A Case Study Of Teaching Ability Adaptation Challenges For Beginning English Teachers In Junior High Schools Of Jiangsu Province

The beginning teachers tend to face many challenges when they start their career at schools.The essential challenges usually come from the mismatch between their teaching ability and practical requirements at work.This research,focusing on the beginning English teachers in Jiangsu Province,tries to investigate the following questions from the perspectives of the theory of teachers’ career development stage and theory of work adjustment:1.What are the challenges the beginning English teachers face regarding teaching ability in junior high schools of Jiangsu Province?2.What are the causes of these teaching ability-related challenges?3.What strategies do the beginning teachers employ to tackle the challenges?This study is basically a qualitative study.The relevant subjects are three beginning English teachers newly employed by three different junior high schools.The research collected twenty-six teaching diaries,twenty teaching plans,twelve homework feedbacks,fifteen classroom observations and three interviews.The researcher identified and classified the teaching ability related challenges and coping strategies repeatedly mentioned in the teaching diaries,and then verified them with data obtained from other channels like teaching plan reviewing,homework feedback and classroom observation.Finally,the researcher further investigated through interviews the causes of the above challenges and the effectiveness of coping strategies used by the teachers.Based on the analysis of the qualitative data obtained,the study draws the following conclusions:Firstly,the beginning English teachers face various levels of challenges at four dimensions:language ability,teaching design ability,teaching implementation ability and teaching feedback ability,which are evidenced by data collected from class language,class management,objectives design,multi-media use and homework assignment.Secondly,the reasons underlying the challenges include personal factors,contextual influences and outside interventions.Thirdly,the beginning English teachers may try to cope with the challenges,often effectively,by resorting to theoretical guidance,consulting experienced teachers,peer consultation and independent research.Some teaching implications can be elicited:first,in addition to theoretical courses,quasi-teachers must take advantage of practical courses to enrich their practical experience and improve their ability in thinking;second,new teachers must learn to reflect on themselves,cooperate with others,and work together to improve teaching skills;finally,the schools should encourage the new teachers to apply teaching theories in teaching practice,and to improve the teachers’ teaching and research ability by offering induction training and post-service training.This study also suffers from some limitations such as small sample size and short time of observation,which can be improved in the future work.