Narrative Inquiry Into A Novice English Teacher’s Practical Knowledge In Junior Middle School

Due to the long-term neglect of novice teachers’practical knowledge in the field of education research, a variety of education reforms and teacher education models have not achieved a desired effect. Therefore, paying close attention to novice teachers’practical knowledge has important significance to help novice teachers overcome confusions and problems encountered in their early career stage, and then promote further novice teachers’professional developmentThis paper is a narrative inquiry into a novice English teacher in a junior high school, with the purpose of exploring this English teacher’s practical knowledge. To be more specific, it aims at answering the following questions:Firstly, with the help of her real-life stories, what specific practical knowledge does this novice English teacher in the junior high school mainly exhibit? Secondly, what are the main factors that affect the formation and development of this novice English teachers’practical knowledge (TPK)?In regard to TPK at home and abroad, there is much more theoretical empirical study than empirical study; and most of the researches put more stress on "it should be" than "it is". What is more, most studies choose expert teachers or professional teachers as subjects rather than novice ones, doing scarce researches on specific disciplines, especially English novice teachers. This paper hopes to be of some help to novice English teachers in junior middle school.After researching deeply in the junior high school, Ann was chosen as the research subject. The data were collected by interviews after class, observation in and out of class, teaching journals and record transcription. Ann’s stories, namely, daily life stories;teaching stories, personal and educational stories are presented by thick description.In this thesis, Ann’s stories mainly highlight her four kinds of TPK, namely, Ann’s educational belief, interpersonal knowledge, reflective knowledge, and English subject knowledge. Then the author analyzes factors influencing the formation and development of Ann’s TPK in both subjective and objective views, that is, Ann’s personal character and Ann’s teaching practice in subjective views; school culture, social culture and Ann’s educational and life experiences in objective views. Finally the implications and limitations of the paper are explored.