Book Description

The aim of this book is to develop a framework for describing the field as it currently exists together with well-established views. As far as possible the book describes rather than prescribes, to avoid taking up any single approach or theory regarding what constitutes the legitimate approach to TEFL research. Of course, the personal views of the authors will colour the account provided as it is imposible to separate description from interpretation. Thus, in a way, this book involves the theories, beliefs, knowledge, methods and practices of foreign language teachers and how these can enhance teacher education. This book is planned for pre-service or in-service teachers of a foreign language at primary, secondary or tertiary levels, although the criterions examined are useful to teachers of English as a foreign language, teacher trainers, or modern language teachers involved in teaching any language whether in Spain or overseas. Our main purpose is to help readers to help themselves. Accordingly, the reader is encouraged to be engaged in an examination of foreign language teaching and learning in hope of improving his/her practice and making language teaching more controllable, more interesting and more effective. The chapters are organized into four sections. In Section I, three chapters describe some perspectives in teacher education. In the first chapter, José M. Vez focuses on the hypothesis that the key to producing well-qualified EFL teachers is to greatly strengthen their professional learning across the continuum of a career in the foreign language classroom. He emphasizes the fact that foreign-language teaching must become a learning profession in order to prompt greater learning among foreign language students and describes the innovative aspects of foreign language teacher education. In the second chapter, Sheena Davies provides an overview of language teacher education today, with particular reference to English language teaching, discusses some current issues associated with the field, and gives notice of her experience working with both native speaker and non-native speaker teachers of English from all over the world on a variety of in-service and pre-service courses and seminars. In chapter 3, we examine the perspectives on teacher thinking and teachers' beliefs in general, and about language learning in particular. .