Opening the insider's eye: starting action research

This paper discusses the topic of getting started on a process of action research (AR). I hope that the paper encourages a few teachers to begin classroom investigations, because it is important for the TESOL and TEFL profession that we have more teacher-researchers. Only if we establish action research as a more attractive aspect of teaching can we avoid the almost complete separation between research on the one hand and practice on the other (Wallace 1991, p. 10). This gap between theory and practice has understandably caused a negative attitude towards theory among teachers. Essentially this rift has been caused by the predominance of the objective outsider in TESOL research. Action research offers the possibility of TESOL teachers providing an insider's view of the teaching process

ESOL teachers' identities in flux : identity transformations throughout a career : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education, Massey University, Manawatu, Aotearoa New Zealand

This study investigates how experiences of ESOL (English for Speakers of other Languages) teachers informed and transformed their professional identities over the course of their careers. This is important because to improve education we need to understand how teachers experience their work. The study uses narrative inquiry to enable an understanding of participants’ perspectives on their lived experience and construction of identities. Research participants were four ESOL teachers who have worked in various cultural and institutional contexts. In interviews teachers were asked simply to talk about their TESOL career, revealing what the important issues were for them. Short narrative excerpts were identified from individual interviews for analysis. Findings revealed that the teachers drew on various sources, from both individual and social realms, to construct their professional identities. Professional learning was found to emerge from everyday practice on the job and from dealing with the challenges of being involved in diverse contexts. The need for autonomy was another important factor shaping how teachers felt about their work. Teachers also held particular beliefs about good practice, which could lead to positive or negative outcomes depending on whether they were able to operationalize these beliefs. Social sources identified in the data were teachers’ connections with their students and with other teachers, cross-cultural dimensions in TESOL settings, and issues to do with the low status of TESOL. The teachers’ professional identities were found to change according to varying influences over the course of their career trajectories. The study concludes with implications and recommendations for teachers and institutions to increase the level of professionalism and to raise the status of the field of TESOL

Teaching grammar: Rethinking the approach

In this article Margaret Kettle examines grammar, its image problem and some new developments aimed at improving its teaching and learning in the TESOL classroom

Giving TESOL change a chance: supporting key players in the curriculum change process

The language of ‘western’ planned and managed TESOL curriculum change aid projects of the 1980–1990s continues to have a strong influence on the terms in which the objectives of 21st century, nationally planned TESOL curriculum change projects are expressed. It is apparently assumed that teachers worldwide will be able to make the cultural and professional adjustments necessary to enable such objectives to be achieved. Many 20th century TESOL aid projects achieved their stated objectives only partially, if at all. The same remains true of much nationally planned and managed TESOL curriculum change today. One important reason for such limited success, is change planners’ failure to adequately consider what support classroom teachers will need, when, and for how long, if they are to be helped to make the above adjustments. This paper does not intend to make value judgements regarding the beliefs about teaching and learning underlying any particular culture, or the classroom behaviours that these give rise to. It represents a pragmatic attempt to present some questions that those responsible for planning TESOL curriculum change might ask, before finally deciding on the objectives of such change in their own contexts. Answers to these questions can, it is suggested, help provide information about how key players (classroom teachers) are likely to experience the implementation of objectives. Based on this information, planners can try to establish systems that will support teachers during the critical first few years of the change process, so making it more likely that the process will ultimately begin to achieve its hoped-for outcomes

Facing the Mirror: Dilemmas and Issues Encountered on a TESOL programme in an International University Environment

Abstract: This paper investigates the experiences of three postgraduate students studying on an MA TESOL and Applied Linguistics course in a British university context. It demonstrates how subtle discourses of „ownership‟ of English (Holliday, 2014; Pennycook, 1994, 2001; Kumaravadevelu, 2003) persist in such training contexts, despite the general shift towards internationalizing higher education environments in the UK. The paper will discuss how the participants negotiated the teaching practice components of the course, and the issues they faced through being „non-native‟ speakers of English. It further examines the impact this had on their professional development and self-perceptions of „legitimacy‟ as teachers of English. The different constructs of a TESOL teacher are discussed and the need for a heightened awareness of training needs for teachers across diverse contexts

