Abstract
China has launched a nation-wide project of learning English as a “core” subject starting from the third grade in primary schools after the Ministry of Education (MOE) issued National English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education at the beginning of this century. However, EFL teachers are far from sufficient in rural schools, and thus students are in a more disadvantageous position compared to their peers in the urban area. To meet this need, many Zhuangang teachers are employed after being trained. This study examined a phonics-oriented training program in which scholars and practitioners cooperated to train EFL teachers and prospective trainers in rural west China. The current study collected data about EFL teachers’ perceptions on the effect of this program and student achievement. The results showed that the training program was quite effective with EFL teachers regarding the program as helpful and students obtaining significantly better scores. These findings indicate that phonics-oriented professional support system is a good way to make teacher development sustainable in the long run.
Highlights
China has attached great importance to English learning (English as a Foreign Language, EFL) in compulsory education since the beginning of 21 century in response to the rapid development of economy, education, information technology and international communication
The current study aimed to explore whether more qualified EFL teachers could be produced through a phonic-oriented training program
Their pronunciation became more accurate and coherent, and their vocabulary was greatly enlarged through phonics. As they could speak more fluently and learn more words, their attitude of learning changed from frustration to excitement. They stated that “Phonics allowed us to be aware of the connection between sound and written form, which reduced the difficulties to sound out and spell new words.” (Kang, 2012, p. 287) They stated that the vocabulary they learned with phonics method was much larger than what they learned in previous years
Summary
China has attached great importance to English learning (English as a Foreign Language, EFL) in compulsory education since the beginning of 21 century in response to the rapid development of economy, education, information technology and international communication. The number of EFL teachers’ shortage in rural schools was huge. To solve this problem, MOE suggested training primary teachers who might be teaching other subjects like Maths or Chinese language yet had already built a relatively good foundation of English language to become English teachers (MOE, 2001). MOE suggested training primary teachers who might be teaching other subjects like Maths or Chinese language yet had already built a relatively good foundation of English language to become English teachers (MOE, 2001) This is called Zhuangang, a new concept in China indicating the change of teaching position. These English teachers are known as Zhuangang English teachers. Encouraged by this guidance, training and research on Zhuangang teachers, a special product of leapfrog development in primary English teaching (Tan, 2011), became a hot issue
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