MA TESOL Program Research Articles

Language choices in post‐observation conferences: L1 or L2, that is the question

AbstractFeedback within the context of post‐observation conferences (POCs) is critical for English language teachers' professional development. To date, however, surprisingly there has not yet been any study on language choices for feedback communication in POCs, considering around 80% of English language teachers worldwide are nonnative‐English speakers (NNESs) (Moussu, 2018). This study adopts the research paradigm of social constructivism, with a qualitative design to explore language choices (Chinese as L1 and English as L2) by one Chinese mentor and four Chinese mentees in POCs, in a near‐peer mentoring project in a UK‐based MA TESOL program. Data collected include two POCs, a mentor interview, and four mentee questionnaire answers. The data were analysed in depth by data reduction and inductive content analysis. It was found that both emotional and practical reasons resulted in the language decisions by the mentor and the mentees in the POCs. Albeit with small sample size, this study shows the intricacy of language use by NNESs in POCs in preservice teacher education programs and provides insights into how both mentor and mentees can be empowered as active agents capable of making judicious use of L1 and L2 for effective feedback communication in POCs.

Provoking novice teacher development: Cognition-and-emotion in learning-to-teach

Recently, increased attention has been drawn to the crucial role of emotions in developing language teacher cognition. Arguing against the secondary role of emotions in cognitive development, a Vygotskian Sociocultural Theoretical perspective views cognition-and-emotion as basic components of human consciousness, the dialectical relationship between them being captured in the concept of perezhivanie. Building on recent expansions of Vygotsky's concept of perezhivanie (Lantolf & Swain, 2019b) and distinguishing between affect, feeling, and emotion, this article explores the complex interplay between cognition-and-emotion and its link to provoking the psychological development of two novice teachers as they progress through their teaching practicum during their MA TESOL Program in North America. Utilizing multiple data sources, including each novice teacher's dialogic reflective teaching journal, professional development plan, and final reflective essay, we qualitatively analyze instances of cognitive/emotional dissonance that emerged and the working over of these instances with the responsive mediation of the practicum supervisor. Our findings reveal how the practices of second language teacher education have the potential to create mediational spaces for novice teachers to work through and make sense of their emotional experiences as well as to foreground affect, feeling, and emotion as a shared social endeavor.

Positivist or constructivist paradigms in MA TESOL programs: developing a knowledge base for TESOL in Saudi Arabia

This study explores twelve Saudi teachers’ course content and experiences in local and international MA TESOL programs. The researcher uses an epistemological lens to consider the theoretical content derived from both behaviourist and cognitivist learning theories, which are part of a positivist paradigm in contrast to constructivist pedagogical knowledge concerned with teachers' knowledge construction of teaching through practice and reflection. The findings suggest that TESOL programs are primarily founded on a positivist paradigm, focusing on content and pedagogical knowledge. The researcher calls for constructivist approaches that prioritize practicums, engagement with contextual sociocultural histories, and students-teachers reflective work.

“Switching to the Online MA TESOL Program”: Experiences and Decision-Making Processes of International Learners

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the curricula and mode of instruction for many postgraduate taught and research programs. Before the pandemic, many MA TESOL programs included on-campus tutorials as requirements, as the curricula were designed based on on-campus activities. However, as the United Kingdom restricted face-to-face teaching due to social distancing, most of the courses were switched to online learning platforms during the pandemic. Although most courses returned to on-campus teaching during the 2021/2022 academic year, a group of East Asian international students decided to continue their MA TESOL program online as an alternative option. The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences and decision-making processes about this group of MA TESOL students and their decisions to finish their degrees via the online completion option. In line with social cognitive career and motivation theory, the results indicated that flexibility, career development through online learning options, and concerns about job security were the main three themes that arose within this group of students. The outcomes provide suggestions to university leaders and program directors in regard to developing additional online courses and programs to meet the needs of adult and postgraduate students who cannot attend on-campus courses, particularly MA TESOL learners.

