A Study Of The PCK Developmental Strategies For Novice English Teachers In Rural Junior Middle Schools

Data from China Rural Education Development Report 2017 shows that most junior middle school students in China are in rural middle schools.Despite the continuous improvement of school conditions in rural middle schools in recent years,there is a large gap between urban and rural education in rural middle schools and the development of basic education is imbalanced.Rural education is relatively backward compared with urban education and teachers’ low professional level is the bottleneck of rural secondary education development.The new round of education reform has put forward higher requirements for teachers.However,as a new force in rural Basic English education,many novice English teachers in rural junior middle schools cannot meet the needs of the development of basic education in the new era,and their professional abilities are in urgent need of improvement.Therefore,improving the quality of novice English teachers in rural junior middle schools has become an important task in the reform of Basic English education in China.Based on the response to the practical problems in the reform of basic English education in China,this study takes some rural junior middle schools in Guangxi as an example to carry out a research on the development of PCK of novice English teachers in rural junior middle schools,so as to better improve the professional quality of novice English teachers in rural junior middle schools.A questionnaire survey was conducted among 109 novice English teachers in rural middle schools in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.The questionnaire includes four dimensions: English subject knowledge,student knowledge,teaching situation knowledge and teaching strategy knowledge.After the questionnaire survey,the author observed the classes of four new rural English teachers and interviewed three teachers.The survey results show that there are many problems in the development of PCK,the novice English teacher in rural junior middle schools.In terms of English subject knowledge,many novice English teachers in rural junior middle schools are aware that English is both instrumental and humanistic,but fail to introduce and teach cultural knowledge in actual classroom teaching;they seldom read academic books,and magazines and lack thorough understanding of English teaching research development trends.In terms of students’ knowledge,many novice English teachers in rural junior middle schools are not able to predict in advance the English mistakes that junior middle school students are likely to make;theoretically,they understand that teaching should be carried out based on the current level of the students they are teaching,but they fail to effectively use English learning strategies to teach students in accordance with their aptitude and individual differences.As for knowledge about teaching situation,they fail to make good use of class culture construction to build the atmosphere of learning English,and usually use Chinese to organize teaching,unable to effectively organize the student through the methods of observation,experience and inquiry to construct their knowledge;seldom organizing students to carry out very English extracurricular activities.In terms of the knowledge of English teaching strategies,many teachers are deficient in the knowledge of teaching strategies,and fail to evaluate students’ learning effects in multiple ways.The knowledge of language skills teaching strategies and language knowledge teaching strategies are mostly at the theoretical level,which makes it difficult to put them into practice.They just graduated from college.Their professional English knowledge and teaching skills are not enough to cope with the complicated and burdensome Basic English teaching.PCK is gradually constructed by teachers through constant practice and reflection in the teaching process.Based on the discussion of the teacher PCK,combined with the survey results and problems found in this study,and the development aspirations of the novice English teacher PCK in rural junior middle schools,this paper proposes the following strategies and suggestions: optimize the allocation of teaching resources in rural middle schools and improve the teacher development mechanism;strengthen learning,combine theory with practice,and improve the self-development awareness and ability of novice English teachers in rural junior middle schools;adhere to the student-centered teaching,and improve language teaching skills and enrich PCK knowledge of novice teachers in rural junior middle schools about students;with the help of teaching experts,solve the problems in English teaching through practical reflection,and realize the development and improvement of PCK,the novice English teacher in rural junior middle schools;Novice English teachers in rural junior middle schools should be trained in urban areas,to promote the support and compensation of high-quality urban schools for rural schools,and to improve the level of English teachers in rural junior middle schools.