Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research
Year:2016 | Volume:4 | Issue:3|Papers Count:10

This paper argues that understanding what is offered as professional development frames what matters in English language teaching in a national education system. Analyzing these offerings articulates the values and perceptions of the work environment in which teachers live professionally. The Learning4Teaching (L4T) project is a multi-country series of national studies that examine public-sector English language teachers’ experiences of professional development. The studies document 1) the learning opportunities provided in the national context, 2) how teachers view participating in these opportunities, and 3) what they believe they take from them. Drawing on data from the first phase of the study (#1 above), this paper examines the provision of professional development to ELT teachers in the ‘independent’ (public school) sector in Qatar between 2012 and 2015. Of the 150 events offered during this period, 50% concerned teaching methodology. The university/training center sector provided the bulk of professional development (79% of events). The professional development offerings presented teachers with a view of English language teaching as: highly focused on methodological expectations and skills; driven by a set of policy priorities around managing the learning environment, assessment, and standards; in which methodological knowledge and skills are seen as the currency of a teaching identity.

The beliefs a teacher carries into the classroom are a strong predictor of behaviour and, thus, have educational implications. With more English Language Learners (ELLs) worldwide, in mainstream classrooms in English speaking countries and in content-based classes in other countries around the globe than ever before, it is essential that preservice teachers’ beliefs about these students are understood and, when possible, altered to ensure positive and productive educational experiences. This study examined the initial language learning beliefs and attitudes toward ELLs among 354 pre-service teachers in a large public university and compared it to their beliefs after their ESL related coursework. The findings demonstrate beliefs about ELLs can be changed, influencing preservice teachers’ practices in future classrooms. Survey data collected before and after specific coursework revealed a significant shift in preservice teachers’ beliefs, indicating more alignment with current research and sound educational practice. Semi-structured focus-group interviews provided supporting evidence. These findings suggest pre-service teachers need evidence-based coursework in language development and language learning processes to overcome misconceptions regarding ELLs.

There is still a preference for native speaker teachers in the language teaching profession, which is supposed to influence the self-perceptions of native and nonnative teachers. However, the status of English as a globalized language is changing the legitimacy of native/nonnative teacher dichotomy. This study sought to investigate native and nonnative English-speaking teachers’ perceptions about native and nonnative teachers’ status and the advantages and disadvantages of being a native or nonnative teacher. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. A total of 200 native and nonnative teachers of English from the UK and the US, i.e. the inner circle, and Turkey and Iran, the expanding circle, participated in this study. A significant majority of nonnative teachers believed that native speaker teachers have better speaking proficiency, better pronunciation, and greater self-confidence. The findings also showed nonnative teachers’ lack of self-confidence and awareness of their role and status compared with native-speaker teachers, which could be the result of existing inequities between native and nonnative English-speaking teachers in ELT. The findings also revealed that native teachers disagreed more strongly with the concept of native teachers’ superiority over nonnative teachers. Native teachers argued that nonnative teachers have a good understanding of teaching methodology whereas native teachers are more competent in correct language. It can be concluded that teacher education programs in the expanding-circle countries should include materials for teachers to raise their awareness of their own professional status and role and to remove their misconception about native speaker fallacy.

Accounts of how teacher educators begin to plan, develop, and support action research programmes for language teachers are rare, as are descriptions of the responses of the teachers who participate. This article documents and analyses the initial processes of introducing and supporting a new programme of action research for language teachers at the Universidad Chileno-Britanica de Cultura (UCBC) in Santiago, Chile. To evaluate the setting up of the programme and how the teachers have perceived it in its early stages, the authors, who are the programme facilitators, have conducted a meta-study. Data include workshop and meeting recordings, workshop observation notes, a reflective account, and a teacher questionnaire. The findings indicate that the teachers value the input and collaboration provided by an initial workshop, and subsequent meetings and discussions, very highly, but that issues of time, student involvement, and academic literature are areas for further debate and development. The article ends by drawing out the broader implications for UCBC and for others wishing to initiate similar action research programmes.

The present study was conducted to find out the level of job satisfaction and stress among Iranian EFL teachers. More precisely, an attempt was made to investigate the main sources of EFL teachers’ stress, their level of satisfaction with the job and the relationship between occupational stress and instructors’ age, marital status and tenure. Using a localized self-reported questionnaire, adapted from Ferguson, Frost, and Hall (2012), data was collected from 149 EFL teachers working in Urmia, Iran. The analysis of the data revealed that 29.93% of the teachers reported feelings of stress in one way or another. In addition, more than one-third of the teachers claimed to be somewhat or very dissatisfied with their job. It was also observed that age, marital status and employment play significant roles in the level of occupational stress perceived by EFL teachers. Suggestions are offered for relieving teachers from stress and how teacher education programmes can contribute.

