A Survey Of The Status Quo Of Professional Development Of English Teachers Under The Background Of The New Curriculum

With the implementation of the National English Curriculum Standard for High Schools, English teaching in senior middle school is supposed to get updated comprehensively. The new standard overhauls the original requirements in terms of curriculum concept, content, pedagogical methodology, thus posing great challenges for English teachers. As a result, the enhancement of professional competence of the teachers who are the agents for implementing the new ideas exerts an immediate influence on the efficacy of new curriculum implementation. This paper, based on the literature of teacher development, theorizes the content of professional development for English teachers under the background of the new curriculum. By means of questionnaire and interview and document collecting, this study attains a deeper understanding of the status quo of professional development of English teachers in a senior middle school in Shandong province. The results of the survey show that teachers' pedagogical skills have got improved significantly; teachers' beliefs are changing; but their English proficiency, mastery of education theory and research ability still need to be further promoted to a higher degree. It is concluded that the evaluation policy on teachers, heavy workload and limited time for learning as well as the inadequate learning activities for teacher development arranged by the school authority account for the current situation. Based on the findings, some recommendations are made to further improve the professional development of English teachers in high schools. In the end, the limitations of this study are pointed out.