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Reflective Practice for Early Career Language Teachers
- Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- October 2024
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- 31 October 2024
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Based on a range of detailed case studies, this innovative book presents a model for early career language teacher development. It showcases the lived experiences of English language teachers in their training years, as well as the reflections of two more experienced English language teachers, and uses these case studies to provide practical guidelines on early career needs and development. It outlines four essential and highly connected conditions that will enable teachers to survive and thrive in the profession: reflection, support, resilience, and well-being. Using an innovative, evidence-based, data-informed approach to reflective practice, the book covers teachers' philosophy, principles, theory, practice, and critical reflection beyond practice. Each chapter contains practical reflection activities, to encourage reflection throughout from the reader on what the research reveals. It is essential reading for graduate students who are training to become language teachers, as well as language teacher trainers and lecturers.
Reflective Practice in Language Teaching
- Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- 22 April 2022
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- 19 May 2022
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This Element examines the concept of reflective practice in language teaching. It includes a brief description of what reflective practice is and how it is operationalized by two of its main protagonists, John Dewey and Donald Schön, as well as some of the limitations of their conceptions. This is used as an introduction to how the author further developed their conceptions when operationalizing reflective practice for language teachers through a five-stage framework for reflecting on practice for language teachers. The author then presents an in-depth case study of the reflections of an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher working in Costa Rica as he moved through the five stages of the framework for reflecting on practice. The author then goes on to outline and discuss how reflective practice may be moved forward and calls attention to the importance of emotions in the process of reflection for language teachers.
Contributors
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- By Jane E. Adcock, Yahya Aghakhani, A. Anand, Eva Andermann, Frederick Andermann, Alexis Arzimanoglou, Sandrine Aubert, Nadia Bahi-Buisson, Carman Barba, Agatino Battaglia, Geneviève Bernard, Nadir E. Bharucha, Laurence A. Bindoff, William Bingaman, Francesca Bisulli, Thomas P. Bleck, Stewart G. Boyd, Andreas Brunklaus, Harry Bulstrode, Jorge G. Burneo, Laura Canafoglia, Laura Cantonetti, Roberto H. Caraballo, Fernando Cendes, Kevin E. Chapman, Patrick Chauvel, Richard F. M. Chin, H. T. Chong, Fahmida A. Chowdhury, Catherine J. Chu-Shore, Rolando Cimaz, Andrew J. Cole, Bernard Dan, Geoffrey Dean, Alessio De Ciantis, Fernando De Paolis, Rolando F. Del Maestro, Irissa M. Devine, Carlo Di Bonaventura, Concezio Di Rocco, Henry B. Dinsdale, Maria Alice Donati, François Dubeau, Michael Duchowny, Olivier Dulac, Monika Eisermann, Brent Elliott, Bernt A. Engelsen, Kevin Farrell, Natalio Fejerman, Rosalie E. Ferner, Silvana Franceschetti, Robert Friedlander, Antonio Gambardella, Hector H. Garcia, Serena Gasperini, Lorenzo Genitori, Gioia Gioi, Flavio Giordano, Leif Gjerstad, Daniel G. Glaze, Howard P. Goodkin, Sidney M. Gospe, Andrea Grassi, William P. Gray, Renzo Guerrini, Marie-Christine Guiot, William Harkness, Andrew G. Herzog, Linda Huh, Margaret J. Jackson, Thomas S. Jacques, Anna C. Jansen, Sigmund Jenssen, Michael R. Johnson, Dorothy Jones-Davis, Reetta Kälviäinen, Peter W. Kaplan, John F. Kerrigan, Autumn Marie Klein, Matthias Koepp, Edwin H. Kolodny, Kandan Kulandaivel, Ruben I. Kuzniecky, Ahmed Lary, Yolanda Lau, Anna-Elina Lehesjoki, Maria K. Lehtinen, Holger Lerche, Michael P. T. Lunn, Snezana Maljevic, Mark R. Manford, Carla Marini, Bindu Menon, Giulia Milioli, Eli M. Mizrahi, Manish Modi, Márcia Elisabete Morita, Manuel Murie-Fernandez, Vivek Nambiar, Lina Nashef, Vincent Navarro, Aidan Neligan, Ruth E. Nemire, Charles R. J. C. Newton, John O'Donavan, Hirokazu Oguni, Teiichi Onuma, Andre Palmini, Eleni Panagiotakaki, Pasquale Parisi, Elena Parrini, Liborio Parrino, Ignacio Pascual-Castroviejo, M. Scott Perry, Perrine Plouin, Charles E. Polkey, Suresh S. Pujar, Karthik Rajasekaran, R. Eugene Ramsey, Rahul Rathakrishnan, Roberta H. Raven, Guy M. Rémillard, David Rosenblatt, M. Elizabeth Ross, Abdulrahman Sabbagh, P. Satishchandra, Swati Sathe, Ingrid E. Scheffer, Philip A. Schwartzkroin, Rod C. Scott, Frédéric Sedel, Michelle J. Shapiro, Elliott H. Sherr, Michael Shevell, Simon D. Shorvon, Adrian M. Siegel, Gagandeep Singh, S. Sinha, Barbara Spacca, Waney Squier, Carl E. Stafstrom, Bernhard J. Steinhoff, Andrea Taddio, Gianpiero Tamburrini, C. T. Tan, Raymond Y. L. Tan, Erik Taubøll, Robert W. Teasell, Mario Giovanni Terzano, Federica Teutonico, Suzanne A. Tharin, Elizabeth A. Thiele, Pierre Thomas, Paolo Tinuper, Dorothée Kasteleijn-Nolst Trenité, Sumeet Vadera, Pierangelo Veggiotti, Jean-Pierre Vignal, J. M. Walshe, Elizabeth J. Waterhouse, David Watkins, Ruth E. Williams, Yue-Hua Zhang, Benjamin Zifkin, Sameer M. Zuberi
