Teaching English in China: Changing self- perception
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Department/School
Teacher Education
Publication Title
Training, Language and Culture
Abstract
This paper is a mixed-method, grounded theory study of two teams of American teachers who taught 1125 Chinese teachers of English over two years in intensive fourteen-day professional development workshops. Through the use of ethnographic, grounded theory, and mixed methods, the paper will illuminate the paradigm shift from didactic teaching to a student-centred, active learning environment seen through a socio-cultural linguistic, constructivist lens. In contrasting the unique collectivist, authoritarian cultural context of the Peoples’ Republic of China with the United States’ recognised sense of ethnocentricism, its societal norms and standards, recognition is given to the outsiderinsider dialogical and ontological insights with regard to changes in indigenous identity. Pedagogical and methodological practices will be examined in this light. Of all participants in two summers of professional development, it was found that 97.75% reacted favourably to the shift from teacher-centred dispenser of information to an active, student-centred perspective. In the process, Chinese teachers became more confident in their skills and in a dispassionate fashion, compared and contrasted two pedagogical paradigms, and mutative senses of their identity. 2.25% t felt there was little benefit in moving paradigms given their country’s emphasis on test scores.
Link to Published Version
Recommended Citation
Williams-Boyd, P. (2017). Teaching English in China: Changing self- perception. Training Language and Culture, 1(2), 71–85. https://doi.org/10.29366/2017tlc.1.2.5