Research On Current Situations And Development Strategies Of English Teachers’ PCK In Rural Elementary Schools Of Lhasa

English teaching in rural areas of Tibet is of great importance to the progress of Tibet’s English education as a whole.It has witnessed improvements in terms of its teaching infrastructure over recent years.However,it is apparent that large gaps still exsit in English teaching between rural and urban areas on one hand,and Tibet and the mainland on the other.The key to bridging those gaps is to promote English teachers’ professional quality in rural elementary schools.Since the inception of Pedagogical Content Knowledge theory,shorted as PCK in 1986,it has been the crucial component of teachers’ professional konwledge.Accordingly,the paper pins its hope on studies of rural English teachers’ PCK in Lhasa,searching for localized measures to solidify their occupational skills and knowledge and furthering its fundamental education of rural English to some extent.Taking rural elementary schools in counties,districts and towns of Lhasa as an example,the paper aims to study PCK of English teachers from rural elementary schools,in order to further improve their professionalism.Composed of English discipline knowledge,teaching target and environmental knowledge,student knowledge,and teaching strategy knowledge,a four-dimensioned questionaire is applied to see the PCK of35 English teachers surveyed.In the meantime,6 relevant teachers are interviewed and 3 English classes are observed for more details.The research results indicate that there are certain prombles as to English teachers’ PCK development.In terms of English subject knowledge,teachers’ limited and flawd PCK is so in need of urgent changes.Teachers’ imcompelete congnition of the importance of learning English makes it difficult to motivate students’ English learning.Lack of knowledge about academic updates of English subject costrains teachers’ capabiltity of conducting English studies.From the aspect of teaching target and environmental knowledge,teachers are less proficient in introducing and helping students’ learning under the guidance of pedagogical targets.The teachers’ decision-making ability during the classes needs to be boosted,especially while they are dealing with the unexpected problems in the classroom.In addition,they are lacking in awarenss of integrating off-class activities and learning materials to enrich students’ learning.From the standpoint of student knowledge,teachers are less competent to fully and accurately grasp the knowledge difficulties in the process of students’ learning English,attitudes and motivations.The understanding of methods and strategies of students’ learning English is insufficient.From the pespective of teaching strategy knowledge,teachers are lacking in accumulation and application of concerning teaching strategies,and also the ability to transform English knowledge into the easy-to-understand one.After the following three factors have been taken into consideration,namely analytical results of English teachers’ PCK in rural elementary schools of Lhasa,teachers’ advice on how to develop their PCK and the educational realities,the paper comes up with the following suggestions.Relevant education departments should strengthen the systematic constitution of discipline training,standardize the English discipline competition system and mechanism,explore the establishment of a new development model of inter-regional and exter-regional interaction,and urban and rural connectivity,construct a new situation of directionally entrusting and cultivating the students majoring in English teaching.Schools should take the resposiblity of the setup of a full-fledged English teaching and studying system,a more reasonable distribution of English teachers’ pressure,and provide sufficient learning materials and infrastructure as teaching guarantee.Teachers should be accustomed to carrying out teaching according to English curriculum standards,acquire basic knowledge of English discipline and teaching theories from online and offline resources,record teaching reflection timely,and attach importance to student-oriented practices so as to better serve teaching.