Future English Teachers Research Articles

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS IN THE UK: BASED ON THE EXPERIENCE OF NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

here appears to be an acute need for foreign language teachers to be trained on the principles of the New Ukrainian School. The innovative experience of the UK might be very helpful, since British universities are worldwide recognized for quality education and adhere to the principles of innovative, competency-based, profession-oriented training, humanism, democratism, learner autonomy and goal orientation. Therefore, the current research aims to describe professional training of foreign language teachers, in particular English language teachers, based on the example of Newcastle University (UK). While researching, such methods as analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, prognostic method have been used. The conducted research proves that professional training of English language teachers at Newcastle University cultivates the personality of these specialists with the help of modern intellectually stimulating and goal-oriented methodologies. English language students are provided with many opportunities to reveal their potential, master the chosen course in depth and apply what they have learnt. The content of the training and teaching and assessment methods allow future English language teachers to acquire critical skills, data collection skills, presentation skills, communication skills and intercultural skills.

FEATURES OF DEVELOPING THE WORLDVIEW COMPETENCY OF FUTURE TEACHERS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND FOREIGN LITERATURE

In connection with modernisation processes taking place in the Ukrainian education and its transition to a competent paradigm, attention is paid to the competences and qualifications of education workers as they are to introduce new approaches to the development of education. Worldview competence is an element of educational competence that covers all three levels of competence development and is characterized by personal experience, values related to interaction with the environment. This competence implies planetary responsibility, noosphere thinking, a culture of civilisation, and a system of new values. The purpose of this article is to describe some of peculiarities of the process of developing the world-view competence of future teachers of English and foreign literature. The methods of research used: analysis and synthesis, comparison, systematisation and classification of philosophical, sociological, psychological and pedagogical scientific sources of literature in order to identify the theoretical foundations and the state of development of the problem under the study. The world-wide competence of a teacher of English and foreign literature is the competence in the world of thought associated with value orientations, the ability to see and understand the surrounding foreign world, to navigate within it, to realise its role and purposeful, creative orientation in the native and foreign language environment, the ability to choose target and meaningful parameters of teaching and learning process, making creative decisions.

Іншомовна освіта в Україні: основні тенденції модернізаційних процесів

У статті аналізуються процеси модернізації сучасної іншомовної освіті в Україні, дається стисла характеристика основних принципів оволодіння іноземною мовою та інноваційних методів навчання іноземних мов, зазначаються певні проблеми у системі вітчизняної іншомовної парадигми.

Развитие профессионально-творческого мышления у будущих учителей иностранного языка

Introduction. Well-developed professional and creative thinking increases future specialists’ competitiveness and ensures their professional success. Thus, developing professional and creative thinking in future foreign language teachers is important for their professional development. The novelty of the research lies in studying characteristics of professional and creative thinking related to the specifity of a foreign language specialist’s professional activity as follows: associativity, anticipation, divergence, flexibility, criticism, and constructiveness.
 Methods. The pedagogical experiment involved 22 master students of the Institute of History, Philology and Media of Kabardino-Balkarian State University. The analysis of foreign and domestic works made it possible to choose theoretical appraches to developing professional and creative thinking in future English teachers and develop the author’s program. The idea of gamification of the educational process was underlying for this program. This required the following innovative training methods and techniques: (a) the REAL techniques (N. V. Maslov); (b) case method (situation–sample, situation–problem, and situation–exercise); (c) game technology; (d) reverse brainstorming (RB); (e) association method; and (f) dialogue with a destructive related assessment.
 Results. The study results indicated a positive dynamics for all the characteristics of professional and creative thinking. The students had significantly higher levels of associativity, anticipation, divergence, flexibility, criticism, constructiveness. However, this process was incomplete and required the constant development of these characteristics of thinking.
 Discussion. The development of professional and creative thinking is the main condition for a foreign language specialist’s professional development, which provides him/her with competitive advantages and great demand in the modern labor market. In conclusion: there is a need for purposeful work on the development of professional and creative thinking in future foreign language teachers.
 Highlights
 
 Professional and creative thinking is the main condition for future foreign language teachers’ professional training, which provides him/her with competitive advantages and great demand in the modern labor market.
 The levels of associativity, anticipation, divergence, flexibility, criticism, constructiveness determine the effectiveness of professional and creative thinking.
 Fulfilling the principles of gamification in the educational process can help increase students’ interest and motivation towards professional activities.
 Implementing innovative teaching methods in the educational process provides the development of professional and creative thinking in future foreign language teachers.