Using Problem-based Tasks to Promote Higher-order Thinking Skills for TESOL MA Students in Vietnam

This paper denotes the findings from an action research project, which applied problem-based learning (PBL) in linguistics courses in an MA TESOL program in Vietnam. The project aimed to study the extent to which the use of problem-based tasks in semantic courses could promote students’ employment of higher-order thinking skills in their learning. It was found that the PBL approach was specifically appropriate in promoting higher-order thinking skills for students with passive learning habits in such Confucian heritage cultures as Vietnam. With well-designed problem-based tasks and adequate tutoring, students learned how to use higher-order thinking skills to facilitate their learning; how to stay more focused on the completion process of problem-based tasks; and how to be motivated to engage in learning activities. In addition, some students were encouraged to follow the same PBL approach in their own teaching practice. Problem-based tasks which took place at a fixed time during class seemed to cause students to lose interest. In addition, a lack of adequate job experience might also have limited the effectiveness and overall success of the problem-based tasks.

Teachers’ Perceptions of MA TESOL Programs in Korea

Teachers’ Perceptions of MA TESOL Programs in Korea

Native and Nonnative Teacher Candidate Perceptions of Professional Language Development in an MA TESOL Program

Native and Nonnative Teacher Candidate Perceptions of Professional Language Development in an MA TESOL Program

The development of teacher identity, emotions and practice: Before and after graduation from an MA TESOL program

The study explored how an ESL teacher's identity and emotions interacted with her classroom practice over time at a large US university. Multiple data sources including interviews, observations and lesson plans were collected when the participant had just started an MA TESOL program and when she had graduated from the program. Drawing on a sociocultural framework, data analysis was conducted at the three levels of microgenesis (moment-to-moment interaction), ontogenesis (teaching career over time) and sociocultural history (culture and educational context). The findings suggest that the participant saw herself as enacting critical pedagogy and exhibited an emotional attachment to this identity. This attachment was traced back to the participant's perezhivanie, that is, the emotional experience of her previous teaching context. In addition, the participant continued to identify herself as a teacher promoting critical pedagogy but the meaning of critical pedagogy developed significantly as informed by what she had learnt from the MA TESOL program. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of supporting teacher emotions and identities in teacher education programs with pedagogical concepts to develop more effective classroom practice. It suggests that while pedagogical knowledge is important, without corresponding teacher emotions and identities, it does not necessarily produce desired teaching outcomes.

Reflecting on Approaches for Developing Learner Autonomy in a Juku and Eikaiwa Setting

A number of different approaches can be taken to provide students with greater control over their learning in order to develop learner autonomy. Teacher-based, classroom-based and curriculum-based approaches are similar in that their implementation causes changes to what are considered traditional educational norms. In this reflective article, these approaches are firstly summarised. Then, the author, currently an MA TESOL program student and having recently undertaken a course on learner autonomy, reflects on using the approaches for promoting learner autonomy, in the context of his cram school (juku) and English conversation (eikaiwa) classes in Japan.

Being and becoming an ESOL teacher through coursework and internship: Three teacher candidates’ identity negotiation

ABSTRACTRelying on the framework of communities of practice and using qualitative case study methods, this study investigated three ESOL teacher candidates’ identity negotiation as they learned to work with English language learners through coursework and internship experiences in a 13-month MATESOL program. The findings pointed out that the participants negotiated their emerging teacher identities through teacher education courses and internship in three main ways: (a) they negotiated who they aspire to become as an ESOL practitioner as they set and revised their priorities in serving ELLs, (b) they roadtested their imagined identities through guided reflective practices embedded in the teacher education program provisions, and (c) they acquired the professional discourse which helps them make sense of and engage in the practices of the community of ESOL teachers. This study contributes to the growing research on language teacher identity by illuminating the intertwined nature of teacher learning and identity in shaping the contours of teacher identity negotiation. The study implicates that teacher education should incorporate teacher identity as an explicit goal that serves as an interpretive frame for teacher candidates’ ongoing professional learning and growth as practitioners.

“It just made me look at language in a different way:” ESOL teacher candidates’ identity negotiation through teacher education coursework

Research on language teacher identities is burgeoning, yet there is relatively little empirical evidence about preservice teachers’ identity development during teacher education coursework experiences. Therefore, this study investigates the cases of three preservice ESOL teachers in a 13-month MATESOL program. Focusing on discursive, experiential, negotiated, contested, and positional construction of identity, it conceptualizes identity development as integral component of teacher learning, practice and growth. The findings suggest that the teacher candidates subjectively negotiated their teacher identities during teacher education coursework experiences as (a) they positioned themselves as an ESOL teacher through asynchronous online and face-to-face course discussions, assignments, and activities, (b) they engaged in professional interaction with teacher educators and other emerging teachers, and (c) the professors and other TCs capitalized on their simultaneous school experience as a valuable resource in the teacher-learning community. The findings implicate that language teacher education programs should integrate identity as an explicit pursuit in its practices.

