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... The study is also limited by the isolation of one classroom lesson per participant. In practice, pedagogical lessons do not exist in isolation (Yinger, 1980;Woods, 1989b), and there may be differences in planning as a course progresses. Since any teacher's attention may change throughout any course, investigation of the beginning or end of a course might show very different patterns of thinking and lesson planning. ...
... Previous research into teacher thinking has suggested that the characteristics of students are an important consideration in lesson planning. Of particular concern in this study were the student characteristics which ESL teachers (Cumming, 1988(Cumming, , 1990Woods, 1989aWoods, , 1989b. ...
... This study does not account for many of the complex influences in these educational situations. Generalizing from this study to ESL teachers at large is not possible.Relations such as the interconnectedness between subsequent ESLlessons (cf.Woods, 1989aWoods, , 1989b were impossible to assess in this study since student teachers taught isolated lessons and the person responsible for interconnecting these lessons was always the sponsor teacher. If the sponsor teacher did not insist on a connection of the student teacher's lesson to lessons before and after it, then it would be unlikely that the student teacher would have the information to perform the instruction on their own.Another limitation is thatalthough the lessons documented had clear beginnings and endings, important variables that relate to them may have occurred outside the lesson or the time frame allotted to planning. ...
... The third factor that affected the growth of research on teacher cognitions was increasing recognition of the centrality of the teacher in educational processes (Calderhead, 1996). Researchers' attention was drawn to teachers' roles in curriculum development (e.g., Doyle & Ponder, 1977), to the intrinsic involvement of teachers' own professional development in the processes of curriculum change (e.g., Stenhouse, 1975), and to the key role of teachers in the educational system and in particular to the thinking and decision-making that informed their practice (e. g., Eggleston, 1977;Woods, 1989). ...
... The latter type of interactive decision making was usually prompted by student factors (e.g., affective state of the students), or teacher factors (e.g., a problem with a piece of equipment). Woods (1989) conducted research on second language teachers' decision making and proposed a model which incorporates two types of decision-sequential decisions and hierarchical decisions. Sequential decisions occur when one decision follows another in sequence but isn't part of the previous decision while hierarchical decisions occur when decisions are carried out as a means of achieving a previous decision. ...
... According to Woods (1989), decisions made in the planning phase and those made "on-line" in "real time" are sequentially and hierarchically related respectively. ...
... In the past, scholars focused on what teachers do (e.g., behaviors, techniques, routines), but now they were interested in finding out how teachers cope with the complexities occurring in the process of teaching (Hawkes & Olson, 1984). Many concepts highlighting the role of teachers' mental lives and experiences took root during this period, such as teaching as decision-making (Shulman & Elstein, 1975;Woods, 1989;Johnson, 1992Johnson, , 1995, the role of beliefs in teaching (e.g., Freeman, 1993;Johnson, 1994), the hidden pedagogy and curriculum (e.g., Denscombe, 1982), apprenticeship of observation (Lortie, 1975;Freeman, 1996;Moran, 1996), and pedagogical content knowledge (e.g., Elbaz, 1983;Clandinin, 1985;Shulman, 1987). The change in conceptualization was successful in this stage, but this reconceptualization remained to be translated into research in teacher education and new research methodologies needed to be developed. ...
This paper aims to shed light on second language teacher education as experienced by Chinese Fulbright teaching assistants (TAs) in the U.S. Adopting a mixed-method design, this study is undergirded by both a questionnaire and a case study. Through the questionnaire study, the researchers examine the needs of Chinese Fulbright TAs in the U.S. by investigating their self-perceptions, backgrounds, challenges, training, success, and suggestions. Through the case of a highly successful Fulbright TA, this study explores the processes of teacher learning through different types of experiences by analyzing three data sources including the first researcher's year-long observation notes, the TA's end-of-the-year report, and her reflection on the one-year Fulbright experiences in relation to her growth as a language teacher. Based on the results, the researchers provide a list of suggestions for Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teacher education.
... While in the past there has been research on teacher decision-making in mainstream classrooms (Anderson, 2003;Clark & Peterson, 1986;Connelly & Clandinin, 1986) there has been very little research conducted in ESL classrooms (Cumming, 1989;Woods, 1989). The gap on teacher decision-making research coincides with NCLB Act, 2001(2002 because of its focus on standardized, objective-based assessments. ...
This article presents two case studies that document the decisions of two secondary English language arts teachers in ninth and eleventh grade classrooms who are working with English learners. These teachers were interviewed and observed in their classrooms during the spring semester to investigate their decision-making during literacy instruction. Findings suggest that when decisions focused on building relationships, inquiry instruction, and students' interests and mediated the resources around them, students deeply connected to the learning. One teacher saw students as instructional partners and overtly focused decisions on improved engagement and participation. The other teacher overtly and deliberately focused on empathy, caring and meaningful connections to help students make sense of their academic worlds.
... Recordings of rating behavior not only provided the researcher with data to examine rating patterns of different rater groups, but also gave the raters an opportunity to reflect on their rating behaviors by means of individual feedback sessions (Almarza, 1996;Woods, 1990). ...
