Applying the principles of facilitative teaching to mentorship, this book brings together well-established knowledge about mentoring with the experiences and ideas of mentors in the field to advance and support the professional development of language teachers. Recognizing the impact of globalization and technology, Smith and Lewis identify processes and pathways for mentors to develop multi-layered skills for working with teachers in both their own and cross-cultural contexts, and in face-to-face and virtual settings. Grounded in theory, this innovative approach is illustrated with authentic experiences, and ready to be applied by readers in their specific settings around the world. With an interactive design that encourages participation and practice, each chapter includes vignettes, reflections, and challenging scenarios from mentors in training. Self-reflection and task sections at the end of each chapter engage the reader in combining theory with practice. Sample materials such as mentor-mentee contracts, work plans, journal templates, discussion suggestions (face-to-face or online), and observation forms deepen understanding and enable mentors to adapt or create their own materials. This practical and context-adaptable guide is accessible to mentors at any career stage, for use in personal professional development, or as part of mentor training sessions.
This book provides a comprehensive understanding of India's continuing professional development (CPD) landscape. It examines the issues surrounding the professional development of English language teachers in India at the tertiary level from multiple perspectives. Further, it evaluates various models of continuing professional learning (CPL) and emphasizes the transformative model as a solution to the social, administrative, or other impediments teachers encounter in their lives. Importantly, it presents examples, solving academic and non-academic problems in formal and informal, and face-face and technology-mediated forms of teaching and learning by teachers of English in different contexts. It discusses the latest developments in the literature related to the transformative and reflective approach to classroom problems faced by teachers on the ground such as classroom environment, students' socio-economic background, teachers education, and teacher assessment. Also, it positions continuing professional development (CPD) as having transformative power in teaching English in India and how it can improve students' learning opportunities. The book is relevant to English language teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in India and across the globe to address significant issues in the field: how to handle every classroom situation and how to train oneself as a teacher as well as a teacher educator.
Why has English language proficiency in Japan remained so low in comparison to other Asian countries? Has Vietnam attempted to improve English language teaching because ASEAN has adopted English as its working language? Why do English language teachers struggle with curriculum changes imposed by governments in order to make them competitive in the international community? Do professional development (PD) programs actually meet the needs of teachers? This book addresses issues surrounding these questions by examining how the Japanese and Vietnamese governments have approached and defined the PD of English language teachers and how such PD programs have been delivered. It further analyses the impact of policy changes on individual teachers and explores how PD can help teachers to implement such changes effectively at the micro-level. PD of language teachers or language teacher education is relatively new as a field of inquiry in Applied Linguistics. By including case studies of Japan and Vietnam in the one volume, this book embarks on the challenging task of demonstrating that PD is an essential element of the successful implementation of language policies in Asia, where World Englishes have been shaped by distinct local contexts.
The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teacher Education provides an accessible, authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date resource of English language teacher education. With an overview of historical issues, theoretical frameworks and current debates, this handbook provides unique insights into a range of teacher education contexts, focusing on key issues relating to teacher and learner priorities, language and communication, current practices, reflective practice, and research. Key features include: a cross-section of current theories, practices and issues, providing readers with a resource which can be used in a variety of contexts; the use of data, transcripts and tasks to highlight and illustrate a range of practices, including examples of ‘best practice’; ‘snapshots’ of ELTE from a number of contexts taken from all around the world; and examples of current technological advances, contemporary thinking on reflective practice, and insights gained from recent research. This wide-ranging and international collection of chapters has been written by leading experts in the field. The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teacher Education is sure to be core reading for students, researchers and educators in applied linguistics, TESOL and language education.
This two volume handbook provides a comprehensive examination of policy, practice, research and theory related to English Language Teaching in international contexts. More than 70 chapters highlight the research foundation for best practices, frameworks for policy decisions, and areas of consensus and controversy in second language acquisition and pedagogy. The Handbook provides a unique resource for policy makers, educational administrators, and researchers concerned with meeting the increasing demand for effective English language teaching. It offers a strongly socio-cultural view of language learning and teaching. It is comprehensive and global in perspective with a range of fresh new voices in English language teaching research.