Contemporary Approaches to Research in TESOL

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is one of the largest educational enterprises in the world. Tens of thousands of teachers—both native and non-native speakers of English—are engaged in TESOL across the world. This large population of teachers depends heavily on academic researchers for developing their knowledge base. Although it is evident that teachers who engage in classroom research are more aware of their practices and better able to facilitate student learning, teacher-research is a minority activity in the field of TESOL. In this article, I briefly discuss TESOL practitioners’ conceptions of research. Then, I focus on a dichotomous relationship between qualitative and quantitative approaches to research, and review some contemporary orientations to TESOL research. I conclude the article with a recommendation that TESOL practitioners engage in action research for their professional development as well as their students’ increased learning of the target language

New TESOL graduates’ employment experiences and views of teacher education: Report to the Wintec Research Committee following poster presentation at the 9th Community Languages and ESOL (CLESOL) conference, 24—27 September, 2004, Christchurch

In 2003 a new 12-week full time Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) programme called Certificate in English Language Teaching (Cert ELT) was offered by the Department of Education at the Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) for the first time. While other TESOL programmes offered by Wintec are for trained teachers and teacher-aides, the new Cert ELT programme is for those with little or no previous teaching experience. The curriculum development and delivery of Wintec’s TESOL programmes are informed by a constructivist view of learning which has held a prominent focus in educational literature since the late 1980s. This theory of learning sees learners as active participants in the processes of incorporating, synthesising and constructing knowledge within their previous experience (Arlidge, 2000; Zepke, Nugent & Leach 2003). Of particular relevance within TESOL literature is the social constructivist view which claims that a key element in the learning process is that knowledge is socially constructed through dialogue and interaction with others (Randall & Thornton, 2001; Malderez & Bodoczky, 1999; James, 2001). Also relevant is the reflective model of TESOL teacher education as outlined by Wallace (1993) in which trainees participate in a continuous cycle of teaching, observation, reflection and discussion in order to become reflective practitioners. A lack of information concerning what happens to the Cert ELT students once they graduate from the programme motivated the research discussed in this paper. Data collection included a questionnaire and individual interviews. The questionnaire gathered information concerning the graduates' employment destinations, and the interviews focussed on the graduates' retrospective views of those components of the programme associated with a social constructivist view of learning. These components included experiential learning, reflective practice and collaborative practice. It is expected that insights gained from this project will be of interest to other TESOL professionals and teacher educators

One Big Happy Family? An Investigation into Students’ Perceptions of Group Dynamics on an MA TESOL Program

This study addresses the perceptions of a cohort of MA TESOL students regarding the evolution of group dynamics among them. Group dynamics refers here to the learner group’s internal characteristics and its evolution over time, which affect the learning and teaching process (Dörnyei and Murphy 2003). Two sets of open-ended questionnaires were administered to each member of the group (20 participants in total) to gather data, one at the beginning of the first term and one at the end. At the beginning of the term, the participants were asked to answer questions about some of the factors which potentially influence group dynamics. At the end of the term, they were invited to reflect and report on any changes in their views and any developments in the group dynamics of their cohort from their perspective. Using a grounded theory approach, the data from the two sets of the questionnaires were analyzed. The findings of the study contribute to observations and ideas within the academic field of language group dynamics and also importantly extend them in relation to the specific and unique MA TESOL context. Keywords: TESOL; TESOL classroom dynamics; student perceptions, intercultural dynamics; intercultural competenc

TESOL initial teacher training and TESOL curriculum goals: making the connection

APEC countries represent , in TESOL terms, two very different groups. Firstly there are the English L1 countries (US, Canada, Australia, NZ) where the English proficiency of the majority can be taken for granted and where English needs to be taught only as a second language or additional language to people arriving in the countries from overseas. In the second group, the majority of APEC countries, English is a foreign language, and if a government feels it to be an important aspect of the wider curriculum, systems need to be established to provide English teaching to all pupils in all schools. These are very different TESOL environments and what is appropriate and helpful in one, is not necessarily of relevance to the other. The paper that follows focuses on the EFL context typical of the majority of APEC members, although at times it draws from literature deriving from the English native speaker members also