- Edited by Simon D. Shorvon, Frederick Andermann, Renzo Guerrini
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- The Causes of Epilepsy
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- 05 March 2012
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- 14 April 2011, pp ix-xvi
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Introduction
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 05 October 2012
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- 14 March 2011, pp 1-2
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Summary
TO THE STUDENT TEACHER
This book is designed to provide support and guidance for student teachers who are practice teaching as a component of a teacher education course, either at diploma, undergraduate, or graduate level. Throughout the book we invite you to examine your beliefs and understandings of language teaching and your knowledge and skills as a learner of language teaching as you plan, teach, and reflect on lessons you teach during your teaching practice, as well as those you observe taught by other teachers. The book sets out to help you better understand what to expect from your teaching practice, how to prepare for it, how to work with those who will be arranging and supervising your teaching practice, and how to plan, teach, and learn from your teaching practice experiences. Throughout the book we present accounts by student teachers, cooperating teachers, and supervisors that will enable you to compare your experiences with others involved in practice teaching.
TO THE SUPERVISOR AND COOPERATING TEACHER
In this book we adopt a “reflective approach” to teaching practice. By this we mean one in which student teachers are shown how to explore and reflect on the nature of language teaching and their own approaches to teaching through their experience of practice teaching. Rather than presenting prescriptions on how to teach, the book is built around core chapters that describe a contemporary perspective on the nature of second language teaching and teacher learning; other chapters examine the issues involved in working in a cooperating teacher's classroom and developing teaching skills through observation and supervised practice.
Chapter 5 - Planning Your Teaching
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 05 October 2012
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Planning a lesson before teaching is generally considered essential in order to teach an effective lesson and often receives considerable emphasis in teacher-training programs, although teachers vary in the nature of the planning they do and the kinds of information they include in lesson plans. Experienced teachers generally make use of less detailed lesson plans than novice teachers and often teach from a mental plan rather than a detailed written lesson plan (Richards 1998). And lesson plans often differ from the lessons teachers using them actually teach, since there are sometimes good reasons for departing from a lesson plan, depending on the way a lesson proceeds and develops (see Chapter 6). However, lesson planning is an administrative requirement of many schools, and teachers are often required to prepare yearly, term, unit, weekly, and daily lesson plans. As a student teacher you may find that the general framework and content of the course you are teaching has already been planned in some detail by the cooperating teacher. Nevertheless you will generally be required to plan for the lessons that you are going to teach or coteach so it is important to become familiar with the procedures used in lesson planning. The following comments describe student teachers' views on lesson planning:
As a student teacher, I find a detailed lesson plan to be very helpful. My cooperating teacher e-mails me a broad lesson plan every week. But it is up to me to work on the details. […]
Contents
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 05 October 2012
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- 14 March 2011, pp iii-iv
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Chapter 9 - Developing Learner-Centered Teaching
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 05 October 2012
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- 14 March 2011, pp 120-133
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
When you begin your practice-teaching experience you will naturally be concerned with how well your students respond to you as a teacher and to your lessons. You will want to make a good impression on your students and to communicate the sense that you know what you are doing and that your lessons have been carefully planned. You will doubtless be somewhat critical of your own performance, evaluating your lessons on the basis of how successful they were in realizing your goals as well as how well they reflected the principles you have studied in your teacher education course.
