Status Quo Of Professional Development Under The National English Curriculum

Nowadays as the worldwide needs of Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) and English Language Teaching (ELT) and especially the urgent demands of the new round Chinese National English Curriculum Reform show up, Chinese EFL teachers are facing the great challenges for their professional development. As it is known, high school English teachers are advocated to be the facilitators of learning, the explorers and the implementers of the national English curriculum. Since EFL teachers and their professional development do have unignorable effects on their students, teaching and ultimately the curriculum reform, it is advisable to have a study on the current situation of EFL teachers'professional development (TPD).The purpose of current study is to investigate the status quo and difficulties of high school EFL teachers'professional development in the southwest part of China through surveying and discussing the intermediate case of samples from five high schools of Kunming city, Yunnan province, so as to provide readers clues and implications to think about how to intensify the EFL teaching and learning reform in secondary schools more effectively from the perspective of teachers. Therefore, it is significant to complete this study and contribute meaningful suggestions to in-service teachers and their TPD under the reform of new curriculum.The research questions for this study are as follows:Main research question:what is the present situation of high school in-service EFL teachers'professional development in Kunming? Sub questions:1) why they are taking EFL teaching as their job and career; 2) what kinds of view on EFL teaching they hold; 3) what the present situation of their EFL pedagogical content competence is;4) what kinds of view on teacher learning and development they have;5) what the facilitating and debilitating factors are in their professional development; 6) what their needs are for their professional development.Based on the EFL Teacher Professional Competence Profile conducted by Wu Yi'an (2008a), the study discusses the status quo and demands of teacher professional development of 63 EFL teachers from five high schools in Kunming, Yunnan, from four aspects:1) teachers'views on the career,2) teachers'views on EFL teaching,3) teachers' EFL pedagogical content competences, and 4) their views on teacher learning and development. By adapting a survey questionnaire and related interviews and employing qualitative-based and mixed-method of data interpretation, the discussion covers the following aspects:EFL teachers'career values, teacher beliefs about English teaching and students, their knowledge and pedagogical skills, teacher reflection and action researches on their teaching and learning, the in-service teacher education programs, and finally the facilitating and debilitating factors for their professional development.The results of the current study indicate that:1) Most of the subjects are satisfied with their occupation and hold high career identity and professional devotion.2) Teachers sometimes ignore the role of students as the main body of teaching and the required teachers' roles are hardly established.3) Teachers draw much attention to abilities in practice, however, the demanded teacher knowledge and competences are defective.4) Majorities of teachers are aware of autonomous professional development.5) They believe that their inner motivation plus outer factors may achieve their professional development.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One Introduction illustrates research background, significance of the current study and the main structure of the whole thesis.Chapter Two Literature Review and Theoretical Basis reviews on the definitions, main approaches and relevant studies at home and abroad and theoretical basis.Chapter Three Methodology introduces research questions and purposes, subjects, instruments and the procedures of data collection and analyses.Chapter Four Results and Discussion interprets the data from teachers'views on the career and the EFL teaching, teachers'EFL pedagogical content competences and their views on teacher learning and development.Chapter Five Conclusion provides the major findings and implications and points out limitations of present study and suggestions for future studies.