俄罗斯本科“外语”课程示范大纲对我国大学外语教学大纲制定的启示研究

本文分析了俄罗斯(非语言类高校)本科"外语"课程示范教学大纲在课程目标、课程任务、课程内容、学时设置方面的特色.借鉴俄罗斯本科"外语"课程示范教学大纲制定的经验,研究对我国大学外语教学大纲制定的启示.提出了以下建议:细化课程目标,将自主学习学时纳入到总学时中进行有效管理,将学习策略训练列入到教学内容中.

Research Summary （2004-2014） on College English Teaching from the Perspective of Dynamic Foreign Language Curriculum Theory

From the perspective of dynamic foreign language curriculum theory, this paper combs, summarizes and reviews the number, contents and topics of the College English Teaching research in China from 2004 to 2014. On the basis of the research above, this paper puts forward the proposal that college curriculum planning, implementation and evaluation should be put into China＇s social, political, economic and cultural backgrounds, and the dynamic ecological system of College English Teaching should be established by using information technology so as to cultivate high-end foreign language talents.

Curriculum Innovation in Language Teacher Education:Reflections on the PGDELT Program’s Contributions to EFL Teachers’Continuing Professional Development

Initial teacher preparation and teachers’ continuing professional development are two significant pillars of the teacher education enterprise. The former encompasses a wide range of teachereducation initiatives at the levels of diploma, bachelor’s degree, postgraduate diploma, and even master’s degree for teacher licensure purposes. These are widely documented in the literature.What is important is how teacher professional development contributes to bolstering the teachereducator force, which is relatively insufficiently documented due to the very fact that different educational systems have somewhat different expectations of such programs in relation to the ideologies and theories underpinning the teacher professional development program design and curriculum offering. Taking stock of a postgraduate diploma program in English language teaching(PGDELT) for teachers’ continuing professional development with a 31-year history housed at a premier teacher education institution in Singapore, which has successfully graduated over 1, 000 English language teachers for colleges and universities in China, I intend to highlight some of its key features, as a former student and then a lecturer on the program, in order to draw implications for sustainable growth of language teacher education programs, especially those whose main purposes are to prepare teachers of English as a second or foreign language(ESL/EFL) and provide continuing professional development opportunities for such inservice teachers.

Dreaming a Possible Dream： Getting Thai Students to Speak in English in a Public Speaking Class

The paper is an analysis of how much success Thai teachers of English have had throughout four decades of teaching English as a Foreign Language （TEFL） and the future direction to take. Thai teachers are aware that their students are not confident of their speaking abilities. That is why they try to avoid making mistakes in pronunciation and connected speech making as mistakes are taken as signs of inability. It is a common sight in an English class that Thai students prefer to remain in their comfort zone of using the Thai language. Speaking is a productive skill; teaching someone to speak cannot be successfully done through listening to the ＂how to＂ lecture. The author proposes that to dream a possible dream, the teachers need to change their course design to adopt the goals of English for communication and enhancement of soft skills such as networking skill, teamwork skill, self-management skill, creativity, and work attitude. An example of a course design used is discussed with the underlining learning theories for the course, the course organization, and the fruits of this endeavor. This course is adopting the ＂Teach Less and Learn More＂ approach, a route to take for real learning.

Blended Learning in a Foreign Language Teaching

Foreign language classes using blended learning take place in a classroom and on an educational platform （i.e., Moodle）. Working this way is meant to help in the process of learning a language and not to replace the traditional method. Using the platform allows preparation of fully distant learning courses as well as preparing areas that allow providing the learners with materials that are complementary to the main course （face-to-face）. Virtual Learning Environment （VLE） is nowadays a very popular tool in teaching not only English （although it is the most popular language in Poland）, but other foreign languages such as Russian or German. This paper focuses on some methodological aspects of preparing： （1） distant learning language courses that are complementary to the whole English language course and （2） complementary areas （consultations） in Russian and German. In both cases the author shows components that are essential for the success of the teaching process

The Practical Study of ESP Theory in Professional Foreign Language Teaching

With the rapid development of economic globalization, foreign language talents who are cultivated by general foreign language teaching should meet the requirements of the international development strategy. Therefore, it is of great importance to promote foreign language teaching quality. In this paper, we discuss how to fully utilize the English for Specific Purposes （ESP） theory to enhance professional foreign language teaching quality. ESP refers to a type of teaching concept or approach as the counterpart of English for General Purposes （EGP）, which contains a vast range of aspects. Particularly, we propose two English course design methods based on the ESP theory, that is, 1） language centered curriculum design, and 2） learning centered curriculum design. Finally, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly improve teaching quality.

（Re）Constructing Pedagogical Knowledge in English as a Foreign Language Teacher Education Courses

English language teaching in the post-method condition demands the preparation of critical professionals capable of developing their teaching practice to enhance their pupils＇ language learning process. These professionals should also be able to recognize their prior knowledge as a potential tool to teach and to act autonomously in different educational contexts. Therefore, pre-service teacher education courses need to provide favorable conditions for teacher candidates to engage in reflective practice in order to foster continuous professional development. The main goal of this paper is to discuss the complexity of the pedagogical knowledge （re）construction process in an English as a foreign language （EFL） teacher education course, attempting to understand prospective teachers＇ pedagogical actions and strategies used to cope with classroom problems in their teaching practice. For this reason, some examples of this dynamic process, obtained by class recordings and reflective sessions with future teachers were examined. Results indicated that through self-assessment and reflection, stimulated by these sessions, student-teachers were able to recognize problems in their teaching procedures, as well as analyze their teaching practice and （re）construct their pedagogical knowledge, favoring their students＇ language learning process and their own teaching approach.

A Comparative Analysis of Teacher Talk Between Advanced and Fundamental English Major Courses

The importance of teacher talk in EFL （English as a foreign language） class has aroused much attention in China since the late 1990s. On a basis of classroom discourse analysis, this paper has observed 14 courses with 21 hours in total from advanced and fundamental grades in an English department. The classroom observation has been transcribed to analyze the features of teacher talk in various English courses in terms of five dimensions--discourse quantity, questioning types, feedback manners, interactional modification features, and conversation chains, It is found that on average there is significant difference in those five dimensions between fundamental and advanced courses. In terms of discourse quantity, the teacher talk has occupied more than 80% of the total talk amount and the total teacher talk in advanced courses is more than that in fundamental ones; the number of display questions is much more than that of referential questions; evaluative feedbacks are more than discursive ones; all of the teachers prefer to employ confirmation checks to modify students＇ answer, and half of the conversational chains are IRF （Initial-Response-Follow-up） structure while another half are full of complicated chains. The paper then provides some suggestions and implications for EFL teaching in the light of these findings.