But teaching is much more than a performance by the teacher. Above all, a successful lesson makes the learners – rather than the teacher – the focus of the lesson. Was the lesson content something students could relate to and that was relevant to their needs? Were the activities students took part in during the lesson sufficiently challenging to engage them but not so challenging that they became frustrated and lost interest? Were the students motivated during the lesson? Did the lesson provide opportunities for active participation by all the students in the class or was it dominated by one or two students who monopolized questions and discussion? In this chapter we will explore how you can move from a teacher-centered approach to teaching to a learner-centered one, that is, one in which students' needs, interests, and preferences take priority in teaching.
Chapter 3 - Understanding the Teaching Context
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Teaching practice may take place in one or several very different contexts. For example, you might be teaching in a campus-based ESL program, in a local public school, in a community college, or a private language institute. Depending on the context, the learners you teach may be children, teenagers, or adults and may represent a variety of different social, economic, cultural, and educational backgrounds. Different teaching contexts present different notions of the process of learning to teach (Zeichner and Grant 1981). Campus-based teaching experiences (e.g., in a language center) may be quite different to those occurring in schools off campus. The students may be undergraduate international students rather than immigrants. The program may be supported with well-trained staff and superior support systems that do not always reflect conditions found in off-campus programs (Richards and Crookes 1988). Whatever the context in which you will be teaching, you will need to develop not only the skills of teaching but also the norms of practice expected of teachers in your school, both inside and outside the classroom. This will include understanding such things as the role of the prescribed curricula, the school culture, the routines of the classroom, and the school's procedures for lesson planning, as well as learning how to interact with students, school authorities, and colleagues.
In order to prepare for a successful practice-teaching experience, before you start your teaching practice you should therefore try to find out as much as possible about the school or institution where your teaching will take place, the kinds of language programs offered there, the kinds of teachers and students that you will work with, and what facilities and learning resources will be available.
Chapter 8 - Creating an Effective Classroom Learning Environment
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 05 October 2012
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- 14 March 2011, pp 106-119
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
One of the key transitions that occur when you move from being a graduate student in a TESOL program to being a student teacher on your teaching practice assignment is that as a student teacher, you now have to assume a new role and identity. You now have to assume and enact the social and cultural roles expected of a language teacher and your students need to accept you in this new role. However, your students know that you are a student teacher and that you are in the class to learn the art and skills of teaching. They do not expect you to have the same depth of knowledge, skill, and expertise of the regular class teacher. Establishing the students' trust, respect, and confidence in you will happen gradually. But you can lay the groundwork for this process by being open and frank with your students and by raising relevant issues early on in your teaching experience. For example, you might have a brief group discussion activity in which students debate questions such as:
What are some of the qualities you like to see in an English teacher?
How do you think the teacher can best help you achieve your goals in this class?
What are you most worried about with your student teacher taking over your usual teacher's class?
What are you most excited about with your student teacher taking over your usual teacher's class?
What are some of the difficulties your student teacher will face in teaching your class?
How can you help him or her overcome these difficulties?
What would you like your student teacher to focus on most while teaching you?
Author Index
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 14 March 2011, pp 179-179
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Subject Index
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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Chapter 7 - Classroom Observation in Teaching Practice
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 14 March 2011, pp 90-105
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Observation plays a central role in practice teaching, both observation of your teaching by your cooperating teacher and supervisor, as well as your own observations of your cooperating teacher's class. Other school staff may also wish to observe one of your classes from time to time, such as the principal, the vice-principal, or a senior teacher, so you need to prepare well for every lesson in the event that someone asks to observe your teaching. You may also have the opportunity to observe other teachers in your host school and to review video recordings of your own teaching and that of other student teachers in your teaching practice seminars. The purpose and nature of observation, however, differs according to who participates in the observation process. For example, in observing your cooperating teacher's class your focus will be on how the teacher teaches, on such things as how the teacher creates a positive atmosphere for learning, on the strategies and procedures used by the teacher in setting up activities, on the way the teacher gives instructions and explanations, and how he or she gives feedback to learners. As a novice teacher you will not be evaluating your cooperating teacher's teaching. When you are being observed by your cooperating teacher or supervisor, however, the focus will often be on how well you carried out different aspects of the lesson. In this chapter we deal with both kinds of observations.