... From a research perspective, this paper shows that journal entries, even those not kept systematically, even those kept somewhat haphazardly, can still act as a source of stimulated recall data (Nunan, 1994), which has been used more commonly to gather data from students (Woods, 1989), but which has great potential for enabling us to learn more about what is, and is not, happening in our classrooms, from teachers' perspectives. In terms of developing frameworks of understanding, the paper expands the notion of reflective practice by adding a 'refractive' aspect. ...
From Student-teacher to Teacher-student A long-established feature of many initial language teacher education programs is exposure to target language teaching, as described by language teacher educators like Diane Larsen-Freeman (1983) in the United States and Gary Birch (1992) in Australia. For my early TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) qualifications, our group, all native speakers of English, were required to attend 20, one-hour lessons of beginner's Chinese. As none of us knew any Chinese, and all of the teaching was in the target language, Chinese, this gave us a chance to experience what our learners might think and feel when we tried to teach them entirely in the language they were trying to learn, English. In a later course, the same was done, but this time with the language of Iceland. We each kept a journal, or learning log, of what we were learning about language teaching and about what it felt like to be language learners completely immersed in a language we (initially) knew nothing about but were trying to learn. Although we did comment on the meaning, structure, and pronunciation of the two languages, and made (frequently incorrect) assumptions about our second languages based on what we (thought) we knew about our first, how much or how well we learned Mandarin Chinese or Icelandic was not the point. Thinking and feeling about language and learning, becoming sympathetic and empathetic reflective teachers through being reflective learners, were some of the main aims (see also Lowe, 1987).
... As part of a shift away from a research perspective, which presumed a causal link between teacher behaviour and student learning, issues like teachers' background, experience, and social context have become crucial factors in research investigating language teachers. Works such as Woods (1989) have reinforced acceptance of the idea that teaching involves complex thought processes, which often have deep roots in a teacher's culture of learning. Cortazzi and Jin (1996, p. 169) note, for example, that "behavior in language classrooms is set within taken-for granted frameworks of expectations, attitudes, values, and beliefs about what constitutes good learning, about how to teach or learn. . ...
Research on language classroom code-switching ranges from describing both teachers’ and learners’ first language and target language use to making connections between code-switching and student learning. However, few studies compare differences in practice between native and non-native speaker teachers and even fewer consider culture of learning as a variable. This paper presents recent results of a study documenting how three Japanese teachers, one of British and two of Japanese origin, differed in their use of classroom language delivered in the target language vs. the students’ first language. Findings include that language teachers’ code-switching practices can and often do differ substantially, influenced by the teacher's culture of learning. Incorporating examples from data in the form of classroom observation field notes and semi-structured interviews, this study adds to the discussion surrounding the importance of language teacher education programs which prioritize investigation of teachers’ background and teaching context in course content.
Context is key to understanding the roots and meanings of silence. As Saville-Troike (1985) explains, ‘silence (like all nonverbal communication) is more context-embedded than speech, that is, more dependent on context for its interpretation’ (p. 11). Ergo, the silence of a Trappist monk deep in prayer is profoundly different to that of a suspect refusing to talk in a police interview. The same holds true in the language classroom where a learner’s silence may emerge for any number of reasons and represent any number of meanings, depending on the complex contextual circumstances in which it occurs. So how can we best achieve an in situ analysis of such silences, paying close attention to contextualised classroom events and foregrounding the way in which immediate classroom and higher sociocultural contexts impact upon individuals? Framing its results through the lens of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST), the current chapter attempts to answer this question by reporting on a mixed-methods study which utilised a series of stimulated recall interviews in conjunction with empirical observations of silence occurring within naturalistic L2 classroom settings.
This article reports on a naturalistic inquiry into the cultures of two MA-TESOL programs in different parts of the United States, highlighting how their identities have been shaped by factors in their respective local environments that in turn affect what is taught in each program. The study explored how and why the two programs stress certain language teaching skills. The findings detail the divergent realities of the two programs with a view to raising consciousness and debate about the implications of such differences for the field of TESOL.
This paper argues that teachers' mental lives represent
the ‘hidden side’ of teaching. It examines how teacher
learning and teacher knowledge, as central attributes of
those mental lives, have been conceptualized and studied
since 1975 and traces connections to similar work in
English language teaching (ELT) 2
. While the majority
of literature reviewed is drawn from the north American
perspective, parallels are sketched in some of the emerging
research in ELT teacher education. The analysis
examines four broad families of issues: how teachers
learn content and teaching practices, how teachers' mental
processes are conceived, the role of prior knowledge in
learning to teach, and the role of social and institutional
context. Taken together, research in these areas suggests
implications for the design and practice of teacher training
and professional development in Second language
teacher education.
This article provides suggestions on writing for journals in the field of language learning. These suggestions are presented in three sections. The first section discusses how to begin. Suggestions in this section are that we appreciate the benefits of writing for publication, develop good ideas, work efficiently, ponder options as to what type of writing to do, choose a good topic, consider replication of other's research, and cooperate with others. The second section presents suggestions on doing the actual writing. Here, it is suggested that we connect ideas, delve deeply into the ideas we present, strive to write the reader friendly manner, use visuals, and improve our writing by noticing how other journal authors write. The third section concerns relations with editors. The advice given is that we choose carefully the journal to which we submit our work, follow that journal's directions to contributors, include a cover letter, be prepared to wait patiently, welcome critical feedback from editors and reviewers, and view editors as colleagues.
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