An Empirical Study On The Professional Development Of Middle School English Teachers In Ethnic Minority Areas Of Yunnan

Teacher professional development emerged in Europe and the United States in the 1960 s,and studies in China began in the 1990 s,which has experienced several major stages from the discussion of the concept and standards of teacher professional development to the research on approaches and strategies of teacher professional development.Related research is mainly concentrated on the professional development of college teachers in the developed eastern regions.For a long time,few studies have paid attention to the professional development of middle school English teachers,especially the research on the professional development of middle school English teachers in Yunnan ethnic minority areas both theoretically and practically.In response to this case,referring to domestic and foreign research concerned,this thesis aims to investigate the current situation of the professional development of middle school English teachers in Yunnan ethnic minority areas,explore and analyze the problems existing in the professional development of middle school English teachers in the region,and propose some suggestions and countermeasures.Based on the reality of teacher professional development in ethnic minority areas in Yunnan Province,this paper used a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis research methods,collected quantitative data through online questionnaire surveys,and used face-to-face semi-structured interviews as the data for qualitative analysis.439 middle school English teachers from 8 minority prefectures in Yunnan Province filled out an online questionnaire.This study adopted statistical software SPSS 22.0 and conducted factor analysis,and frequency,descriptive analysis,correlation,regression and One-Way ANOVA analysis.At the same time,11 teachers were interviewed,and the interview data was treated through meaningful units.Through the analysis of the questionnaire data,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)The general situation of professional development of middle school English teachers in ethnic minority areas of Yunnan Province was generally good;(2)The professional development of English teachers was positively correlated with their English proficiency and teaching ability,but the correlation level was weak;(3)English teachers’ professional development showed significant differences in age and weekly class hours,but there was no significant difference in demographic variables such as gender,ethnic,years of teaching experiences and professional title.The results of the interview show that:(1)The English teachers involved were unclear about the concept of professional development and they were not satisfied with their own professional development;(2)The interviewed teachers believed that the factors affecting their professional development were mainly individual,schools and educational institutions also had a certain influence on it.Gender,ethnic minority,professional title,etc.had no significant influence on the professional development of middle school English teachers.Based on quantitative and qualitative research and analysis,this thesis proposes the following countermeasures for the professional development of middle school English teachers in ethnic minority areas of Yunnan Province: as for the individual aspect,teachers should enhance professional knowledge and skills,pay attention to teaching strategies,teaching methods and teacher psychology;schools should establish sound teachers professional development training mechanism;educational institutions should reduce the burden on teachers and provide guarantees for their professional development.This research is helpful to understand the current situation of the professional development of English teachers in ethnic minority areas of Yunnan Province,and hopefully it will have a positive effect on the future professional development of teachers.Finally,this thesis points out the limitations of this research,hoping to provide inspiration for future research on the professional development of English teachers in ethnic minority areas.