With the further moving of globalization,language is not only a tool to express ideas but also a soft and hard power for a nation's development.Through probing into the white paper published recently The Teachers ...With the further moving of globalization,language is not only a tool to express ideas but also a soft and hard power for a nation's development.Through probing into the white paper published recently The Teachers We Need,we have got much more information on U.S.foreign language education reform.Meanwhile,it provides Chinese researchers some references for the grounding research on language functions and language teachers' career development.展开更多
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 th...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.展开更多
In this paper, 3 different foreign/second language-learning classrooms will be presented. There will be a comparison between those classes and TEFL classes in China, including background of different education systems...In this paper, 3 different foreign/second language-learning classrooms will be presented. There will be a comparison between those classes and TEFL classes in China, including background of different education systems and different teaching methodologies and approaches. In the end, some suggestions will be given to Chinese TEFL classes. The aim is mainly to show the differences between language teaching and learning in the UK and in China, and also to give people a chance to think deeply over the current TEFL teaching and learning in China.展开更多
This study presents comparisons regarding current elementary foreign language programs in China and the USA.The design features a comparative analysis approach combined with deductive thematic analysis to collect,anal...This study presents comparisons regarding current elementary foreign language programs in China and the USA.The design features a comparative analysis approach combined with deductive thematic analysis to collect,analyze,and compare relevant data.Data were collected from samples such as governmental documents,organizational guidelines,national statistical reports,published scholarly works,audiovisual materials,and textbooks.Preceding the research,primary categories were identified,used to group data,and then look for similarities and differences.Categories for comparison were:(a)program types,(b)curriculum standards,(c)instructional methods,and(d)assessments.Results indicated US programs could benefit from consistency,widespread support and demand,state-to-state organization and/or alignment,equitable teaching materials,and attention to all student populations.China's program,while organized,could benefit from more authentic,real-life-context,other-culture-oriented practices,flexibility,and deeper,genuine information about English-speaking countries’cultures.This research contributes to scholarly conversations regarding comparisons of elementary foreign language teaching in China and the USA,while also supporting worldwide comparisons and exchange of ideas.展开更多
文摘With the further moving of globalization,language is not only a tool to express ideas but also a soft and hard power for a nation's development.Through probing into the white paper published recently The Teachers We Need,we have got much more information on U.S.foreign language education reform.Meanwhile,it provides Chinese researchers some references for the grounding research on language functions and language teachers' career development.
文摘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.
文摘In this paper, 3 different foreign/second language-learning classrooms will be presented. There will be a comparison between those classes and TEFL classes in China, including background of different education systems and different teaching methodologies and approaches. In the end, some suggestions will be given to Chinese TEFL classes. The aim is mainly to show the differences between language teaching and learning in the UK and in China, and also to give people a chance to think deeply over the current TEFL teaching and learning in China.
文摘This study presents comparisons regarding current elementary foreign language programs in China and the USA.The design features a comparative analysis approach combined with deductive thematic analysis to collect,analyze,and compare relevant data.Data were collected from samples such as governmental documents,organizational guidelines,national statistical reports,published scholarly works,audiovisual materials,and textbooks.Preceding the research,primary categories were identified,used to group data,and then look for similarities and differences.Categories for comparison were:(a)program types,(b)curriculum standards,(c)instructional methods,and(d)assessments.Results indicated US programs could benefit from consistency,widespread support and demand,state-to-state organization and/or alignment,equitable teaching materials,and attention to all student populations.China's program,while organized,could benefit from more authentic,real-life-context,other-culture-oriented practices,flexibility,and deeper,genuine information about English-speaking countries’cultures.This research contributes to scholarly conversations regarding comparisons of elementary foreign language teaching in China and the USA,while also supporting worldwide comparisons and exchange of ideas.
