Teacher perspectives on linguistics in TESOL teacher education

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of 61 students and alumni of graduate programmes that specialise in training English language teachers. The goal was to examine the views of these students and alumni regarding the importance and/or relevance of linguistic theory for their pedagogical practice and to determine whether differences in perceptions were dependent upon varying years of teaching experience. Both rating data and responses to open-ended questions were collected. Results indicate that respondents across groups held positive views regarding the role of linguistic theory for their development as teachers, and they expressed interest in more direct linkages between theory and practice in their academic programmes. We discovered, however, that a U-shaped response pattern emerged: the most novice and most experienced teachers were more optimistic about the value of theory than those whose years of teaching experience fell somewhere between these two groups. Possible reasons for this developmental pattern are considered. The paper concludes that responses of these students and alumni provide important evidence that the primary rationale for including theoretical elements in language teacher education programmes should be to enhance the language awareness and professional development of teachers, not for making direct applications between theory and classroom practice.

The Importance of Linguistics for Teachers in English Language Teaching

“…Based on some articles collected by the researchers, Lafond (2009) said that linguistics is very needed in English language teaching because this helps teachers to explain the English components and structures to the students. Every language has a system or linguistic rules that can be learned in micro linguistics terms namely phonology, morphology.…”

Repensar el currículo en el componente lingüístico de un pregrado en educación bilingüe

“…Such perspective seems to be theoretically backed up since language teacher education does have a tradition of including training on linguistics (LaFond & Dogancay-Aktuna, 2009), and at the tertiary level education programs do not give much value to superficial knowledge that is purely declarative (Biggs & Tang, 2007). Through their learning of linguistics, student-teachers gain 'knowledge of how language is structured, acquired, and used' (Johnson & Golombek, 2002, p. 8) and empower themselves to be able to understand and diagnose student problems better, provide better explanations and representations for aspects of language, and have a clearer idea of what they are teaching (Bartels, 2005).…”