Options
Impact of a professional development program on three Chinese university English teachers' beliefs, knowledge and classroom practice of teaching L2 pragmatics
Author
Qi, Qi
Supervisor
Nguyen, Thi Thuy Minh
Abstract
With fast path of globalization has increased the demand of English proficient talents in China. In this regard, university teachers should equip their students with abundant pragmatic knowledge and develop students' communicative capacity. However, few teacher education programs center on teaching second language (L2) pragmatics, neglecting to provide teacher participants with knowledge and pedagogical skills needed to efficiently teach L2 pragmatics. To fill the gap, this study conducts a four-session training program focusing on introducing pedagogical-content knowledge of L2 pragmatics to three university English teachers in Chinese EFL context.
This study contained two phases. In the first phase, teacher participants' demographic information was gathered and their subject-matter knowledge of pragmatics was tested using a pre-survey questionnaire. In the second phase, teacher participants were offered a four-session training program which was designed on the basis of professional development scheme "learning –planning –practicing –reflecting". They also took part in three interviews, two post-surveys and one observation. The training sessions, interviews and observation were audio-recorded. The audio-recordings were transcribed and translated from Chinese to English.
The findings and analysis highlighted the development of teacher participants' beliefs regarding teaching and learning pragmatics in the second language classroom and indicated that teacher participants' pedagogical-content knowledge about pragmatic teaching has been enriched and improved after the training program. Teacher participants' actual teaching practice demonstrated their capacity to incorporate teaching activities covered in the four training sessions and that their students' awareness of L2 pragmatics was raised through these activities. Implications of this study highlighted the demands of the training programs with focus on L2 pragmatics to English teachers in Chinese EFL context.
This study contained two phases. In the first phase, teacher participants' demographic information was gathered and their subject-matter knowledge of pragmatics was tested using a pre-survey questionnaire. In the second phase, teacher participants were offered a four-session training program which was designed on the basis of professional development scheme "learning –planning –practicing –reflecting". They also took part in three interviews, two post-surveys and one observation. The training sessions, interviews and observation were audio-recorded. The audio-recordings were transcribed and translated from Chinese to English.
The findings and analysis highlighted the development of teacher participants' beliefs regarding teaching and learning pragmatics in the second language classroom and indicated that teacher participants' pedagogical-content knowledge about pragmatic teaching has been enriched and improved after the training program. Teacher participants' actual teaching practice demonstrated their capacity to incorporate teaching activities covered in the four training sessions and that their students' awareness of L2 pragmatics was raised through these activities. Implications of this study highlighted the demands of the training programs with focus on L2 pragmatics to English teachers in Chinese EFL context.
Date Issued
2016
Call Number
PE1066 Qi
Date Submitted
2016