Can a teacher certification scheme change ELT classroom practice?

Choi, Tae Hee; Andon, Nick

doi:10.1093/elt/cct059

Cited by 23 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The congruence issues stem from the catch-all terms in which MEXT frames 'English in English,' which at the surface level is worded in a way not to fully commit to its implementation. MEXT's policy messages would benefit from being complemented by macro and meso-level schemes to ensure adoption, similar to the Teaching English in English certification programme in Seoul, South Korea, as pointed out by Choi and Andon (2014), in which primary and secondary school teachers are assessed and trained in how to increase their use of English in the classroom in response to governmental promotion of communicative teaching approaches. However, Choi and Andon do point out that such a scheme did not automatically lead to teacher acceptance; the teacher participants they interviewed had no intentions of following the new policy recommendations in the future, citing its irrelevance in their teaching contexts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Choi and Andon do point out that such a scheme did not automatically lead to teacher acceptance; the teacher participants they interviewed had no intentions of following the new policy recommendations in the future, citing its irrelevance in their teaching contexts. Moreover, JTEs' unique experiences as nonnative English speaking teachers have gone unrecognised by the policymakers, even though the lives and work of such teachers have recently become a prominent area of research in the profession of TESOL (Braine, 2010), As such teachers have been recognised as possessing specific challenges in conducing English-only, communicative classrooms (McKay & Bokhorst-Heng, 2008), there is more of a compelling reason to provide them with suitable materials and enough time to personalise new pedagogies (Choi & Andon, 2014). The results in this study suggest that teachers may continue to translate LEP 'to suit their existing beliefs, perceived objectives of English instruction, and recognised needs of the students in their classrooms' (Zhang & Hu, 2010, p. 136) in lack of other alternatives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Teaching English in English, ‘in principle’: The national foreign language curriculum for Japanese senior high schools

Glasgow

2014

International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching English in English, ‘in principle’: The national foreign language curriculum for Japanese senior high schools

Glasgow

2014

International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning

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“…There has been a movement towards increasing accountability and standards in education worldwide (Altbach, 2007;Ylimaki, 2012), and this has included ESOL contexts (Kibler, Valdés, & Walqui, 2015). Top-down governmental reforms are done with good intentions; for example, South Korea implemented a teacher certification scheme to ensure English teaching is communicative (Choi & Andon, 2014). Research based in U.S. high schools suggests that calls for new standards or program-wide reforms also come from campus administration and program leaders who feel it is their duty to maximize learning outcomes (Gonzalez & Firestone, 2013).…”

Section: Top-down Coordination and Administration-staff Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coordination, Teacher Autonomy, and Collaboration in EFL Programs in Japanese Higher Education

Prichard

Moore

2016

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Both teacher autonomy and program coordination have potential benefits. Recent research on English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) programs in the United States has suggested that programs tend to have significant levels of coordination and collaboration while maintaining teacher autonomy. Although Japanese universities have long had a culture of teacher autonomy, EFL educators based in higher educational institutions have described efforts to coordinate their programs. However, researchers have not explicitly analyzed EFL programs in Japan to determine how widespread these coordination efforts have become. In this study, we empirically evaluated levels of teacher autonomy, top-down coordination, and administration–staff collaboration in EFL programs in Japanese universities and colleges. The results suggest that these programs have high levels of curricular autonomy and general teaching autonomy related to pedagogy and classroom management. In contrast, the programs are reported to have low levels of top-down coordination and, compared to U.S. ESOL programs, significantly less coordination and collaboration. 教師の自律（teacher autonomy）とプログラム内でのトップダウンによる協調（program coordination）には潜在的利益がある。米国のESOL（English for speakers of other languages）プログラムに関する最近の研究によると、教師の自律を維持すると同時に、プログラム内でトップダウンの協調と協働（collaboration）を行う傾向がある。日本の大学では、長年教師の自律を支える文化がある一方で、高等教育機関に勤務する多くのEFL教育者は、プログラム内の協調に努力してきたと報告している。しかし、日本のEFLプログラムにおいてそのような協調の努力がどの程度行われているかを明確に分析した研究はほとんどない。そこで、本研究では、日本の大学や短大のEFLプログラムにおける教師の自律、トップダウン式による協調、管理部門と教育スタッフ間の協働のレベルの評価を行った。その結果、これらのプログラムは、教授法と教室マネジメントに関して、カリキュラム上、また一般教育上の自律を担保していることを示唆している。対照的に、トップダウン式の協調はあまり行われていないことが報告された。米国におけるESOLプログラムと比較すると、日本のプログラムでは、トップダウンによる協調と協働のレベルが低いことが判明した。

