The Novice Years of TESOL Teaching

Abstract

Many TESOL teacher educators, teachers, students, and administrators assume that once novice TESOL teachers have graduated they will be able to apply what they have learned in the teacher preparation program during their first year of teaching. However, the transition from the teacher education program to the first year of teaching has been characterized as a type of “reality shock” because of the collapse of the missionary ideals formed during teacher training, caused by the harsh and rude reality of classroom life and by the realities of the social and political contexts of the school. This reality shock is often aggravated because novice teachers have not one, but two complex jobs during these years: teaching effectively and learning to teach. Thus, during the transition from training to teaching, novice teachers must be able to construct and reconstruct new knowledge and theory through participating in specific social contexts and engaging in particular types of activities and processes. This being so, novice TESOL teachers have special needs and interests that are different from their more experienced colleagues.