AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand and describe the sources of Nicaraguan EFL teacher educators’ knowledge base, the types of knowledge and skills that constructed their knowledge base, and the relationship of this knowledge base and classroom practices in a teacher education program at a Nicaraguan University. This study presents a literature review on the sources of knowledge and knowledge base of EFL teacher educators in the field of language teacher education. I used a purposeful sampling technique to select both the research site and the six EFL teacher educators who participated as research participants in this study. Data were collected from three sources: a curriculum analysis, six one-shot semi-structured interviews, and a document analysis to lesson plans, syllabi, and assessment instruments used by the research participants. To analyze the data collected, I used the qualitative data analysis model proposed by Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2014). As a mode of findings, I describe the sources of knowledge, a categorization of knowledge base and skills that Nicaraguan EFL teacher educators possess as well as the relationship they identified between their knowledge base and their teaching practices in EFL teacher education classrooms. Findings revealed that Nicaraguan EFL teacher educators possess sixteen types of knowledge and fourteen types of skills that resulted from eight sources of knowledge, among which English proficiency, own experiences as language learners, subject knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, teaching experience in EFL teacher education programs, assessment knowledge of language student teachers, and knowledge of students’ L1 seem to be the most important when it has to do with actual teaching in language teacher education classrooms. In addition, according to the findings, the process of becoming an EFL teacher educator may take many years. It begins with the professional coursework teacher educators take in their language teacher education programs where they first become English teachers. It continues with teaching experiences either in high schools, English teaching centers, or universities. Their professional knowledge as teacher educators is completed through the interaction with EFL preservice student teachers in teacher education classrooms, in which their previous pedagogical, linguistic, and teaching experiences as EFL teachers is transformed. In other words, their professional identity as EFL teacher educators is developed as they begin teaching in EFL teacher education programs. Pursuing this further, this study presents some pedagogical implications based on the findings that can help improve the quality and preparation of EFL teacher educators in Nicaragua. Finally, it offers some avenues for more research regarding the knowledge base of EFL teacher educators in Nicaraguan teacher education programs.

The current study is an attempt to provide insights into the nature of tensions and consistencies between teachers’ belief-practice relationships and how these impact on teaching practices. The study aims to address three main research gaps. Firstly, it explores EFL teachers’ belief-practice consistency level in relation to the teaching of speaking, an understudied curricular domain. Secondly, the phenomenon is examined from two major perspectives: teachers’ perceptions of their own pedagogical contexts and their core-peripheral belief systems, thus using a multi-perspective approach which is usually not the case with other studies in the field. Finally, the study took place in Kazakhstani secondary school EFL classrooms, a geographical context which has not featured at all in the language teacher cognition literature to date. Using a multiple-case design and multiple methods of data collection, the research project explored the relationship between four EFL teachers’ stated beliefs and classroom practices in relation to the teaching of speaking. The teachers were interviewed and observed over a period of nine months. The findings provide evidence of how speaking instruction unfolded in the classroom and the multiplicity of factors which shaped teacher decision-making and behavior. Specifically, the insights from my study highlight the impact of a) teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical contexts, b) their core and peripheral beliefs, and c) the interaction of all these factors on the enactment of their speaking instruction beliefs. These findings carry important implications for the field of language teacher cognition, and for teacher education and professional development.

The continual decline of Chinese proficiency has caused serious concerns in Hong Kong. Although most Hong Kong people speak Chinese as their first language, they have not been strongly motivated to learn it in part because of the socio- economic status of English, and in part because of the discrepancies between the spoken and the written forms of Chinese. The absence of a link between the spoken dialect (Cantonese) and the written Modem Standard Chinese language (based mainly on the syntax of Mandarin) makes the learning of Chinese in the 'trilingual' (Cantonese, Mandarin and English) and 'biliterate' (Chinese and English) society laborious. The perception that Chinese proficiency is waning has led to criticisms of the quality of language teachers and language teacher education in the community. Hence, a study of the problems in Chinese language teacher education in Hong Kong is an indispensable step in improving the quality of Chinese language education in Hong Kong. This study takes pre-service teachers' (PST) perceptions as the predomhant factor in understanding how they learn to become a teacher of Chinese. As both students and teachers, the PSTs in this study provide insights into learning, teaching, and learning to teach, the Chinese language. Famous for its cultural tradition, Chinese teaching is typically transmissive. In particular, teachers of Chinese are expected to teach with a missionary zeal for 'educating' students by acting as exemplars. As a result, how a teacher teaches is often determined by how he or she was taught to interpret the nature of Chinese Language. The use of texts written by distinguished authors as teaching materials further encourages language teachers to give higher priority to literature, culture and