Contemporary Western Language Teacher Education Theory And Practice

Over the last decade, foreign-language teacher education in manysocieties has increasingly shifted to the fore of the public attention as itsstatus has changed from a taken-for-granted 'condition' to a problem thatrequires solutions. In recent years, the notion of reflective teachereducation has come to prominence. It is believed that without providingstudent teachers with the space in which to develop their professionalskills and judgement, their teaching will be reduced to the level of craft,which will not provide a sound basis for quality in foreign-languageteacher education. In this paper, I outline the paradigm and practice offoreign-language teacher education in western countries and move from'teacher training' or 'familiarizing student teachers with techniques andskills to apply in the classroom' to 'teacher education' that involvesstudent teachers in developing theories of teaching, understanding thenature of decision making and strategies for critical self-awareness andself-evaluation. Hopefully, the paradigm and practice of foreign-languageteacher education in western countries will bring some reflective thinkingin China's foreign-language teacher education.