FUTURE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ LIFE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN METHODOLOGY COURSE

The article is devoted to the issues of future English language teachers’ life skills development. The authors prove the topicality of life skills development and their role in the professional competence of a teacher. It is stated that there are no researches on the whole complex of life skills in the methodological bank of a teacher. The skills under consideration are as follows: intercultural awareness, communicative skills, teamwork skills, time management skills, critical thinking skills, ability to solve problems, information literacy skills, creativity. In the article the experimental course of English Language Teaching Methodo - logy is presented as the one which is crucial in future teachers’ professional educa - tion. The sessions within the experimental curriculum help students to develop their life skills. The results of methodological experiment presented in the article emphasise its connection with contemporary requirements to the teacher pro - fessional competence in general and according to the Concept of New Ukrainian School in particular.

Advantages of using CLIL methodology in the process of future English language teachers’ study in contemporary higher educational establishments of Ukraine

Advantages of using CLIL methodology in the process of future English language teachers’ study in contemporary higher educational establishments of Ukraine

DEVELOPING FUTURE ENGLISH TEACHERS’ WRITING SKILLS USING CHECKLISTS

The article examines new approaches to teaching writing and ways of developing future English teachers’ writing skills using rubrics and rubric checklists. Writing is determined as a complex skill, which includes metacognitive skills, production and knowledge resources. Product-oriented, process-oriented and genre approaches to teaching writing have been specified. The curriculum requirements for the fourth year of study at pedagogical universities have been analysed and writing skills of the fourth year students have been outlined, writing skills and genres have been determined. The correlation between the students’ writing skills and Common European Framework of Reference levels of language proficiency has been made and C1 level has been determined as a target level for fourth year students. The procedure of familiarising students with Cambridge Advanced English examination rubric scale for writing tasks and introduction of a checklist have been described. The process of developing future English teachers’ writing skills using checklists has been analysed. The advantages and disadvantages of checklists as self- and peer assessment tools have been enumerated. It has been concluded that using rubrics and checklists helps students to become more active learners and improve their performance, understand the link between learning objectives and desired outcome by articulating required elements of a successful assignment; assist in the problem solving process as students attempt to determine what factors are important, reduce uncertainty and ambiguity. Based on positive feedback from students and improved writing skills of students a general conclusion has been made about the effectiveness of checklists for developing future English teachers’ writing skills.

Informing and transforming language teacher education pedagogy

Given emerging trends in where, why, how, and to what end English language teachers are being prepared, we argue that greater attention to the design, enactment, and consequences of language teacher education (LTE) pedagogy is critical in order to meet the needs of current and future English language teachers in an increasingly diverse, mobile, unequal, and globalized world. Through our experiences and conviction as researchers and teacher educators, we position a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective as foundational to informing and transforming LTE pedagogy. In this essay, we offer eight interrelated propositions that we believe constitute LTE pedagogy as a central domain for the knowledge-base of LTE.

