Plenary Session: EFL Teacher Development Through Collaborative Action Research Projects
How teachers learn to teach in context has been the focus of general educational research for almost a century (e.g., Lortie, 1975; Rosenholtz, 1989; Waller, 1932), and eventually a focus for teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), English as a second language (ESL), and foreign language communities (e.g., Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Kleinsasser, 1993; Sato & Kleinsasser, 2004). After reviewing the literature, I will introduce my study that examined how English as a foreign language (EFL) junior and senior high school teachers in Japan participated in collaborative action research and engaged in their professional development over four years. Little is known as to how EFL teachers challenge their beliefs and implement innovative practices based on communicative language teaching (CLT) through teacher learning processes. Using a mixed-methods design, the study identified three developmental stages regardless of years of teaching experience: (1) challenging teacher beliefs through TESOL classes and modeling teachers who have done similar action research through trial-and-error teaching as they practice communicative activities; (2) making sense of teaching through adapting and modifying theories of CLT; and (3) building confidence in teaching by actually seeing students change. These stages overlap and are not mutually exclusive, depending on the teacher and the teaching context. The study reveals teachers’ dynamic learning processes and professional development.
Plenary Workshop: From Preservice to Novice Teacher Development
In 2020, English became a formal subject for fifth and sixth graders in Japan; however, there has been little discussion about how to prepare English teachers. In fact, Curtain and Dahlberg (2004) noted that a lack of skillful teachers has been a serious issue in teaching foreign languages to elementary school students all over the world. Moreover, there is little documentation about how preservice teachers continue to learn to teach as novice teachers in their workplaces (Farrell, 2012). This longitudinal study keeps track of five novice elementary school teachers who received a two-year preservice teacher preparation program based on task-based language teaching (TBLT) and reveals how they try, or not, to “apply the teaching methods they were trained to use” (Farrell, 2012, p. 447) in their school contexts.
By analyzing interview and classroom observation data for three years, this longitudinal research attempts to document how school contexts influence EFL novice teacher development in their workplaces. This study highlights the three main shaping forces of professional development including “prior influences, initial teacher training, and school contexts” (Clandinin et al., 2013, p. 255).
This study is expected to shed light on the dynamics of teacher development by bridging the gap between preservice and teacher development. In fact, Farrell (2012) affirms that “It is important to ask how second language teacher (SLT) education programs could bridge this gap more effectively and thus better prepare novice teachers for the challenges they may face in the first years [sic] teaching” (p. 438).
How Foreign Language Teachers Learn to Teach in Context
Kazuyoshi Sato
How teachers learn to teach in context has been the focus of general educational research for almost a century (e.g., Lortie, 1975; Rosenholtz, 1989; Waller, 1932), and eventually a focus for teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), English as a second language (ESL), and foreign language communities (e.g., Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Kleinsasser, 1993; Sato & Kleinsasser, 2004). Little is known as to how foreign language teachers challenge their beliefs and implement innovative practices based on communicative language teaching (CLT) through teacher learning processes. This article reviews the literature on professional teacher development and identifies research issues.
Foreign Language Teacher Learning in the United States
Kleinsasser (1993) applied Rosenholtz’s (1989) model to high school foreign language teachers in U.S. contexts. Data were collected from 37 teachers in 11 schools through interviews, observations, and surveys. The results indicated two distinctive technical cultures. One was a routine/uncertain technical culture (i.e., learning-impoverished), where teachers were uncertain about their teaching and whether or not some of their students could learn, but were engaged in day-to-day routine instructional activities. Furthermore, these teachers reported a lack of communication about teaching issues among their colleagues. The other was a nonroutine/certain technical culture (i.e., learning-enriched), where teachers were confident about their teaching, and their daily instructional practices were less predictable. In addition, these teachers incorporated more communicative activities along with traditional grammar-focused exercises, whereas those in routine/uncertain technical cultures relied relatively exclusively on established traditional approaches (i.e., grammar-focused, and skill-based drills). Kleinsasser’s data revealed a strong relationship between school context and teacher performance at the department and high school level, lending strong empirical evidence to Rosenholtz’s model and ideas.
Foreign Language Teacher Learning in Australia
Sato and Kleinsasser (1999) researched 10 teachers of Japanese in Australia concerning their beliefs and practices about CLT using interviews, observations, and surveys. They found that teachers did not understand CLT well, even though they participated in either preservice or in-service programs about CLT. In short, teachers had fragmented knowledge of CLT, and their beliefs about language teaching and learning were based on their L2 learning and teaching experiences without relying too much on formal knowledge. Furthermore, observations revealed that there were few communicative classes, and grammatical points were explained deductively without any contextual clues, followed by mechanical drills.
