What makes a good English teacher?

金 利 民北京外国语大学英语学院

jinlimin@teach.bfsu.edu.cn

Outline

1. Why the topic?

2. Qualities of a good English teacher

3. Reflective teaching

4. Action research: What, why and how?

5. Teaching and research: rivals or friends?

1. Why the topic

1) To meet the needs of the audience.

2) To share with you some recent research findings from projects led by professors at the National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education based in Beiwai.

2. Qualities of good English teachers

1) Is it possible to define the qualities of good English teachers?

2) What have been written or found?

Is it possible to define the qualities of good English teachers?

“Good teaching isn’t about technique”. Good teachers are “people who have some sort of connective capacity, who connect themselves to their students, their students to each other, and everyone to the subject being studied”.

(Palmer, 1999, p. 27)

What have been written or found? (1)

Good teachers have a sense of purpose, have expectations of success for all students, tolerate ambiguity, demonstrate a willingness to adapt and change

to meet student needs, are comfortable with not knowing, reflect on their work, learn from a variety of models, enjoy their work and their students.

(Marie F. Hassett, 2000)

What have been written or found? (2)

Wu’s study (2005)

Four dimensions for the qualities of good English teachers in Chinese universities: professional capacity for TEFL; professional outlook and professional ethics; conception of foreign language teaching; learning and professional development.

For 78.4% of the participants, “reflective teaching” is the most important means of self-development.

3. Reflective teaching

1) What is “reflective teaching”?

2) Five dimensions of reflective teaching

What is “reflective teaching”?

Reflection is “active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or practice in light of the reasons that support it and the further consequences to which it leads” .

(John Dewey, cited in Zeichner & Liston, 1996, p. 9).

What is “reflective teaching”?

Reflective teaching is not just thinking about teaching. It should involve “critical examination of our motivation, thinking, and practice” (Bailey, Curtis & Nunan, 2004, p. 39) .

Five dimensions of reflective teaching

1) Rapid reflection: Immediate and automatic (Reflection-in-action)

2) Repair: Thoughtful (Reflection-in-action) 3) Review: Less formal (Reflection-on-action at a p

articular point in time) 4) Research: More systematic (Reflection-on-actio

n over a period of time) 5) Retheorizing and reformulating: Long-term (Ref

lection-on-action informed by public academic theories)

4. Action research: what, why and how?

1) What is action research?

2) Why do we do action research?

3) How to do action research?

What is action research?

Action research is context-based,

data-based, problem-focused aiming at improvement (Wallace, 1998).

Why do we do action research?

For our professional development!!

To improve teaching and to get published!

How to do action research?

-- Choosing a topic

-- Preparing a working bibliography

-- Collecting information: library research-- Specifying the research question(s) and research design

-- Collecting and analysing empirical data

-- Outlining and writing the paper/report to your department

Teaching and research

Are they friends or rivals?

Thank you!