A Survey On The English Teachers’ Teaching Ability In High Schools

Teachers’ teaching ability is a manifestation of the quality of a teacher,the guarantee of improving the quality of teaching,and an important factor of the professional development of teachers.English teachers’ teaching ability includes English language ability,teaching design ability,teaching implementation ability,teaching evaluation ability and teaching reflection and research ability.Based on the teacher professional development theory,this study adopted a questionnaire to investigate 153 high school English teachers in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.According to the results of the questionnaire,six teachers were interviewed in order to find out the reasons for the problems of high school English teachers’ teaching ability.The questionnaire in this study refers to the “Questionnaire on Teaching Ability of Excellent English Teachers in Basic Education” compiled by Dr.Zhou Qijia from Shanghai International Studies University.The questionnaire contains five dimensions: English language ability,teaching design ability,teaching implementation ability,teaching evaluation ability,teaching reflection and research ability.It aims to explore the following three issues:(1)What is the current status of the teaching ability of high school English teachers?(2)What are the problems of high school English teachers’ teaching ability?(3)What are the reasons for the problems in the teaching ability of high school English teachers?The results of questionnaire and interview reveal the following findings:(1)The mean value of high school English teachers’ teaching ability is 3.665,which is at a medium level.In the five dimensions of teaching ability,English language ability(m= 3.92)> teaching implementation ability(m = 3.68)> teaching evaluation ability(m = 3.63)> teaching design ability(m = 3.59)> teaching reflection and research ability(M = 3.55).It shows that the level of English language ability of high school English teachers is relatively good,and the level of teaching reflection and research ability is relatively low.(2)The teaching design ability,teaching evaluation ability and teaching reflection and research ability of high school English teachers are relatively low.(3)According to the interview results,the reasons for the problems of high school English teachers’ teaching ability can be divided into contextual reasons and personal reasons.Contextual reasons include the curriculum structure of normal colleges and the teacher training system.Personal reasons include personal teaching experience,reflection consciousness,and self-development consciousness.Based on the above analysis,this study offers suggestions to schools as well as teachers.For schools:(1)The curriculum structure in normal colleges should be optimized.It will be wise to add compulsory English teaching and education courses and teaching practice courses and set up more interesting elective courses;(2)The main content of teacher training should be adjusted to highlight the characteristics of English subject;(3)Teacher professional community need to be set up;For teachers:(1)Teachers should actively reflect on their teaching,pay attention to the reflection before teaching,strengthen the reflection during teaching,and implement the reflection after teaching;(2)Teachers should attach importance to teaching research;(3)Teachers should establish the idea of lifelong learning.