EFL Teacher Learning in Japan
Sato and Kleinsasser (2004) conducted a yearlong study in a Japanese high school with 19 senior high school English teachers regarding how they learned to teach and understand CLT. The triangulated data from these teachers’ context, practices, and interactions revealed at least three rules in this particular teaching culture: (1) managing students and managing various work took precedence over teaching; (2) communication and collaboration centered on keeping pace with others and getting through the day, rather than solving teaching issues; and (3) it was particularly important to teach the same way for the common test and to maintain classroom management. The majority of English teachers reinforced traditional practices (e.g., grammar explanation and translation), ignoring national guidelines. Although a few teachers tried out innovative ideas, those teaching experiences were rarely reported or shared; innovation remained marginalized in this high school community.
Research Issues
These three previous studies found that foreign language teachers had difficulty changing their beliefs and practices. In essence, beliefs are difficult to change and tend to self-perpetuate; they must be clarified, challenged, and even criticized against new beliefs to make existing beliefs malleable (Fives & Gill, 2015; Pajares, 1992). Otherwise, teachers may continue to teach in the same way (e.g., Hargreaves, 2013). Furthermore, Savignon (2013) noted that some scholars who observed difficulties implementing CLT in non-Western countries criticized CLT by saying that “CLT is best suited for those Western contexts in which it originated” (p. 139). However, Savignon countered that “teachers in both Australia and Japan faced similar difficulties with the most notable being that of changing teachers’ beliefs. And individual teacher beliefs and practices were strongly influenced or reinforced by the school culture” (p. 139; see also Sato & Kleinsasser, 1999, 2004).
Yet, as evidenced by Kleinsasser’s (1993) study, there are foreign language teachers who incorporate communicative activities and communicate with other teachers about teaching practices, at least in learning-enriched schools. Therefore, how can we create a learning community that provides teachers with continuous opportunities to learn? Collaborative action research offers one answer, with studies by Sato and Takahashi (2008) and Sato and Hirano (2014) demonstrating that teacher collaboration led to better student outcomes. Indeed, Smylie (1995) claimed that “[we] will fail … to improve schools for children until we acknowledge the importance of schools not only as places for teachers to work but also as places for teachers to learn” (p. 92). As there is no longitudinal research on EFL teacher professional development, this question led to Sato et al. (2022), which will be highlighted in my plenary talk in November.
References
Clandinin, D. J., Schaefer, L., Long, J. S., Steeves, P., McKenzie-Roblee, S., Pinnegar, E., Wnuk, S., & Downey, C. A. (2013). Teacher education: A question of sustaining teachers. In X. Zhu & K. Zeichner (Eds.), Preparing teachers for the 21st century (pp. 251–262). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36970-4_15
Curtain, H., & Dahlberg, C. A. (2004). Languages and children—Making the match: New languages for young learners (3rd ed.). Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2012). Novice-service language teacher development: Bridging the gap between preservice and in-service education and development. TESOL Quarterly, 46(3), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.36
Fives, H., & Gill, M. G. (Eds.). (2015). International handbook of research on teachers’ beliefs. Routledge.
Freeman, D., & Johnson, K. E. (1998). Reconceptualizing the knowledge-base of language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 32(3), 397–417. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588114
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Kleinsasser, R. C. (1993). A tale of two technical cultures: Foreign language teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 9(4), 373–383. https://doi.org/10.1016/0742-051X(93)90004-Z
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Sato, K., & Hirano, M. (2014). School-wide collaborative action research for curriculum development. JALT 2013 Conference Proceedings, 130–141. https://jalt-publications.org/sites/default/files/pdf-article/jalt2013_014.pdf
Sato, K., & Kleinsasser, R. C. (1999). Communicative language teaching (CLT): Practical understandings. The Modern Language Journal, 83(4), 494–517. https://doi.org/10.1111/0026-7902.00037
Sato, K., & Kleinsasser, R. C. (2004). Beliefs, practices, and interactions of teachers in a Japanese high school English department. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(8), 797–816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2004.09.004
Sato, K., Mutoh, N., & Kleinsasser, R. C. (2022). Longitudinal research on EFL teacher professional development in (Japanese) contexts: Collaborative action research projects. Language Teaching Research, 26(3), 477–503. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168819893814
Sato, K., & Takahashi, K. (2008). Curriculum revitalization in a Japanese high school through teacher collaboration. In D. Hayes & J. Sharkey (Eds.), Revitalizing a program for school-age learners through curricular innovation (pp. 205–237). TESOL International Association.
Savignon, S. J. (2013). Communicative language teaching. In M. Byram & A. Hu (Eds.), Routledge encyclopedia of language teaching and learning (2nd ed., pp. 134–140). Routledge.
Smylie, M. A. (1995). Teacher learning in the workplace: Implications for school reform. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms and practices (pp. 92–113). Teachers College Press.
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Kazuyoshi Sato is a professor emeritus at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. He holds an MA and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Queensland, Australia. He established an MA TESOL program for in-service teachers in 2006 and has been promoting action research. He has published several papers on communicative language teaching and teacher development in journals including The Modern Language Journal, Teaching and Teacher Education, and Language Teaching Research.
