A Case Study On The Construction And Development Of A Junior Middle School Novice EFL Teacher’s Practical Knowledge

With the further implementation of the reform and opening up policy, China is taking an increasingly active part in globalization. English, as an international language used in various bilateral and multilateral affaires, is playing a more and more important role in globalization, which sets higher requirements for the quality of English education and which in turn sets higher requirements for the quality of English teacher. Therefore, it is of great significance to promote English teachers’ professional development. Teachers’ practical knowledge(TPK, for short), as the knowledge base for teachers’ professional development, its importance should never be neglected. Zhong Qiquan(2005) pointed out that for novice teachers, the ability to construct and develop TPK in daily teaching practice is a prerequisite for growing into expert teachers. Chen Xiangming(2011) claimed that TPK, as the knowledge base for teachers’ professional development, determines what teachers teach and how they teach. Therefore, it’s quite necessary and important to conduct research on TPK.Since the issue of Measures for the Implementation of the Regulations on the Qualifications of Teachers on September 23, 2000, many non-teaching training graduates have begun working as teachers. Previous studies mainly focused on the TPK of teaching training graduates, so a study on the TPK of non-teaching training graduates can provide us with a new perspective to understand TPK.This research took a junior middle school novice EFL teacher who is a nonteaching training graduate as the participant and intended to explore the TPK possessed by this participant. The following research questions framed this study: 1) What aspects of TPK did the participant construct and develop? 2) How did the participant construct and develop these aspects of TPK? 3) What factors influenced his TPK construction and development? The thesis mainly adopted one of the approaches of qualitative research: a case study. Data in this study were collected from multiple sources. The instruments used in this research mainly included documentation, interview and observation, among which interview was the primary research instrument. Documentation and observation were used mainly for the purpose of “triangulation”. Both synchronic analysis and diachronic analysis were applied to analyze the collected data.The research results showed that: 1)The TPK constructed and developed by the participant in this study mainly covered the following six aspects: TPK about self, TPK about students, TPK about teaching, TPK about teaching circumstances, TPK about English as a subject and TPK about educational belief; 2)The process of the participant’s TPK construction and development was a dynamic progression which was illustrated via a flow chart and a spiraling pattern in the thesis; 3) The factors influencing the participant’s TPK construction and development could be classified into two categories: internal factors and external factors. Internal factors included the participant’s personality, life experience, awareness of self-development and accumulation of teaching experience. External factors covered such items as social factors, support from the participant’s graduate school and help from the school where the participant works. The specific information concerning these multiple factors were presented in a fishbone diagram in chapter five.The specialty of this study lied in the fact that it took a non-teaching training graduate as the participant and materials from the Internet was collected as the data of the study, which has rarely been done in previous studies. Besides, a flow chart and a spiraling pattern were proposed to illustrate the process of the participant’s TPK construction and development. The research findings could be used as a reference for other non-teaching training graduates who plan to become a teacher. Meanwhile, by analyzing the construction and development process of non-teaching training novice EFL teachers’ practical knowledge, advices could be given to school leaders, teacher educators and educational authorities to help junior middle school novice EFL teachers who are non-teaching training graduates develop professionally, thus helping them accelerate the transition from novice teachers to experienced teachers.