Design and Facilitation of Problem-Based Learning in Graduate Teacher Education: An MA TESOL Case

This exploratory, evaluative case study introduces a new context for problem-based learning (PBL) involving an iterative, modular approach to curriculum-wide delivery of PBL in an MA TESOL program. The introduction to the curriculum context provides an overview of the design and delivery features particular to the situation. The delivery approach has established multiple roles that contribute to the design and facilitation of the learning environment: lead instructors, collaborating instructors, and students as peer teachers. These roles also identify milestones on a collaborative instructional skills trajectory for professional development. In this mixed methods study, qualitative data were collected from collaborating instructors (the majority of whom were alumni) in order to illuminate the nature of successful PBL cycles and quality peer teaching, as experienced in the program. Their perspectives were also elicited on their position in the trajectory, highlighting current professional development benefits and future needs. Quantitative data on student demographics and mean GPA for coursework triangulate the qualitative results. Implications and recommendations for further research are explained.

Expanding the Language Teacher Identity Landscape: An Investigation of the Emotions and Strategies of a NNEST

This article aims to broaden the scope of language teacher identity research by investigating the emotional demands on teachers‐in‐training and nonnative English‐speaking teachers (NNESTs) in particular. We examined how our focal NNEST participant, Puja, was confronted with and successfully negotiated numerous emotional challenges in her first year in a U.S. MATESOL program. Furthermore, we investigated the impact emotions had on her overall teacher identity development and how her growth as an educator was evident in her use of strategies. Following past research that viewed teacher emotions through a narrative lens (e.g., Barkhuizen, Benson, & Chik, ; De Costa, ), we created Puja's ‘story’ by analyzing data sources that included interviews, teaching observations, journal entries, and stimulated verbal and written reports. Our narrative construction focuses on the reflexive relationship between Puja's emotions and her subsequent identity development. While we acknowledge that emotional tensions are part of teachers’ identity development (and potentially more so for NNESTs), Puja largely navigated emotional challenges in a positive manner. The article concludes with a call for new pedagogical models that help teachers develop their reflexivity and negotiate potential emotion‐related challenges they might encounter.

Teacher Beliefs and Extensive Reading (ER): Articulating the Ambiguities of ER Principles

This study explored the beliefs and experiences of six student teachers enrolled in a teaching practicum, which was an elective course in an MA TESOL program at a private university in Seoul. The teaching practicum also functioned as an after-school extensive reading (ER) program for 20 high school students from a co-ed private high school who volunteered to participate in the program. The student teachers met with the high school students during a 10 week period, and the student teachers led the class with ER activities based on the weekly reading assignments. Throughout the program, the student teachers worked in small groups and took turns team-teaching the class. Prior to the ER lessons, the student teachers participated in a four-week training program in which they received instructions on ER theory and approaches; furthermore, they worked in small groups and developed teaching materials and lesson plans together. The student teachers also participated in two focus group interviews with the researcher after completion of the program. Findings of the study indicate that their beliefs and perceptions toward extensive reading were ambiguous and they had very little confidence in themselves as role models of ER. This study suggests that teachers not only need to gain first-hand experience in ER themselves, but they also need an opportunity to articulate their beliefs and perceptions toward ER, which must become much more tangible for them.

Incorporating Video-Mediated Reflective Tasks in MATESOL Programs

Unlike the observed trends in general teacher education, the use of videos as a re-flective tool with preservice English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers remains underexplored in MATESOL (Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) programs. The present qualitative study examined how 5 non- native-speaking preservice teachers used the videos of their own microteaching performances to mediate their reflective practices. The results from the qualitative analysis of the participants’ post-microteaching reflective reports showed that they used videos to explore their professional and non-native identities, practical knowledge base, and pedagogical knowledge base. The results are discussed with respect to their implications for educational practice with preservice ESL teachers.Contrairement aux tendances générales observées dans la formation des en- seignants, l’emploi des vidéos comme outils de réflexion lors de la formation d’enseignants d’anglais langue seconde (ALS) n’a pas fait l’objet d’étude dans le cadre des programmes de maitrise en enseignement de l’anglais aux apprenants étrangers (MATESOL). L’étude qualitative présente porte sur l’emploi qu’ont fait 5 enseignants de langue maternelle étrangère en formation de vidéos de leur microenseignement comme outils d’intervention auprès de leurs pratiques réflex- ives. Les résultats de l’analyse qualitative des rapports réflexifs rédigés par les participants après leur microenseignement indiquent qu’ils se servent des vidéos pour explorer leurs identités comme professionnels et locuteurs étrangers, ainsi que leur base de connaissances pratiques et pédagogiques. On discute des résultats par rapport à leur incidence sur la pratique éducative des enseignants d’ALS en formation.