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“…The inclusion on CLT as the required pedagogy was maintained through the curriculum revisions of 1998 and 2008. The pedagogical shift to CLT was accompanied by a medium of instruction policy in the form of Teaching English Through English (TEE), which was implemented from 2001 (Choi & Andon, 2014). The medium of instruction policy was developed as a pedagogical correlate of CLT and emphasised the need for teachers of English to use the language communicatively in their classroom practice and to provide significant input in the target language.…”

Section: Explicit Policy Focus On Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Choi and Andon (2014) report that even teachers who have passed TEE certification at the advanced level may be reluctant to implement what they have learnt in class because they feel that it is not relevant for their teaching context. This issue of relevance is revealing because, although CLT is highly relevant in in terms of the pedagogical focus of Korea's policy, it is not seen as relevant for supporting the sorts for the learning of English that Korean students require.…”

Section: Explicit Policy Focus On Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

The interface between macro and micro-level language policy and the place of language pedagogies

Liddicoat

2014

International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning

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This paper investigates the place of pedagogy in language-in-education policy through an analysis of how the macro-level of government policy interacts with the micro-level of local educational practice. It argues that pedagogy is typically considered a micro-level activity and policy frequently devolves decision-making about pedagogy to micro-level agents. For this reason, pedagogy is often invisible in policy texts. Pedagogy becomes a concern for macro-level policy when micro-level practice is constructed as being a problem and policy seeks to intervene to reform practice. However, whether pedagogy is explicitly discussed in policy, it remains nonetheless relevant for policy implementation and ultimately for the success of policy change. The silence about pedagogy in policy texts may render invisible the capacity for pedagogical change at the micro-level and the capabilities and resources needed to effect change. The paper will examine these issues through an investigation of a series of language policy contexts in which pedagogy is either an explicit concern or it remains implicit.Keywords: language-in-education policy; language pedagogies, macro language planning, micro language planning IntroductionPedagogy, understood as the "act of teaching together with the ideas, values and beliefs by which that act is informed, sustained and justified" (Alexander, 2008, p. 4), is of necessity something that is both local and contextually dependent. However, at the same time, changes in educational policy have significant implications for pedagogical decision-making at the local level as they influence not only the ideas, values and beliefs that underlie practice but also the objectives towards which practice is oriented. Because pedagogy is local it has not always attracted a lot of attention in language policy and planning research, which has historically focused mostly on the work of governments and associated agencies. As language planning and policy research moves to focus on other levels at which language-related decision-making is undertaken, pedagogy can assume a new focus in language planning and policy scholarship. Baldauf (2005Baldauf ( , 2006Chua & Baldauf, 2011;Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997) in reframing the focus of language policy and planning research argues that there are three levels of investigation in which language-related decision-making needs to be investigated and understood. These are the macro-level, the level of governments and governmental agencies, the meso-level of sub-national institutions and the micro-level of local agents whose decision-making influences local practices. In reality all of these levels are relevant for understanding how decision-making about language pedagogies occurs, but this paper will address two of these -the macro level of governmental language-in-education policy texts and the micro-level of local practice -in order to investigate how these two levels are salient for understanding pedagogy as an element of language policy and planning. Macro-level policy frames t...

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Can a teacher certification scheme change ELT classroom practice?

Cited by 23 publications

References 7 publications

Teaching English in English, ‘in principle’: The national foreign language curriculum for Japanese senior high schools

Teaching English in English, ‘in principle’: The national foreign language curriculum for Japanese senior high schools

Coordination, Teacher Autonomy, and Collaboration in EFL Programs in Japanese Higher Education

The interface between macro and micro-level language policy and the place of language pedagogies

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