Reading and the Profession: On the Literary Education of English School Teachers

AbstractThe article addresses the question of how English departments best can teach literature and literary reading to future upper secondary school teachers of English. It approaches the question in terms of the literary scholar’s contribution to the professional education and practice of school teachers in Sweden. The article combines metacognitive analyses of disciplinary ways of thinking with profession theory to reflect on the literary content knowledge upper secondary school teachers need for their teaching practice. It outlines key differences between the understanding of what reading literature entails in academia and in upper secondary education, respectively, and it points out that current academic practices for teaching literature rely on a narrow understanding of what school teachers need to know about literature and literary reading to exercise their professional judgement concerning literature in the language classroom. Advocating a change in our academic teaching practices, the article proposes that literary debates over reading also be incorporated and that the principles and procedures underpinning professional modes of reading literature be explicitly articulated. This means verbalising underlying theoretical assumptions about the value of literature and of reading it and explicating interpretative conventions and tools, alongside the skills involved in literary reading. Such a teaching practice, the article posits, is not merely key to developing school teachers’ content knowledge regarding literature and reading. It is also a prerequisite for the development of their pedagogical reasoning when it comes to the uses of literature and to the affordances and limitations of literary reading in the school classroom.Keywords: literary reading, teacher education, metacognition, professional practice, disciplinary thinking, content knowledge, upper secondary schoolLäsning och professionen:Om litteraturutbildningen för skollärare i engelskaSammanfattningArtikeln tar sig an frågan om hur akademiska engelskämnen bäst kan undervisa litteratur och litteraturläsning för gymnasielärarstudenter i engelska. Den närmar sig frågan i termer av litteraturvetarens bidrag till gymnasielärares professionsutbildning och -utövande i Sverige. Artikeln kombinerar metakognitiva analyser av ämnesspecifika tankesätt med professionsteori för att resonera kring de ämneskunskaper som framtida gymnasielärare behöver för sin lärargärning. Artikeln belyser viktiga skillnader i förståelsen av vad litteraturläsning innebär inom akademin respektive i gymnasieskolan, och den granskar kritiskt förhärskande akademiska praktiker för litteraturstudier inom ämnet. Den påpekar att rådande praktiker bygger på en snäv syn av de ämneskunskaper gymnasielärare behöver och föreslår ett förnyat fokus på ämneskunskaperna som krävs för att gymnasielärare ska kunna utöva sitt professionella omdöme om den engelskspråkiga litteraturens plats i språkundervisningen. Artikeln förordar att akademiska litteraturstudier också inlemmar litteratur-vetenskapliga samtal om litteraturläsning i utbildningen och explicit formulerar de principer och tillvägagångssätt som ligger till grund för professionella sätt att läsa litteratur. Det innebär att verbalisera teoriers underliggande antaganden om litteraturens och litteraturläsningens värde och även ämnesområdets principer och verktyg för texttolkning samt färdigheterna som krävs för litteraturläsning. En sådan undervisningspraktik skulle bidra till en stadigare grund för gymnasielärares ämneskunskaper. Den är också en förutsättning för att lärarstudenter ska utveckla sitt pedagogiska tänkande vad gäller litteraturens och litteraturläsningens möjligheter och begränsningar i gymnasieskolans engelskundervisning.Nyckelord: litteraturläsning, ämneslärarutbildning, metakognition, professions¬utövning, ämnesspecifika tankesätt, ämneskunskap, gymnasieskola

Teachers' Attitudes Toward ELF (English as Lingua Franca) in the UAE and Georgia

The paper introduces a preliminary study of teachers’ awareness and attitudes toward ELF in two different language contexts, where English has the status of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The exploratory study was based on the survey method and an online questionnaire was completed by 20 teachers from each region in July-August, 2016. Participants reported on their attitudes toward ELF, beliefs on Standard English, opinions on widespread of English, etc. The data obtained on Standard English within this research are broadly consistent with the trend of the inner circle. The results have indicated that ELF is a crucial topic for both regions and it is noteworthy to provide future English language teachers with expertise on ELF and the ways of its incorporation in language courses.

Teachers' Attitudes Toward ELF (English as Lingua Franca) in the UAE and Georgia

The paper introduces a preliminary study of teachers’ awareness and attitudes toward ELF in two different language contexts, where English has the status of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The exploratory study was based on the survey method and an online questionnaire was completed by 20 teachers from each region in July-August, 2016. Participants reported on their attitudes toward ELF, beliefs on Standard English, opinions on widespread of English, etc. The data obtained on Standard English within this research are broadly consistent with the trend of the inner circle. The results have indicated that ELF is a crucial topic for both regions and it is noteworthy to provide future English language teachers with expertise on ELF and the ways of its incorporation in language courses.

