Novice Language Teachers; Insights and Perspectives for the First Year; Thomas Farrell

Edited by

Thomas S.C. Farrell [+–]

Brock University

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Thomas S.C. Farrell is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Brock University, Canada. His professional interests include Reflective Practice, and Language Teacher Education & Development. He has published widely and has presented at major conferences worldwide on these topics. His webpage is: www.reflectiveinquiry.ca

The first year of teaching has been characterized as a type of “reality shock” for many language teachers. This may be because the ideals that novice teachers formed during teacher training/education are often replaced by the reality of school life where much of their energy has shifted to learning how to adapt and survive in a new school culture. Although the first year of teaching has been well documented in general education research, not many detailed studies outlining the experiences of language teachers in their first year of teaching have been documented in the language education literature. This is surprising because as some scholars have suggested, in order to establish an effective knowledge-base for second/foreign language teacher education, language teacher educators must have some understanding of schools and schooling and the social and cultural contexts in which learning how to teach takes place. The purpose of this collection is to discuss the challenges and influences novice language teachers face when teaching in their first years. The volume outlines several detailed case studies of the experiences second/foreign language teachers during their first year of teaching in such diverse contexts as the USA, Canada, Singapore, Cambodia, the UK, Italy, southern Europe, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Preliminaries

Contributors [+–] vii-viii

Thomas S.C. Farrell

Brock University

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Chapter 1

Insights and perspectives for the first year of language teaching [+–] 1-10

Thomas S.C. Farrell

Brock University

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Chapter 2

Teachers’ use of metaphor in making sense of the first year of teaching [+–] 11-28

Steve Mann

University of Warwick

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Steve Mann is Professor at the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick. He has previously lectured at both Aston University and University of Birmingham. He has experience in Hong Kong, Japan and Europe in both English Language Teaching and teacher development. He completed his PGCE at the University of Warwick in 1984 and worked in schools in England teaching English and Drama before turning to ELT in 1985. In Hong Kong, Steve worked in schools in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island in two-year British Council Teaching Scheme. In Japan, Steve worked in schools and developed specialist materials for teacher training and workplace interaction. His growing interest in the development of English in professional settings led to a two year project with American Express, Tokyo. His work at Aston University was mostly in the area of ELT Methodology. He worked at the School of Education at the University of Birmingham before coming to Warwick.

This chapter describes how the process of metaphorical articulation may be an important part of coming to terms with the first year of teaching. Uses five case studies to see how this idea can be applied.

Chapter 3

Trained for teaching high school, poached for teacher training: A case study of a Cambodian English teacher’s first year of teaching in Cambodia [+–] 29-42

Stephen Moore

This chapter is concerned with reconciling formal teacher training and actual classroom practice. It uses a case study of the experience of a Cambodian English teacher’s first year to explore the diverse issues that this teacher needed to deal and for which she had not been specifically training, including gender relations in the classroom, the management of unruly students and other topics.

Chapter 4

Learning to teach in the first year: a Singapore case study [+–] 43-56

Thomas S.C. Farrell

Brock University

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This chapter outlines how a first year language teacher attempted to balance a delicate, and sometimes conflicting role between learning to teach and learning to become a teacher within an established school culture.

Chapter 5

Occupational socialization in the first year of teaching: perspectives from Thailand [+–] 57-72

David Hayes

Brock University

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Fitting into a school’s culture can be just as difficult as facing their first group of students for novice teachers. This chapter describes how a group of Thai novice teachers faced the multifarious nature of their induction into their schools and classrooms.

Chapter 6

The transition from teacher education to ESL/EFL teaching in the first year for non-native English speaking teachers in Canada [+–] 73-88

Clea Schmidt

University of Manitoba

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Associate Professor
Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL)

This chapter presents a qualitative study undertaken in a Canadian university’s C-TESL programme using qualitative, critical action research methodology. Implications for teacher training are discussed.

Chapter 7

The beliefs and practices of novice teachers in Hong Kong: change and resistance to change in an Asian teaching context [+–] 89-103

Alan Urmston,Martha C. Pennington

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

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I am Assistant Professor in the English Language Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Team Leader responsible for the Graduating Students Language Proficiency Assessment (GSLPA).

I have been working in Hong Kong since 1989. In addition to working at Poly U, I have taught English in the local secondary and tertiary sectors. Between 2001 and 2005 I was Subject Officer for the Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (English) at the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.

I hold a PhD (with distinction) in Educational Linguistics from the University of Luton (now the University of Bedfordshire) and an MA (with distinction) in TESL from the City University of Hong Kong.

