Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge About Teaching College English Writing

Along with the propulsion of educational reform, more and more attention is paid to teachers’ personal practical knowledge(shorted as PPK). Xu Jinfen, Cheng Xianglian and Qin Kaili claim that as the knowledge base of teachers’ professional development, PPK includes interdependent and dialectic teaching theories and teaching practice, and is an important reflection of excellent teachers’ professional growth. We can see that the studies on teachers’ PPK play a crucial part in the educational reform. However, Liao Weixiao and Wang Hui argue that the studies on teachers’ PPK at home are in a preliminary stage, in which the related studies are less compared with abundant studies on PPK abroad. Therefore, studies on teachers’ PPK are of great significance at present.In this study, pre-service EFL teachers are the postgraduate students in English major in the same normal university. Because of the shortage of professional ESL/EFL teachers in the university, pre-service EFL teachers have the chance to give English class to college students(non-English majors) especially during the second year of their postgraduate study. This study takes three pre-service EFL teachers as its participants, adopts case study method, and tries to explore the components of pre-service EFL teachers’ PPK and its roles in teaching college English writing. This study aims at answering the following three questions: 1) What PPK do three pre-service EFL teachers construct? 2) What roles does three pre-service EFL teachers’ PPK play in teaching college English writing? 3) What are the differences among three pre-service EFL teachers’ PPK in teaching college English writing?This study has investigated three pre-service EFL teachers for a term by using teachers’ written documents, and adopting interviews and classroom observation. Teachers’ written documents are collected to have a good understanding of their English learning experience and English teaching experience, from which their PPK is summarized. Classroom observations are carried out to explore teachers’ PPK reflected in teaching practice in writing class. Interviews are adopted to know their real thoughts about their PPK about teaching English writing.Given the analysis and discussion of the data, it can be concluded in the following three aspects. First, pre-service EFL teachers construct four parts of PPK, including knowledge of self, knowledge of students, knowledge of milieu, and knowledge of instruction. Second, teachers’ PPK plays a role in teachers’ preparation before class, in teaching English writing and in after class reflection. Third, three pre-service teachers’ PPK about teaching college English writing is different, generalized by three types of teachers: self-centered and textbook-centered teacher, product-oriented teacher, and process-oriented teacher.Based on the findings, this study aims to put forward some implications for English teaching, teachers’ growth and development, as well as teacher training so that more attention can be paid to ESL/EFL teachers’ PPK to find a new way of improving English teaching quality.