The challenges of planning language objectives in content-based ESL instruction

The purpose of this research was to investigate the major patterns in content-based instruction (CBI) lesson plans among practicum teachers at the final stage of an MA TESOL program. One hundred and seven lesson plans were coded according to a typology developed to evaluate clarity and identify areas of potential difficulty in the design of content and language objectives by TESOL teacher candidates for use in PreK–12 ESL classrooms. Participants in our study tended to have more difficulty in designing language objectives than content objectives. There was also a tendency to write language objectives that focused heavily on the four language skills and on vocabulary, and considerably less often on grammatical structures, functions, or language learning strategies.

Practicum Supervisors'Insights Regarding Non-Native Teachers in Training

This paper presents the results of a series of oral interviews with practicum supervisors in MA TESOL programs, regarding their views on the characteristics and the challenges experienced by nonnative teachers in training while they were doing their practice teaching. Practicum supervisors constitute a group of professionals with a unique and privialged perspective onto the classroom performance of both native and non-native student teachers and through these interviews they can express their concerns and appreciations of non-native students teachers in North-American TESOL Programs Keywords: practicum supervisor; non-native teachers, TESOL Programs

Situating the discourses of privilege and marginalization in the lives of two East Asian women teachers of English

Using a narrative approach (i.e., Clandinin and Connelly 2000; Dewey 1938 [1963]), this article explores the identity constructions and negotiations of two East Asian women teachers of English in MATESOL programs. The focus of this article explores the ways in which the two women’s privileged experiences coexisted with issues of marginalization once they entered English speaking contexts. The work of Kumashiro and Bourdieu provides the theoretical foundation for exploring the discourses of privilege and marginalization that are weaved into the lives of the EAWTCs. Using the women’s narrative accounts collected during 2004–2005 AY, the core of the analyses focuses exclusively on the different forms of marginalization these women negotiate in reconstructing their identity within English/Turkish as second language spaces (both study abroad and graduate programs) and the ways in which Bourdieu’s forms of capital play out in the intersection of privilege and marginalization. I conclude with discussions around these intersections focusing on: (1) two faces of college entrance examinations; (2) language and race; and (3) capital, habitus, and identity in the graduate programs.

Colombian teachers' questions about CLIL: What can teachers' questions tell us? (Part II)

The second part of this two-part paper starts with a review of the literature on teachers’ questions, going back 100 years, and finds an almost exclusive focus on teachers asking students questions in classrooms. To address this apparent oversight on the other kinds of questions teachers ask, for example to each other and to themselves, Colombian teachers were asked to write their questions about CLIL, at a workshop which was part of a new MA TESOL program. A total of 85 questions were written by approximately 80 language teachers from all over Colombia, 69 of which related to CLIL. These questions were divided into three groups or sets: CLIL in the Colombian Context; The Implementation of CLIL; and Fundamental Concepts of CLIL. These questions and these three categories are analyzed to see what developers of teacher development and CLIL training programs in Colombia can learn from such questions, and how they can inform the design of such programs.

Reflective practice among MATESOL graduates in the UAE: theoretical construct or ongoing benefit?

Many teacher training programs, including the MATESOL program at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in United Arab Emirates, encourage their trainees to reflect on their practice. However, whether or not reflection becomes a part of the trainees’ practice once they leave these programs is a thought-provoking question, which formed the core of the current study. The study was qualitative in nature, using interviewing as its method of data collection. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with four AUS MATESOL program graduates, and investigated their perceptions of and engagement with reflective practice. The findings of the study indicate that the participants have generally developed an understanding of and appreciation for reflection and reflective practice, are aware of its values, and use different forms of reflection in order to reflect on their practice. However, some of them hold some uncertainties and misconceptions about reflective practice and its different aspects.