moral education than language use. Inheriting such a tradition, modem Chinese language teacher education is faced with multiple challenges: to promote cognitive developments in teachers and cognitive teaching approaches to meet the needs of rapidly developing society, and to prepare teachers to maintain a proper balance between moral education and appreciation of culture and literature on the one hand, and teaching language use on the other. This study draws on the literature on Chinese language education, TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), learning to teach, teacher knowledge, beliefs and perceptions, and develops a conceptual framework to interpret the relationships between perceptions and practices as a reciprocal cycle. Perceptions of self as a teacher, the subject matter, and teaching and learning of the subject matter are inseparable from the beliefs and knowledge of the PSTs, which affect how they prepare lesson plans to teach and actually teach in the classrooms. Planning and classroom practices are realised in teaching objectives, instructional strategies and evaluation of teaching effectiveness, which then reinforce knowledge, beliefs and perceptions. The cycle goes on as the PSTs learn more about teaching and accumulate teaching experiences. From this recurring cycle, the PSTs generate personal theories of teaching a specific subject. This study is longitudinal in design, which follows a logical procedure of inquiry. It first examines the PSTs' perceptions of teaching and learning Chinese on entry to, during and on exit from a.two-year teacher education program. Then it turns to the perceptual development and the sources of perceptions and perceptual changes, and how they impact on the PSTs. Finally, the complex relationship between perceptions, lesson planning and classroom practices are elaborated. In particular, data collected in some stages were dependent on the findings of the preceding stage. This adds complexity to the overall research desip of the study. This study uses a multimethod approach with two research populations -the questionnaire surveys of the entire cohort and qualitative data collection from twelve sub-sample participants. Because of the lack of well-established research instruments in the Chinese research context, all methods of inquiry have been revised according to the results of pilot studies. The multimethod approach in this study demonstrates how questionnaire surveys, repertory grids, individual interviews, focus groups, classroom observations and the analyses of lesson plans and reflective journals can be used in a complementary manner to assure the validity of the research. Questionnaire surveys yield the overall perceptions of the cohort on entry to and exit from the teacher education program. The perceptual development of the entire cohort is understood by the findings of the two surveys. Against the backdrop of the overall perceptions of the cohort, the qualitative methods are used to study the sub-sample. Repertory grids reveal the participants' views of teachers of Chinese from different perspectives, whereas individual interviews and focus group discussions tap more deeply into the participants' thinking about how they have learned to teach Chinese. Other qualitative methods such as classroom observation and the analyses of lesson plans and reflective journals provide compelling evidence for indicating the extent that the participants have grasped the craft of teaching. This study suggests from the persistent perceptions and perceptual development of the PSTs that Chinese language education in Hong Kong has been ineffective. Ineffective Chinese language education has a long-lasting negative impact on students including the PSTs. The strong emphasis on literature, culture and moral education, and the knowledge telling and teacher-led traditions have led to a low level of cognitive demand in Chinese teaching. The procedures recommended for teaching a text in Chinese and the assessment criteria of the teacher education program have encouraged the,PSTs to become more didactic in teaching, although they themselves are aware that they should pay more attention to the needs of students. This study argues that student teachers' perspectives form a critical element in reforming Chinese language teacher education in Hong Kong, and that language teacher education should first be ameliorated before language education can be effectively improved. Not only should PSTs of Chinese Language be equipped with better subject matter knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, but Chinese language teacher educators should also be cognisant of the necessity for change. Because learning to teach is often discipline-based, it is more cost-effective and consistent if the teacher educators' Chinese language classes also emphasise cognitive development in the PSTs. To be real exemplars for the PSTs, the Chinese language teacher educators should be involved in continuing critical evaluation of their own practices.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. At head of title screen : University of Alberta. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on December 8, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Also available in print.

Orientador: osé Carlos Paes de Almeida Filho / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T10:47:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandei_MariadeLourdesdaRocha_M.pdf: 7818659 bytes, checksum: e5a0871c09a00733a9f73cf24f96adb9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa, de natureza etnográfica, tem por objetivo investigar qual a abordagem subjaz o ensinar de um professor de Língua Estrangeira (LE) de Ensino Médio da rede pública estadual e evidenciar se ocorreram ou não mudanças no seu sentido de plausibilidade (Prabhu, 1990) e na sua prática docente após a sua participação no estudo. Para isso, investigamos as ações e procedimentos metodológicos do professor-participante e os comparamos com o seu dizer, procurando evidências de coerência e incongruência entre a abordagem declarada e a que realmente emerge da sua prática. Os dados foram coletados através de observação, notas de campo, aulas gravadas em áudio e transcritas, entrevistas, questionários e discussão posterior à obtenção dos dados. O referencial teórico que orientou a análise advém das posições elaboradas por Almeida Filho