Dialogic discussion as a platform for constructing knowledge: student-teachers’ interaction patterns and strategies in learning to teach English

Zhang, Lawrence Jun; Zhang, Donglan

doi:10.1186/s40862-020-00101-2

Cited by 41 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 67 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Actually, it was her past experiences that supported her need for competence. She indeed made an endeavor to imbue her class with an active and relaxing atmosphere to arouse the desire of students for learning and balancing the required knowledge with the interests of students (Zhang and Zhang, 2020 ). The teaching outcomes proved that she not only achieved her teaching aims (e.g., all her students who attended HSK Level 1 passed it successfully) but also protected the interests of students in the Chinese language (e.g., students were eager to continue to learn).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teacher Engagement in Language Teaching: Investigating Self-Efficacy for Teaching Based on the Project “Sino-Greece Online Chinese Language Classrooms”

2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The support of sustainable learning of foreign languages requires teacher engagement and a high level of self-efficacy, both of which are cornerstones for the persistence of teachers in carrying out teaching activities to help learning. The need for such attributes is even more crucial when online learning platforms as a mode of delivery are becoming increasingly popular. We would argue that keeping students engaged and motivated to attain their academic success online calls for the increased levels of resilience and efforts of teachers. Although self-efficacy of teachers has been widely considered crucial in the professional practices of teachers, there is a paucity of research studies on the self-efficacy of teachers who teach Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) using online platforms. Such a gap becomes prominent after the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in places where there are now numerous calls for online CFL classes. In order to fill in this gap, this study was conducted with a frontline CFL teacher as the participant and aimed to detect thoroughly the trajectories of self-efficacy of a CFL teacher in a completely new teaching context. Embedded in the Project of Sino-Greece Online Chinese Language Classrooms, this study employed narrative inquiry and case study as methodological approaches. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data that consisted of written narratives (the teacher's teaching journals and reflections, field notes of teaching assistant, and emails of students) and spoken narratives. Three research questions guided this study: What are the teacher's beliefs about (1) the opportunity of teaching CFL online? (2) the management of this online project? (3) her personal capability to foster students' engagement in this project? These three questions focused, respectively, on the three components of the self-efficacy system of a teacher (personal efficacy, efficacy within the organization, and professional efficacy). Findings illustrated that the efficacy beliefs of the teacher in these three aspects were at different levels, which resulted from the interplay of external and internal factors; when external factors appeared to be negative, internal factors seemed to play an essential role.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teacher Engagement in Language Teaching: Investigating Self-Efficacy for Teaching Based on the Project “Sino-Greece Online Chinese Language Classrooms”

2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Over the past three decades, academic engagement has been a key and heavily researched topic for psychologists and educational researchers (see Boekaerts, 2016 ), even in the fields of second or foreign language education (e.g., Sun and Zhang, 2020 ; Zhang and Zhang, 2020 ; Jiang and Zhang, 2021 ). It is well-established that high levels of engagement are reliable forerunners of students' learning satisfaction, positive academic outcomes, perseverance, and school completion rates (Wang and Holcombe, 2010 ; Uçar and Sungur, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

University Teachers' Teaching Style and Their Students' Agentic Engagement in EFL Learning in China: A Self-Determination Theory and Achievement Goal Theory Integrated Perspective

Jiang

Zhang

2021

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As a relatively new dimension of student engagement, agentic engagement has received growing research interest in recent years, as it not only predicts academic achievement and other positive outcomes, but also benefits reciprocal teacher-student relations. In the educational context, teachers' teaching style exerts a crucial impact on students' engagement. However, research on how perceived teachers' teaching style influences students' agentic engagement is inconclusive. To address this lacuna, this study, taking an integrated perspective that draws on Self-determination Theory and Achievement Goal Theory, investigated the relationship of three types of teaching style (i.e., perceived autonomy support, social relatedness, and controlling) to university students' agentic engagement in EFL learning in China, especially through the mediation of mastery-approach goals and performance approach goals. Structural equation modeling showed that perceived autonomy support positively predicted agentic engagement through the mediation of mastery-approach goals, whereas perceived controlling negatively predicted agentic engagement through the mediation of performance-approach goals. Comparatively, the relationship of perceived social relatedness to agentic engagement was fully mediated by both mastery-approach and performance-approach goals. After discussing these results, practical implications as well as suggestions for future studies were given.

show abstract

“…The findings from our study clearly suggest that Chinese university EFL teachers need to attend workshops or professional learning courses. Through these learning opportunities, experienced teachers can share with them how a scaffolded approach to form-focused instruction can be effectively delivered and communicative competence is not separated from focus-on-formS, and how these teachers in re-training or professional development can embrace grammar teaching in the context of meaning-focused communication ( Zhang and Zhang, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Sociocultural Perspective on English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) Teachers’ Cognitions About Form-Focused Instruction

Qiang

Zhang

2021

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There has been much research into teacher beliefs about teaching and learning as seen in the general teacher education literature. In the field of language teacher education, this line of research has been evolving, with the recent trend being streamlined into “teacher cognition” as a generic or umbrella term. Despite increasing amounts of research output so far, research into foreign language teachers’ cognitions about their own teaching and decision-making is still insufficient, particularly with regard to university-level English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers in China. Drawing on Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory, this qualitative research focused on EFL teachers’ cognitions about form-focused instruction in Chinese university settings. It intended to discover how teachers’ cognitions changed when they were expected to teach in actual classrooms and what factors contributed to these changes. Data collected from four teacher-participants through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and follow-up stimulated recall interviews showed participants’ support for focus-on-form instruction, which means they not only paid attention to the grammatical form of the language but also to the meaning it is intended to convey. However, data also showed that the teacher-participants shifted from focus-on-form to focus-on-formS instruction in actual teaching, which suggests that they might have realized the challenges of carrying out teaching activities surrounding focus-on-form and would like to take an easier approach by only teaching the grammar of the language by focusing on formS. Such incongruences are interpreted with reference to a plethora of sociocultural factors including traditional Chinese thinking and institutional expectations. The implications of the findings for stakeholders in universities, including faculty members, students, and curriculum developers in similar contexts, are also discussed.

show abstract

Dialogic discussion as a platform for constructing knowledge: student-teachers’ interaction patterns and strategies in learning to teach English

Cited by 41 publications

References 67 publications

Teacher Engagement in Language Teaching: Investigating Self-Efficacy for Teaching Based on the Project “Sino-Greece Online Chinese Language Classrooms”

Teacher Engagement in Language Teaching: Investigating Self-Efficacy for Teaching Based on the Project “Sino-Greece Online Chinese Language Classrooms”

University Teachers' Teaching Style and Their Students' Agentic Engagement in EFL Learning in China: A Self-Determination Theory and Achievement Goal Theory Integrated Perspective

A Sociocultural Perspective on English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) Teachers’ Cognitions About Form-Focused Instruction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About