The field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) is similar to other fields in that we must not take it for granted that novice teachers will survive their first year without some kind of support. This paper outlines how three novice ESL teachers in Canada survived their first year without any support from the school they were placed. Specifically, the paper outlines how they, with the aid of a facilitator, engaged in reflective practice by using a framework for reflecting on practice to help them navigate complex issues and challenges they faced during their first year of teaching. Had they not engaged in such structured reflection during their first year, they would have probably become another statistic of those who quit the profession and contribute to the growing perception that TESOL is a profession that eats its young. The paper suggests that language teacher educators and novice teachers should not just wait until their first year to learn the skills of reflective practice but should do so much earlier in their teacher education programs so that they can be better prepared for the transition from their teacher education programs to the first year of teaching.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is advocated by many applied linguists as a common vehicle to curriculum innovation in many ELT contexts. It represents a change of focus in language teaching from linguistic structures to learners’ need for developing communication skills. In recent years, the Iranian Ministry of Education has introduced the development of a new English curriculum for secondary schools with the aim of establishing the use of communicative activities in language classes. The present study was an attempt to investigate Iranian teachers’ perception of CLT principles and practices through a survey of 75 secondary school teachers in the context of the newly introduced English language curriculum developed based on CLT principles. Based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data using a semi-structured questionnaire supplemented with interviews with a smaller group of teachers, the results of the survey revealed that a change in classroom arrangements is required before CLT can be practiced in secondary school English classes in Iran. The results also showed that the employment of CLT procedures at the local level is at its beginning stages and might take time to take root. The conclusion is that for the suggested changes in the curriculum to be implemented and realized in English education in Iran, the findings of more comprehensive surveys complemented with observation of teachers’ instructional practices is required to inform the change implementation.

There is no shortage of books on the market on issues in language teaching and indeed dozens of books are added to already existing publications every year. However, most such volumes fail to provide a comprehensive account of key issues in the field and after reading each, the reader feels s/he was looking for a more detailed coverage or that s/he needs to consult different sources to get an overall picture of what language teaching (and in particular English as a second/foreign language) looks like. Key Issues in Language Teaching is the very book that nicely bridges these gaps by treating fundamental considerations in language teaching that survey the status of English as an international language, learners and how they learn an L2, theoretical and practical concerns in teaching language skills and sub-skills, and language teacher education. This mammoth book, written in "response to the need for a comprehensive text that explores key issues in English language teaching today" (p. xx), is most probably the first full coverage of seminal issues in TESOL (encompassing a wide range of territory) intended to be used both as a course book in undergraduate and postgraduate TEFL/Applied linguistics programmes for teaching methods courses or as an independent reference book by practicing teachers (both novice and experienced), or as resource material by teachers in training or those attending teacher education programmes. The book has been written in an accessible, easy to understand language and assumes no prior background in language teaching.

Widespread use of information and computer technology may conjure up the thought that there is no need to train teachers on how to apply the principles of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). However, CALL Teacher Education: Language Teachers and Technology Integration, by Simone Torsani, proposes that technology has been poorly integrated into language teaching. The main objective of CALL teacher education (CTE) has been specified as developing "in teachers the knowledge of the technological options available and the ability to combine them with their knowledge of language teaching" (p. xvi). The volume is organized around ten chapters each beginning with a brief overview followed by detailed discussions of related concepts and issues.

Simon Borg first taught English as a foreign language in 1988, in Malta, then graduated from the University of Malta in 1990 and started teaching English in a state secondary school, also in Malta. He did my MA at the College of St Mark & St John (UK) in 1991 and taught for a few more years in Malta after that, starting a PhD at the University of Exeter in 1994. He spent two years in New Zealand from 1996, teaching, teacher training and finishing the PhD, and in 1998 he joined the University of Leeds. He left Leeds as a Professor of TESOL in 2014 to become a full-time consultant and remain a Visiting Professorthere. He is also a ‘Professor II’ at University College Bergen. His PhD was about teacher cognition in L2 grammar teaching and the study of teachers’ beliefs and knowledge. He also specializes in teacher education and professional development, teacher research, and research methods. What comes below is an interview with Professor Simon Borg on his academic achievements and issues related to teacher education conducted by the editor of IJLTR. KS stands for Karim Sadeghi and SB stands for Simon Borg.