581 / 2020-03-20 09:38:47

Professional development through English public speaking training: A pre-service EFL teacher's experience in China

professional development,English public speaking training,pre-service EFL teacher

外语教师发展 > 外语教师发展

Recent years has witnessed an increasing abundance of research on ways of EFL teachers’ professional development in the Chinese context. However, the role of English public speaking training, which is gaining growing attention in China, in EFL teachers’ professional development has been underexplored. To fill such a gap, this qualitative case study adopts the sociocultural perspective and probes into a pre-service EFL teacher’s experience of professional growth through her two years’ English public speaking training in a normal university in China. As the supervisor of the pre-service teacher’s English public speaking training, the researcher utilised multiple instruments to collect data, including semi-structured interviews, reflective journals and personal communication via QQ or Wechat. Findings show that the pre-service EFL teacher experienced changes in all the three components of professional development, behavioural development, attitudinal development and intellectual development. Accordingly, the study finally proposes implications for both EFL teachers’ professional development and English public speaking training in China, together with recommendations for future research on the interconnection between these two educational entities.