Birkbeck University of London

Martha C Pennington is a Research Fellow in Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck University of London. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, where she became a tenured Lecturer teaching English to international students while completing her degree. She has also held Professorial and administrative posts at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the City University of Hong Kong, the University of Bedfordshire, Elizabethtown College, and the School for African and Oriental Studies of the University of London. She previously edited a column for Gendai Eigo Kyoiku (Modern English Teaching) and was editor-in-chief of Writing & Pedagogy. She is currently editor of the book series Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching (Brill, formerly Elsevier), Frameworks for Writing (Equinox), and Applied Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching (Equinox). Pennington’s books on pronunciation are Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach(Longman), Phonology in Context (Palgrave Macmillan), and (with P Rogerson-Revell) English Pronunciation Teaching and Research: Contemporary Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan). She has published articles on the teaching of pronunciation in edited collections and in TESOL Quarterly, The Modern Language Journal, and RELC Journal, and has guest-edited a special issue (52.1) of RELC Journal on Pronunciation Teaching.

This chapter looks at the experiences of a cohort of graduate teachers in Hong Kong during the period 1997-1999 and how their beliefs and practices changed during that time

Chapter 8

Teaching post-CELTA: the interplay of novice teacher, course and context [+–] 104-117

Michaela Borg

Nottingham Trent University

Educational Development Manager

Key areas: assessment design, effective feedback, research-informed teaching, SCALE-UP, Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, tutorial, internationalising the curriculum, pedagogic research and evaluation, whole course assessment.

This chapter looks at the experiences of a group of native English language speakers who undertook an initial four-week teacher-training certificate for teaching English to adults.

Chapter 9

Ghosts on the cupboard: discursive hauntings during the first year of French Immersion teaching in Canada [+–] 118-131

Lace Marie Brogden,Becky Page

University of Regina

My research interests include teacher induction, the negotiation of linguistic subjectivities of pre-service and inservice teachers, writing as research, and museums as sites for unlearning colonial practices.

North West Catholic School Division # 16

Becky Page is a teacher in the North West Catholic School Division, Ontario

This chapter looks at the complex relationships between language, language teaching and linguistic identities in pedagogical spaces.

Chapter 10

From rats to language learners: The transition from the biochemistry laboratory to the language classroom in the first year of teaching [+–] 132-149

Yen-Ling Teresa Ting,Michael Watts

University of Calabria

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Assistant Professor of English Applied Linguistics

Educational Consultant

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My UK-based evaluation/research & development experience includes: (i) access to higher education (including progression to Oxbridge from the state sector, access opportunities for refugees, part-time study, student funding and the pedagogies of higher education); (ii) dis/ability and music education; (iii) global citizenship; and (iv) educational well-being.

International experience includes work in and/or with colleagues from Cambodia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Malawi and Vietnam.

I am educational consultant to the Religion and Ethics in the Making of War and Peace Project.

I founded the journal Power and Education.

I currently teach on: (i) the University of Liverpool’s Doctor of Education (Higher Education) programme; and (ii) Victoria University’s MTESOL (Vietnam) programme.

This chapter relates how two research-based tools enabled the author to become a classroom teacher and to make the transition to a new disciplinary culture.

Chapter 11

Formation of ESL teacher identity during the first year: an introspective study [+–] 150-158

Alix Furness

University of Washington

Director, Global Executive MBA Program at University of Washington Foster School of Business Executive Education

This chapter uses an introspective study to explore the formation of ESL teacher identity.

Chapter 12

My first year of language teaching in Japan [+–] 159-173

Yuki Iwamura

Temple University, Japan

This chapter provides a recount of the author’s first year of language teaching, the teaching contexts and proactive solutions and strategies emploued.

End Matter

Index [+–] 174-183

Thomas S.C. Farrell

Brock University

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Reviews

The book is well organized, has a standardized format for each chapter … and is reader-friendly. It should be of use to curriculum developers in English language teacher education programs to tailor those programs to fit the needs of their students. Teacher educators and their students can examine the problems and solutions described by the teachers in this book and engage in what Farrell calls “anticipatory reflection” (p. 53). This book may also be useful for experienced teachers to help guide new teachers through the socialization process in their schools… Further research in this area will augment what Farrell and his colleagues have established with this fascinating volume.’
TESOL Quarterly, Vol 46, issue 3, September 2012

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Novice Language Teachers

Insights and Perspectives for the First Year

Thomas S.C. Farrell [+–]

Brock University

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