Chapter 10 - Classroom Discourse and Communication
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Language is used in many different ways in second language classrooms since it is both the means and the end of learning. A crucial aspect of language classes, therefore, is the way in which teachers use language to support and manage the processes of language learning. The language input learners receive during a lesson and the opportunities it opens up for language practice and use are provided by the teacher, by the teaching resources he or she makes use of, and by the students' interactions with each other. Many observers of language classrooms have commented that in many classrooms, students have only restricted opportunities to participate in the communicative and interactive uses of language and hence have restricted opportunities for language learning (Thornbury 2005). In this chapter we want to explore the kinds of communication, interaction, and discourse that occur during the instructional phase of a lesson (rather than when the teacher is engaged in noninstructional activities, such as classroom management) and how they can be used to effectively support and guide second language learning.
THE NATURE OF INSTRUCTIONAL DISCOURSE
The nature of verbal interaction in second language classrooms shares some of the characteristics of verbal interaction in classrooms where other subjects are being taught. Both teachers of English as well as teachers of other subjects have to find ways of presenting new learning content in ways which engage learners, which make connections with previous learning, which present content at a comprehensible and learnable rate, and which provide opportunities for learners to master lesson content through processes such as analysis, reflection, application, and practice.
Chapter 2 - The Nature of Teacher Learning
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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INTRODUCTION
Your teaching-practice course aims to provide an opportunity for you to develop or improve your teaching skills through experiences provided by microteaching, by teaching in a second language classroom, and through reflecting on your teaching experience in discussions with your supervisor, fellow student teachers, and your cooperating teacher. The most crucial experiences will be those provided when you do your practice teaching in a real classroom (Richards and Crookes 1988). The words “practice teaching,” however, may give a misleading impression of what we understand by “learning to teach,” or as we shall refer to it throughout this book, “teacher learning.” “Practice teaching” suggests that development as a language teacher primarily involves acquiring a set of specific teaching skills, and that these gradually develop and improve through practice. Whereas aspects of teaching can certainly be regarded as skilled performance as we saw in Chapter 1, this book is predicated around a broader and, we hope, more meaningful understanding of what competence and expertise in teaching consist of, and consequently what the goals of teacher learning are. In this chapter we will consider the nature of competence and expertise in language teaching and examine eight different dimensions of teacher learning that are involved. The account we present here will provide the rationale for the approach to practice teaching we present throughout this book.
Chapter 4 - Working With Your Cooperating Teacher
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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INTRODUCTION
Your cooperating teacher is one of the people who will greatly influence the nature and impact of your practice-teaching experience (Guyton and McIntyre 1990). He or she will support you in a number of ways during your teaching practice – as guide and mentor, as critical friend, as expert, as model teacher, as evaluator, as counselor, and as resource person – so developing a positive working relationship with your cooperating teacher will make your practice-teaching experience both fruitful and positive. When you start your practice teaching many of the crucial decisions involved in planning and teaching your lessons may be made principally by your cooperating teacher, but as you gain experience and confidence you will gradually assume greater responsibility for all aspects of your teaching. Often your practice-teaching experience will begin with observation of the cooperating teacher's class, and later you will take over different areas of responsibility for teaching. During practice teaching you are likely to be involved in a different kind of experience from those you had during your campus program. The latter will most likely have focused on an academic or theoretical understanding of teaching and language learning, drawing on academic research and theories. But your practice teaching will focus more on the practical experience of teaching and your cooperating teacher may feel that this is more crucial to your professional development than your academic studies. This may pose a dilemma for you at times since you may receive different kinds of messages from what you were taught during your campus or training center program and from your teaching practice experience.
