rned in teacher education programs.
2.2 Research about TESOL Programs
Recent teacher education studies have mostly focused on the role of teachers previous experiences,teacher education programs and pre-service practices, the role of reflection, the role of collaboration,and teachers beliefs and instructional decision making (Velez-Rendon 2002: 459). In terms of content,Richards suggests that six components should be reinforced in teacher education: theories of teaching,teaching skills, communication skills and language proficiency, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical
reasoning skills and decision making, and contextual knowledge (as cited in Velez-Rendon 2002: 462).
However, offering these is not necessarily enough to meet the needs of all students in TESOL programs,and the diversity of ESL/EFL teaching contexts needs more attention (Tabachnick & Zeichner 1993).
Studies about this diversity mostly highlight non-native English speakers/speaking (NNS) students forthe purpose of program evaluation. These studies claim that TESOL programs are predominantly western-biased with a western trainer preferred approach and content. These researchers argue that the programsfail to accommodate the different needs and interests of NNS students (Bax 1997; Chowdhury 2003; Liu1998) and fail to prepare native English speakers/speaking (NS) students for teaching in a non-native
speaking environment (Govardhan, Nayar & Sheorey 1999).
Additionally, few studies highlight teachers development and negotiation between what they learnedand their home culture, and most studies are limited to investigating one nationality or one methodology.Shi s (2003) study of academic writing by western-trained TESOL university professionals in China foundthat their perceived western training had influenced their intellectual identities, creating a conflictbetween two different contexts. Liu s (1998) study of international United States educated TESOL
students returning home has shown that they commonly experience conflicts between newly acquired ideasand those followed by local professionals, causing them to modify their methods and techniques. It istherefore anticipated that the participants in this study might face similar conflicts in their various
teaching contexts.
3. Methodology
3.1 Background of the M. TESOL Program
The case program in this study refers to the M. TESOL program offered in the Faculty of Educationat a university in Australia, which consists of eight courses—three compulsory core courses and fiveelective courses. The three compulsory core courses are: The Nature of Language, Principles of SecondLanguage Learning, and Methodology in Teaching a Second Language. The following elective courseswere offered in the program in 2006: Syllabus Design and Materials Writing, Discourse Analysis,
Language Testing, Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, ImmersionLanguage Teaching, Computer-Assisted Language
本论文由英语论文网提供整理,提供论文代写,英语论文代写,代写论文,代写英语论文,代写留学生论文,代写英文论文,留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。