mainly in the teaching of American civilization, which remains till present times covered in the traditional way and is described as being inadequate. This digest proposes an intervention that seeks to redress this situation through the implementation of professional development procedures within classrooms of a population of 2nd year EFL learners furthering their studies under the Licence-Master-Doctorate (LMD) system. This research work aims at proposing a teaching based on professional development strategies that may enable instructors to reflect on their own behaviours and classroom practices, as well as better detect their learners’ motivations and expectations. As a major research question, this study focuses on the effects perceived by EFL teachers when incorporating these strategies in their classrooms. To gather convenient information, a case study is carried out based on a triangular approach encompassing questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observation. Results show that the integration of these initiatives helped teachers better liaise with their learners, maintain high professional standards, and ameliorate their students’ academic deficits. Given their strengths, EFL teachers are then recommended to include these professional methods in their syllabuses and put them into action.