em várias publicações (1993, 1997b, 1999, 2005). Os resultados revelaram, em determinados momentos, coerência entre o dizer e o fazer; em outros, entretanto, houve discordância. O seu discurso mostrou-se, na maioria das vezes, de acordo com os pressupostos da abordagem comunicacional, mas muitos aspectos da sua prática aproximaram-se dos procedimentos da abordagem tradicional de ensino, pois o professor-participante privilegiou, em suas aulas, a leitura em coro, tradução, aprendizagem de vocabulário, memorização e revisão gramatical. Quanto às possíveis mudanças iniciadas na sua prática, constatou-se, a partir das suas verbalizações, uma menor preocupação com o vestibular, o reconhecimento de ser necessário criar momentos para os alunos se comunicarem efetivamente na Língua-alvo, a importância de ele fazer menor uso da língua materna nas aulas, dentre outras. Notou-se também que a pesquisa fez o sentido de plausibilidade do professor observado entrar em conflito com as suas velhas percepções, levando-o a refletir criticamente sobre a sua prática de ensino e a buscar uma explicação para ela / Abstract: The purpose of this ethnographic research is to investigate what approach underlies the teaching of a Foreign Language teacher of a public state school and to evidence if changes had or not occurred in his sense of plausibility and his teaching practice after his participation in this study. To achieve this, we investigated the actions and the methodological procedures of the participant teacher and we compared them with his statements, searching convergence and contradiction between his declared approach and the one that emerges from his practice. The data were collected through class observation, which was audio recorded, field notes, interviews, questionnaires and discussions after the obtained data. The theorical framework that oriented the analysis was based on the work of Almeida Filho (1993, 1997b, 1999, 2005). The data revealed that, in several moments, there was coherence between his speech and his practice; in others contradiction between them. His oral communication was coherent with the assumptions of the communicative approach, but some aspects of his practice with the traditional approach, because the teacher emphasized, in his classes, group reading, translation, learning of vocabulary, memorization and grammatical revision. The results showed a lesser preoccupation with the vestibular, the necessity of creating moments for the students to communicate in the target language, the importance of using less Portuguese by the teacher in his classes, among others. We also noted that the research made the teacher' s sense of plausibility get into conflict with his old perceptions, making him reflect critically over his teaching practice and to look for an explanation for it / Mestrado / Lingua Estrangeira / Linguistica Aplicada

Die Arbeit verfolgt die Frage, wie zwei Werkzeuge der Hochschuldidaktik, das Europäische Portfolio für Sprachstudierende in Ausbildung (EPOSA) und der Englischassistent, für die Professionalisierung von zukünftigen Lehrenden an Neuen Mittelschulen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des geänderten Verständnisses von Lehrenden als Lernbegleitern unterstützend eingesetzt werden können. Nach einer Darstellung des theoretischen Rahmens und Positionierung des Themas im Kontext, verfolgt die empirische Arbeit die Beantwortung von 20 Forschungsfragen und Untersuchung von vier Hypothesen, welche mithilfe quantitativer und qualitativer Erhebungs- und Auswertungsverfahren realisiert und an dem Anforderungsprofil für NMS-Lehrer/-innen, sowie den Konstrukten „Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung“, „Motivation“, „Autonomes Lernen“, „Lernklima“ und „Reflexionskompetenz“ orientiert ist. Die Analysen der durch Befragungen, Gruppendiskussionen und Experteninterviews gewonnenen Daten machen Ansatzpunkte und Problemfelder der Verwendung des EPOSA und Englischassistenten sichtbar. Die Ergebnisse zeigen hohe Akzeptanz des EPOSA als Reflexionstool und als Begleiter im kontinuierlichen Professionalisierungsprozess bei den befragten Personen. Große Defizite wurden in den Kompetenzbereichen des „autonomen Lernens“, „Beurteilung“ und „Kulturbewusstsein“ sichtbar gemacht. Dem Englischassistenten wird Potential vorwiegend im Bereich des Diagnosetools und als Hilfsmittel in der „professionellen Lerngemeinschaft“ zugeschrieben. Überarbeitungsbedarf wird in Bezug auf kompetenzorientierte und dem kommunikativen Ansatz folgende Aufgabenstellungen offensichtlich. Zusammenfassende Empfehlungen für die weitere Verwendung und Entwicklung der beiden Werkzeuge, sowie ein Ausblick auf geplante zukünftige Forschungstätigkeit beschließen die Arbeit. / This paper aims to answer the question how the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) and the “Englischassistant” can assist the process of teacher training perceiving the teacher’s primary role as the one of a “coach” rather than an “instructor”. Following a close description of the theoretical framework and positioning the topic in its context, the empirical work is geared towards finding answers to 20 research questions and verifying four hypotheses. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used and the empirical work was oriented to requirements set in the NMS-teacher-profile and the concepts “Self-efficacy”, “Motivation”, “Independent Learning”, “Learning Climate”and “Reflective Competence”. The analyses of the data collected by means of surveys, group discussions and expert interviews made starting points and problem areas of the use of the EPOSTL and the “Englischassistent” apparent. The results showed wide acceptance of the EPOSTL as a tool to assist both reflective processes as well as life-long learning among the respondents. Deficits in the following areas of competence became obvious: “Independent Learning”, “Assessment” and “Cultural Awareness”. The “Englischassistent” was accredited potential primarily as an assessment tool and as an aid in the “Professional Learning Community”. A better orientation towards the “Communicative Approach” and developing skills was said to be urgently required. The main findings are summarized in a set of recommendations concerning further usage and development of the two tools. Together with a brief description of future research projects it can be found in the final passage of the paper.