TESOL Teacher Education
A Novice-Service Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/slte.29437Keywords:
TESOL teacher education, novice TESOL teachers, TESOL teacher educators, school mentorsAbstract
Most language teacher educators assume that what they provide to their pre-service ESL teachers will help them transition smoothly into the real school setting, yet we also have evidence that some novice TESOL teachers may be struggling when trying to implement what they have learned in their TESOL teacher education once they begin teaching in their first years. In addition, most early-career TESOL teachers are abandoned once they graduate from their TESOL teacher education programs and left to survive on their own, and/or with the help of school appointed mentors, induction programs or other such assistance. This conceptual paper focuses on these two issues and discusses each as “inconvenient truths”, while also offering ways that both can be rectified by following a novice-service approach to TESOL teacher education.
References
Anhorn, R. (2008). The profession that eats its young. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 74(3), 15–26.
Artigliere, M., & Baecher, L. (2017). Sink or swim: Aligning training with classroom reality in ESL co-teaching. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Preservice teacher education (pp. 43–50). TESOL Press.
Baecher, L. (2012). Feedback from the field: What novice preK-12 ESL teachers want to tell TESOL teacher educators. TESOL Quarterly, 46(3), 578–588. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.43
Boblett, N., & Waring, H. (2017). The corrective feedback assignment: Seeing error correction in slow motion. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Preservice teacher education (pp. 93–100). TESOL Press.
Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (5th edition). Pearson.
Caspersen, J., & Raaen, D. (2014). Novice teachers and how they cope. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 20(2), 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2013.848570
Clarke, M. A. (1994). The dysfunctions of the theory/practice discourse. TESOL Quarterly, 28(1), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587196
Colombo, M., Brazil, K., & White, L. (2017). Reflections on service-learning. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Preservice teacher education (pp. 51–58). TESOL Press.
Faez, F., Cooke, S., Karas, M., & Vidwans, M. (2017). Examining the effectiveness of online discussion forums for teacher development. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Preservice teacher education (pp. 7–12). TESOL Press.
Farr, F., & O’Riordan, E. (2017). Prospective and practising teachers discuss the theory-practice divide through blogs and e-portfolios. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Preservice teacher education (pp. 13–28). TESOL Press.
Farrell, T. S. C. (1999). The reflective assignment: Unlocking pre-service English teachers’ beliefs on grammar teaching. RELC Journal, 30(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/003368829903000201
Farrell, T. S. C. (2006). The first year of language teaching: Imposing order. System, 34(2), 211–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2005.12.001
Farrell, T. S. C. (2012). Novice-service language teacher development: Bridging the gap between preservice and in-service education and development. TESOL Quarterly, 46(3), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.36
Farrell, T. S. C. (2016). From trainee to teacher: Reflective practice for novice teachers. Equinox.
Farrell, T. S. C. (Ed.). (2017). Preservice teacher education. TESOL Press.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2018). Reflective language teaching: Practical applications for TESOL teachers. Bloomsbury.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2021). TESOL teacher education: A reflective approach. Edinburgh University Press.
Freeman, D. (2016). Educating second language teachers. Oxford University Press.
Gordon, R., Kane, T., & Staiger, D. (2006). Identifying effective teachers using performance on the job. Hamilton Project Discussion Paper. Brookings Institution.
Hanington, L., & Pillai, A. (2017). Bridging the theory-practice gap in teaching writing in pre-service teacher education. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Preservice teacher education (pp. 37–42). TESOL Press.
Hennebry-Leung, M., Gayton, A. M., Hu, X. A., & Chen, X. (2019). Transitioning from masters to the classroom: From theory to practice. TESOL Quarterly, 53(3), 685–711. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.505
Higginbotham, C. (2019). Professional development: Life or death after pre-service training? ELT Journal, 73(4), 396–408. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccz021
Hoban, G. F. (2005). The missing links in teacher education design: Developing a multi-linked conceptual framework. Springer.
Ingersoll, R. M., Merrill, L., & May, H. (2014). What are the effects of teacher education and preparation on beginning teacher attrition? CPRE Research Reports. Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Retrieved May 21, 2024, from https://cpre.org/sites/default/files/researchreport/2018_prepeffects2014.pdf
Ingersoll, R., and Smith, T. (2003). The wrong solution to the teacher shortage. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 30–33.
Johnson, K. E. (2013). Innovation through teacher education programs. In K. Hyland & L. C. Wong (Eds.), Innovation and change in English language education (pp. 13–27). Routledge.
Joram, E., & Gabriele, A. (1998). Pre-service teachers’ prior beliefs: Transforming obstacles into opportunities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14(2), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(97)00035-8
Korthagen, F. (2004). In search of the essence of a good teacher: Towards a more holistic approach in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 77–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2003.10.002
Lindqvist, P., Nordänger, U. K., & Carlsson, R. (2014). Teacher attrition the first five years: A multifaceted image. Teaching and Teacher Education, 40, 94–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.02.005
Lortie, D. C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. University of Chicago Press.
Macknish, C., Porter-Szucs, I., Tomaš, Z., Scholze, A., Slucter, C., & Kavetsky, A. (2017). Voices from an MA-TESOL program: Bridging theory and practice from the ground up. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Voices from the TESOL classroom: Participant inquiries in pre-service teacher education classes (pp. 29–36). TESOL Press.
Mattheoudakis, M. (2007). Tracking changes in EFL teachers’ beliefs in Greece. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 1272–1288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.06.001
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2018). Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers: Pointers for policy development. OECD.
Olsen, B., & Anderson, L. (2007). Courses of action: A qualitative investigation into urban teacher retention and career development. Urban Education, 42, 5–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085906293923
Richards, J. C. (1998). Beyond training. Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C. (2014). Key issues in language teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers. Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2011). Teaching practice: A reflective approach. Cambridge University Press.
Roberts, J. (1998). Language teacher education. Arnold.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
Shulman, J. (Ed.). (1992). Case methods in teacher education. Teachers College Press.
Sulis, G., Babic, S., Mairitsch, A., Mercer, S., Jin, J., & King, J. (2022). Retention and attrition in early-career foreign language teachers in Austria and the United Kingdom. The Modern Language Journal, 106(1), 155–171. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12765
Tomaš, Z., Moger, N., Park, A., & Specht, K. (2017). Enriching graduate TESOL methods and materials courses with academic service-learning pedagogy. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Preservice teacher education (pp. 59–66). TESOL Press.
Wideen, M., Mayer-Smith, J., & Moon, B. (1998). A critical analysis of the research on learning to teach: Making the case for an ecological perspective on inquiry. Review of Educational Research, 68, 130–178. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543068002130
Widdowson, H. (2012). Closing the gap, changing the subject. In J. Hüttner, B. Mehlmauer-Larcher, S. Reichl, & B. Schiftner (Eds.), Theory and practice in EFL teacher education: Bridging the gap (pp. 3–15). Multilingual Matters.
Yan, C., & He, C. (2010). Transforming the existing model of teaching practicum: A study of Chinese EFL student teachers’ perceptions. Journal of Education for Teaching, 36(1), 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607470903462065