Chapter 12 - After Teaching Practice
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 14 March 2011, pp 161-172
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Your teaching practice course will have provided you with the opportunity to experience the realities of classroom teaching and to experience some of the problems language teachers deal with on a daily basis. It will also have given you the opportunity to put into practice many of the things you learned during your teacher education course or program. Doubtless however you will have found that no amount of reading, study, or listening to experts can fully prepare you for dealing with the full range of issues that language teaching involves. Some of these may arise from working with learners of different cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds; some result from the intrinsic difficulties learning a new language entails; and some may be the result of working with learners who have had difficult life experiences or who have pressing educational and other needs. Some of the issues you confronted may not have appeared in your teacher-training courses. Learning how to deal with others may take considerable skill and experience, and practice teaching is only the start of this learning process. In this chapter we will examine some of the challenges you may face once you commence your teaching career and consider some of the options that are available to support your ongoing professional development. Here is a reflection by a student teacher who has just finished teaching practice:
I feel as though I have just started the process of developing my teaching skills. There is still a long way to go, but at least I know in what direction to move. I have been given the theory and I have the experiences and reflections from my teaching practice to use as the basis for further learning and improvement. I feel that I have a strong platform for my future teaching which I didn’t have before I started the teaching practice.
Eldri, Indonesia
References
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 05 October 2012
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- 14 March 2011, pp 173-178
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Practice Teaching
- A Reflective Approach
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- 05 October 2012
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- 14 March 2011
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Practice Teaching surveys issues and procedures in conducting practice teaching.Written for language teachers in training at the diploma, undergraduate, or graduate level, Practice Teaching, A Reflective Approach surveys issues and procedures in conducting practice teaching. The book adopts a reflective approach to practice teaching and shows student teachers how to explore and reflect on the nature of language teaching and their own approaches to teaching through their experience of practice teaching.
Chapter 1 - Learning to Teach Through Practice Teaching
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 14 March 2011, pp 3-14
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Practice teaching is a part of most teacher education programs in language teaching and is intended to provide a link between the academic courses you studied in your university or other institutional TESOL program and the “real” world of teachers and students in a language-learning classroom (Brenes-Carvajal 2009; Farrell 2007). Many teachers find their practice-teaching experience to be one of the most useful courses they took during their teacher preparation, as these teachers confirm:
Teaching practice gave me a taste of teaching proper. It presented to me the tip of what to expect and thus allowed me to prepare myself better mentally for real teaching.
Mariana, BrazilPractice teaching gave me the chance to observe my cooperating teacher, and this allowed me to make different mental notes about how to deal with problems that sometimes come up in a lesson.
Yono, JapanI learned a lot from teaching practice. It allowed me to put some ideas and thoughts from my teacher education courses into actual practice. It provided a kind of testing ground for me to try out different approaches to teaching.
Mee-Ho, KoreaPractice teaching serves a number of goals (Baird 2008). Perhaps the most obvious one is for you to have an opportunity to apply some of the things you have studied in your academic and teacher-training courses. Your coursework will have included not only the theoretical knowledge expected of today's language teachers – often derived from courses in areas such as second language acquisition, linguistics, and discourse analysis – but also the practical knowledge derived from coursework in areas such as methodology, materials design, and language assessment.
Chapter 6 - Teaching an Effective Language Lesson
- Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell
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- Practice Teaching
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- 05 October 2012
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- 14 March 2011, pp 72-89
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INTRODUCTION
Once you begin your practice teaching, an expectation that you will share with your supervisor, your cooperating teacher, and your students is that you will teach (or soon learn to teach) an effective and successful language lesson, or to put it a different way, to master the skills of good language teaching. But what does success and effectiveness in a language lesson consist of? The notion of effective teaching is a difficult one to pin down precisely because two teachers may both teach the same lesson from a textbook or teach from an identical lesson plan and teach it very differently, yet both lessons may be regarded as very effective. And are success and effectiveness the same thing? Learners may enjoy a lesson a great deal even though it fails to achieve its goals. On the other hand, a teacher may feel that he or she covered the lesson plan very effectively, yet the students did not appear to learn very much from it. And a student teacher may feel that she did a great job in teaching a difficult lesson, although the cooperating teacher felt that the lesson was not successful. As Medgyes states, “all outstanding teachers are ideal in their own ways, and as such, are different from each other” (2001: 440). And as we saw in Chapter 3, teaching is very much shaped by the context in which the teacher is working and by his or her understanding and beliefs about teaching.