This up-close look at Chinese ESL teachers documents undertakings at formal and informal levels to support and sustain their expertise in ways that balance collaborative and competitive efforts, situated and standards-based programs, ethnically responsive and government-based efforts, and traditional and 21st-century teaching visions. English is a mandated subject for approximately 400 million Chinese public school students. Making transparent the training and professional development received respectively by pre-service and in-service teachers, this book provides a rare window into how Chinese English Language teachers (ELTs) reconcile the two needs with the responsibility to teach large numbers of students while also navigating societal, cultural, and institutional cross currents. It also explores the range of ways China invests in the training and professional development of its English language teachers.
In every discussion on the role that language plays in our lives, every orator – from prominent politicians and corporate figures to linguists, educational experts, and others – concedes that language is important in all spheres of life. Language is both personal and introspective, as well as public and communal. Without it, we would not be able to communicate and articulate our thoughts and feelings to ourselves, to those in our inner circles, and to those in the world at large. Without it, we would not be able to establish partnerships and collaborations, and to unite peoples of diverse backgrounds and intrinsic values. Without it, too, we would not be able to learn new discoveries and gain new knowledge. The nurturing of a language learning culture is of the utmost importance to ensure that language teaching and learning supports the development of individuals, societies, nations, and populations. Language researchers, educators, and practitioners need to ensure that their learners are empowered to remain relevant. They need to produce critical and analytical thinkers, and successful language users in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The collection of chapters in this volume addresses language teaching and learning dilemmas and draws attention to the challenges researchers have overcome and those they continue to face. The book chapters here reflect the transcendence by language teaching and learning of ordinary boundaries, especially with the advent of the digital revolution, and provide new perspectives, pedagogies, and approaches that help shape ethical, responsible, and sustainable policies. Readers of this volume, whether language practitioners, students, researchers, policy- and decision-makers, concerned educationists, or any interested individual, will gain new insights and experiences as they explore new identities, new instructional media for interactive teaching and learning and new modes of meaning in diverse local and global contexts.
This open access book provides insight into what it takes to actively involve teachers in the curriculum design process. It examines different aspects of teacher involvement in collaborative curriculum design, with specific attention to its implications for sustainable curriculum innovation and teacher learning. Divided into six sections, the book starts out by introducing the notion of collaborative curriculum design and discusses its historical and theoretical foundations. It describes various approaches commonly adopted to actively involve teachers in the (co-)design of curriculum materials. Sections two and three provide examples of what key phases in the curriculum design process - such as needs analysis, design and development, and implementation - look like across various collaborative curriculum design projects. Section four reports on the impact of collaborative curriculum design on student learning, teacher practices, teacher professional growth, and institutional change. Building on the research evidence about the outcomes of collaborative curriculum design, section five focuses on sustainability, scaling-up and curriculum leadership issues, which are key to the continuation and further evolution of curriculum innovations. Future perspectives are addressed in section six with emphasis on the infrastructure of a sustainable curriculum innovation.
Written by leading experts in the field of TESOL, this book explores the literature on various topic areas and demonstrates how teachers can increase their levels of professionalism by acquiring some general and field-specific strategies. Being a teaching professional is not simply about having the right teaching qualifications and good academic standing, it involves a commitment to being innovative and transformative in the classroom and helping both students and colleagues achieve their goals. A dictionary definition of professionalism reads as follows: professionalism is the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person; and it defines a profession as a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation (Merriam-Webster, 2013). However, according to Bowman (2013), professionalism is less a matter of what professionals actually do and more a matter of who they are as human beings. Both of these views imply that professionalism encompasses a number of different attributes, and, together, these attributes identify and define a professional. The book is primarily intended for teachers at all levels and in all contexts who are interested in improving their professionalism and developing strategies that can take them to higher levels in the field of TESOL/ELT.
We are delighted to introduce the proceedings of the First edition of the 2019 European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) The International conference on business, law, and pedagogy (ICBLP 2019). The International conference on business, law, and pedagogy accepts the papers in the three thematic areas with multiple research approaches and methodologies. The conference provides a platform for wide-ranging issues, which captures contemporary developments in business, law and pedagogy within which a wide range of networking opportunities can be nurtured for the advancement of future research and global collaboration. This approach is now vital in research endeavours as business, law and pedagogy practices are increasingly prone to an era of cross-fertilization through meaningful multi-disciplinary collaborations We strongly believe that ICBLP conference provides a good forum for all researcher, developers and practitioners to discuss all science and technology aspects that are relevant to smart grids. We also expect that the future ICBLP 2019 conference will be as successful and stimulating, as indicated by the contributions presented in this volume.