Korean Pre-service English Teachers’ Attitudes towards Varieties of English as an International Language

The purpose of this study is to explore what attitudes Korean pre-service elementary and secondary English teachers have towards varieties of English as an international language (EIL), focusing on accent. It also examines the difference between the two groups. Three hundred and fifteen Korean college students participated in a questionnaire survey, including one hundred thirty students majoring in elementary English education and one hundred eighty five students in secondary English education. The results revealed that most of the participants have positive attitudes towards English varieties with an inconsistency between their understanding and value of EIL, and preference of English varieties. Both groups chose American English as the most intelligible, best liked, standard English and a target instruction variety because of the power its speakers have. They showed negative attitudes towards their own English variety, Korean English. It was suggested that pre-service teacher education programs need to focus on enhancing an understanding of EIL, ensuring intelligibility, building confidence and promoting an ownership of English for future Korean teachers of English.

COLLABORATIVE STORY WRITING FOR INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT

Development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in the constraints of the classroom faces many obstacles: not just formal, in terms of the choice of approaches, material and assessment, but also ethical and value-related. Building intercultural awareness in future teachers is equally important, as they should be prepared not only for the intercultural classroom, but for the imminent diversity that any classroom encompasses: ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, learner style. One of many techniques that have been used in the ICC classroom is cooperative story writing. The collaborative project was done by the American and Serbian university students, the former starting the stories and working under the instruction of Professor Kenneth Cushner, an intercultural communication specialist, and the latter finishing them. The jointly written stories showed that both students were up to a degree stereotypical in their understanding of the other culture, but were at the same aware of the steps that had to be taken to improve intercultural communication. A small-scale study is used to show how the learners’ understanding of culture may be enhanced, with a special focus on how future English language teachers might benefit from it.

Identity Status of TESL Students in Malaysia

Adolescence is a critical period for adolescents all over the world because this is the time they have to develop an identity. Students who wish to be teachers should not be unsure of their plans. A survey was conducted among future English teachers by using a set of questionnaire adapted from the EOMEIS-2 by Bennion & Adams (1986). The findings of this study are pertinent to the lecturers teaching pre-service English teachers so that they are aware of the identity status of their students. It is also to help them reach identity achievement for a better quality of life.

Prospective English Language Teachers’ Grammatical Awareness Development to Undertake Academic Writing

This study examines prospective English language teachers’ grammatical awareness development, and its impact on the production of academic written texts in an English teaching undergraduate program at a private university in Colombia. Data were collected through semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, as well as participants’ academic written production. Results reveal the internal and external factors which affect pre-service teachers’ grammatical awareness development in this context, in addition to the frequent grammatical errors found in their work. This research highlights the importance of establishing useful strategies to help future English language teachers develop grammatical awareness to succeed in academic writing.

Nuevas prácticas letradas una oportunidad para mantener relaciones sociales y lograr nuevos aprendizajes en otro idioma

El concepto de literacidad ha sido usualmente asociado como la habilidad de leer y escribir, y en particular aquellos textos que son impresos. Sin embargo, entre los más jóvenes ha surgido una nueva generación de lectores y escritores quienes fuera del aula de clase mantienen “nuevas prácticas letradas a través de nuevos medios y tecnologías” (Wilber, 2008, p. 59). Específicamente, este estudio describe la experiencia de un grupo de futuros docentes en un Programa de licenciatura en idiomas extranjeros inglés en una universidad pública del Caribe Colombiano, quienes a través de nuevas prácticas letradas como las redes sociales, los videojuegos y los blogs, interpretan y crean significado a través de los textos que leen y escriben, los cuales son construidos a partir de elementos lingüísticos, orales o visuales. Los resultados describen que leer y escribir fuera del aula como prácticas sociales fortalecen las interacciones sociales con quienes están geográficamente distantes y asimismo ofrecen nuevas oportunidades de aprendizaje. Sin embargo, si bien las prácticas letradas se destacan por lo novedoso de su carácter “técnico” también lo hacen por su carácter “distintivo” (Lankashear y Knobel, 2011, p. 184), lo que las hace más colaborativas, participativas y permiten negociar significados (Knobel & Lankshear, 2014, p. 98). Estas prácticas como se describen son más centradas en los estudiantes, es decir en sus intereses y necesidades a diferencia de las prácticas letradas convencionales.

