A Study Of The Junior High School English Teachers’Professional Competence And Their Professional Development

Recently, teacher professional development has become an independent and ongoing research issue. When searching those key journals in ELT in China for the related literature on the web site of CNKI Chinese Academic Journals in July2011, the author finds that most of the studies focus on the foreign language teachers in university, with few on the English teachers in junior high school. Besides, the studies on English teachers’professional competence and their needs for professional development are rarely found. Therefore, it is of significance to make the present study in this field.This study belongs to Guangxi Primary and Secondary EFL Teachers Training and Synchronous Investigation Program, therefore, the research have certain advantages in sample collection. By means of questionnaire, the present study investigates all the school teachers attending the training program in Yulin area. Among all the questionnaire sheets distributed and returned,875of them are found valid for this study. The present study aims to identify:1) the status quo of junior high school English teachers’professional competence;2) the needs of junior high school English teachers for their professional development;3) the enlightenments for future implementation of the professional development for junior high school English teachers. The software SPSS17.0is employed to calculate the quantitative data.The statistical results of the questionnaire investigation include:1) The teacher subjects have strong wish for their professional development.2) As to what to learn, they need to develop themselves in the management of classroom activities, in the use of multimedia in classroom teaching, in the way to meet students’ different learning styles, the way to stimulate students’motivation, and the way for them to do research work. These can be taken as the focus in teachers’ in-service professional development programs. 3) With regard to the approaches to in-service teacher education, the interactive approach in small class size is recommended because these are the needs identified from the teacher subjects.4) More opportunities should be provided for young English teachers since they are the less able group compared with those with more years of English teaching.Limitations of the present study and suggestions for further studies are also elaborated in this thesis.