Furnished Imagination: The Impact of Preservice Teacher Training on Early Career Work in TESOL

Abstract

This article presents the findings of an impact study of a short teacher training course in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Impact is conceptualised as teacher learning, particularly perceived achievements in learning, evidenced in the ways teachers talk about their work in TESOL. The theoretical framework for the research draws on sociocultural theories of learning, particularly situated learning theory and identity formation within communities of practice. In making these links and relating them to a specific programme for teachers in TESOL, this article furthers understanding of how teachers learn in a preservice course in ways which translate to readiness for work. The analysis of interview data from 27 novice teachers in their first months at work reflects a positive and intense learning experience on the course, which establishes both confidence and a clear idea of what the TESOL task involves. The authors relate these findings in the data to the construct of furnished imagination: the combination of knowledge, procedural awareness and skills, dispositions, and identity which the teachers take from the course as the conceptual toolkit for work in TESOL. The imagination is furnished through the intense, iterated cycles of input, observation, performance, and feedback as well as through interactions with admired teacher educators. A s Johnson (2009b) observes, teacher education in teaching Englishto speakers of other languages (TESOL) has been for much of its history a field of practice rather than one of research. One implication of this is that knowledge building has been through practice, rather than through conventional research findings. In teacher education,

Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Teaching English to Young Learners

“…In recent years, researchers have started to focus on the cognitive components of how second language preservice teachers' beliefs and decisions influence their classroom instructions (Richards & Nunan, 1990;Woods, 1996;Kiely & Askham, 2012). Teachers' beliefs has been widely acknowledged in educational research to influence their classroom practices as beliefs, as a filter, are firmly coupled with prior expectations, and former practices and habits, and are thus hard to change within short time span (Johnson, 1994;Kagan, 1992;Pajares, 1992;Weinstein, 1990).…”

“…As Borg (2003) argues, "teachers are active, thinking decision-makers who make instructional choices by drawing on complex practically-oriented, personalized and context-sensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts and beliefs" (p.81). Indeed, much of the literature on teacher education has reported that student teachers' experiences and beliefs which they held prior to entering preservice teacher education greatly influenced their teacher learning and instructional practices (Kiely & Askham, 2012;Borg, 2003;Johnson, 2009;Lortie, 1975). The pre-existing beliefs that student teachers bring with them prior to formal teacher education come mostly from their previous learning experiences especially in language classrooms.…”

“…This finding is consistent with a few other related studies (eg. Borg, 2005;Kiely & Askham, 2012;Golombek, 1998;Numrich, 1996;Pajares, 1992;Ogilvie & Dunn, 2010;Mattheoudakis, 2007) highlighting the role of prior learning experiences and beliefs which may influence their teaching during teacher education programme and throughout their professional teaching profession.…”

The Curriculum for English Language Teacher Education in Australian and Vietnamese Universities

“…As a result, there has been a large body of theoretical discussions on what should constitute the content of SLTE (e.g., Freeman & Johnson, 1998;Graves, 2009;Richards, 1998;Roberts, 1998). However, for the most of its history, SLTE has been a field of practice rather than a field of research (Johnson, 2009b;Kiely & Askham, 2012). What this means is that practitioner researchers have mostly been theorising rather than empirically studying SLTE practices.…”

The Native Speaker Programme – The Coin has Two Sides

“…Thus, the researcher used a variety of data sources as a means of triangulation (Merriam 1998). For in-depth interviews, an interview protocol was developed based on the existing literature (Farrell 2003, Kiely & Askham 2012, Miller 2009) to encourage the participants to describe and evaluate their own learning experiences thoroughly and freely from their own perspectives. All the interviews were conducted face-to-face and audiotaped for transcription purposes.…”