Flipped classroom approach for preschool students in learning English language

Along with technology advancements, the Malaysian education system needs to be transformed from a traditional system to an environment that is technology-based. In the Malaysian context, English is considered a second language to be acquired, thus barely practiced by students outside classroom or in daily life. Using Gagne's theory, this study aims to identify the teaching and learning (T&L) processes carried out when using a flipped classroom (FC) approach. Findings show that students have positive responses toward the T&L processes using a FC approach. Three themes emerged during the interview process - children's learning, video lectures and learning guidance. Thus, the contributions of the paper are to encourage the future English kindergarten teachers to implement FC in their T&L practices.

Застосування тренінгів у формуванні іншомовної комунікативної компетентності майбутніх учителів англійської мови

The article is focused on the presentation of the content and the approbation results of professional growth training courses. They are aimed at developing separate components of future English teachers’ foreign language communicative competence. The experiment results testify the efficiency of professional growth training courses for prospective foreign language teachers’ professional training optimization. The data of post-experimental testing show the increasing number of students with a high and intermediate level of foreign language communicative competence.

ARRANGEMENT OF LEARNING MATERIAL FOR FORMING LINGUOSOCIOCULTURAL COMPETENCE OF FUTURE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

The article grounds the theoretical basis of arrangement of leaning material, particularly, fourteen short stories, for forming linguosociocultural competence of future English language teachers. Five main principles of material arrangement have been defined: thematical principle, cyclical principle, systematical principle, principle of variety and principle of openness. Specifically, the thematical principle is used to make connection between the stories and the topics defined in the Curriculum for future English language teachers as well as to concentrate on the linguosociocultural content. Cyclical principle means repeated occurrence of learnt issues in further studying cycles and their discussion on higher level each time. Concerning linguosociocultural study, it provides reoccurrence of topics, challenging questions, developing linguosociocultural knowlwdge and skills. Systematical principle implies sequential studying process from the simplest to more complicated issues. Principle of variety means providing students with the stories of different genres and of various topics discussed in them. No material arrangement for learning English can be considered fully and perfectly completed, therefore the principle of openness has to be among the most important. All the principles considered, the short stories have been arranged in such a structure: block of topics, topics, challenging questions. Four main cycles which coincide with the blocks of topics in the Curriculum («Human Life», «Humanities», «The English-speaking World», «Professional Issues») have been distinguished. Considering precise topics in cycles, it has been defined that «Human Life» contains topics «Everyday Life» та «Relationship»; the cycles «Professional Issue» and «Humanities» include topics «Teaching Practice», «Higher Education», «Law and Crime», «Keep Up to Date» and «Man and Music»; the cycle «The English-speaking World» contains the topics which are directly connected with linguosociocultural competence forming, for example the topic «Foreigners». Following the structure, the fourteen short stories have been split between four cycles and their topics in accordance to the issues raised in the stories. Basing on the stories and Curriculum topics, challenging questions have been formed. After having done the described procedure, a complete logical structure of short stories for linguosociocultural competence forming has been constructed. The examples of the structure with cycles (blocks of topics), topics, short stories and challenging questions have been provided.

The presence of andragogical competencies in graduate study programmes of foreign languages

The development of the quality of adult education is directly connected with andragogical competencies of teachers. As andragogical institutions offer more foreign language learning programmes, foreign language teachers have an integral role in adult education and their competencies for working with adult learners are extremely important. However, it is disputable how foreign language teachers gain the mentioned competencies during their initial education. According to that, the first part of the paper analyses the presence of andragogical competencies in graduate study programme curriculums of English Language and Literature, German Language and Literature and Italian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka. Based on the results of the analysis, the second part of the paper will provide guidelines and recommendations for including andragogical competencies into initial educational curriculums for foreign language teachers. Furthermore, as an example of good practice, the paper will present the programme designed for the students (future teachers) of English, German and Italian language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka with the purpose of developing andragogical competencies. Keywords: Andragogical competencies, analysis of curriculums of graduate foreign language study programmes, foreign language students, project/programme for gaining andragogical competencies.