The History and Landscape of Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE)

1. Course: Language Teacher Education
The History and Landscape of Second
Language Teacher Education (SLTE)
Student: Zahra Bayani
Winter, 2018

2. outline
 SLTE definition
 SLTE origin
 SLTE components
 Logic behind SLTE
 The knowledge base of SLTE
 the nature of teacher learning
 theories behind SLTE:
 Sociocultural
 Constructivism
 Primary models of teacher
education:
 the craft model
 the applied science model
 the reflective model
 Secondary models:
 Program or curriculum-based
 Skills-based model
 Site/organization-based model
 Multi-level or comprehensive model
 Comprehensive, inter-sectorial model

3. SLTE:
Second language teacher education was an
umbrella term for language teacher
education in TESOL. This term originally
coined by Richards (1990) to cover the
preparation, training and education of L2
teachers. As Richards (1990: 15) declares,
‘the intent of SLTE must be to provide
opportunities for the novice to acquire the
skills and competencies of effective
teachers and to discover the working rules
that effective teachers use’(Freeman & Johnson, 1998).

4. The origin of SLTE
The field of SLTE has been shaped in its
development by its response to two issues:
One might be called internally initiated
change, that is, A change of essential
knowledge base of teaching and its
associated instructional practices through
the efforts of applied linguists and
specialists in the field of SLT and teacher
education.

5. At the same time the development of
SLTE has also been impacted by external
pressures, for example by globalization
and the need for English as a language of
international trade and communication,
which has brought with it the demand by
national educational authorities for new
language teaching policies and for
standards and other forms of
accountability. (Richards, 2008).

6. Teacher education encompasses:
Teacher Education =
Teaching Skills +
Pedagogical theory +
Professional skills.

7. Teaching skills would include
providing training and practice
in the different techniques,
approaches and strategies. It
includes effective classroom
management skills, preparation
and use of instructional
materials and communication
skills.

8. Pedagogical theory includes
the philosophical, sociological
and psychological
considerations that would
enable the teachers to have a
sound basis for practicing the
teaching skills in the classroom.

9. Professional skills include the
techniques, strategies and approaches
that would help teachers to grow in
the profession and also work towards
the growth of the profession. It
includes soft skills, counseling skills,
interpersonal skills, computer skills,
and above all lifelong learning skills
(Johnson, 2006, p. 238).

10. Logics behind SLTE Emergence:
1. A theoretical shift
from behaviorism
to constructivism,
leading to a recasting of the learning
teacher from a ‘consumer’ of received
knowledge to a thinker, a practitioner
who forms their own working theory,
in short, a ‘reflective practitioner’ who
theorizes practice.

11. 2. An understanding that teachers’ prior
learning and beliefs have a powerful
influence on their conceptions of
teaching and learning. In SLTE
programs, greater emphasis is thus placed
on exploring teachers’ prior learning
experiences and beliefs and reshaping
them through modeling of alternative
pedagogies.

12. 3. A growing realization that SLTE
programs did not adequately
prepare beginning teachers for the
complexities of real classrooms.
This has subsequently resulted in a
greater emphasis on school-based,
experiential practice for the
learning teacher.

13. 4. The growth of professionalism
among ELT/TESOL practitioners. In
SLTE programs, the inclusion of
research components, and the more
developmental approach engendered by
reflective practice, has ensured that
SLTE is now viewed as the
commencement of a long professional
journey, rather than the preparation of
the finished article(Richards & Farrell 2005).

14. The Knowledge Base of SLTE
Day and Conklin (1992) claim that
the knowledge base of SLTE consists
of four types of knowledge:

15. 1. Content knowledge: knowledge of the
subject matter (what ESL/EFL teachers
teach); e.g., English language, literary and
cultural aspects of the English language.
2. Pedagogic knowledge: knowledge of
generic teaching strategies, beliefs and
practices, regardless of the focus of the
subject matter (how we teach); e.g.,
classroom management, motivation,
decision making.

16. 3. Pedagogic content knowledge: the
specialized knowledge of how to represent
content knowledge in diverse ways that students
can understand.
4. Support knowledge: the knowledge of the
various disciplines that inform our approach to
the teaching and learning of English; e.g.,
psycholinguistics, linguistics, second language
acquisition and so on (Day & Conklin, 1992).

17. The Nature of Teacher-Learning
The nature of teacher-learning has been
central to a rethinking
of both the content and delivery of
SLTE programs. Teacher-learning from
traditional perspectives was seen as a
cognitive issue, something the learner
did on his or her own (Nunan, 1995: 55).

18. Teachers have begun to recognize
teaching as a socially constructed activity.
So, learning to teach is a complex
developmental process that is acquired by
participating in the social practices
associated with teaching and learning.
To accept these reconceptualization is to
assume that teachers’ knowledge is
inherently their own, constructed by
teachers themselves, and largely
experiential (Johnson, 1999).

19. Theories behind SLTE:
1. Sociocultural theory
2. Constructivist Language Teacher
Education

20. 1. Sociocultural theory
Sociocultural perspective on human learning informs
several interrelated aspects of SLTE:
First, it explicates the cognitive processes at work in
teacher learning. It provides us with a theory of mind
that recognizes the inherent interconnectedness of the
cognitive and the social. It opens up the possibility to
trace :
how teachers come to know,
how different concepts and
functions in teachers’
consciousness develop.

21. Second, a sociocultural perspective on SLTE
also recognizes that the education of teachers
is not only a process of enculturation into the
existing social practices associated with
teaching and learning but also a dynamic
process of reconstructing and transforming
those practices to be responsive to both
individual and local needs. Thus, a
sociocultural perspective on SLTE involves
changing of L2 teachers and their
instructional activities.

22. Third, a sociocultural perspective
informs both the content and the
processes of SLTE. Vygotskian
sociocultural theory defines such
notions as “spontaneous and non-
spontaneous concepts” because
they are formed during concrete
practical activity and are more or
less open to conscious inspection
(Lortie, 1975).

23. From a sociocultural perspective, the
professional development of SLTE
becomes a process of building on
teachers’ everyday concepts about
language, language learning, and
language teaching to enable them to
understand the scientific concepts about
language and SLTE that are produced,
accepted, and adapted in the profession
(Van Lier, 1992).

24. 2. Constructivist Language Teacher
Education:
The important contribution of
constructivist learning theory is that the
teacher can only create the conditions
under which learning takes place, and
that mere “verbal reiteration of facts and
principles” will not result in real
learning. In ELT this gave rise to
problem-solving and task-based
approaches.

25. Constructivist or process-product researchers
have been concerned primarily with the
relationship between teachers’ classroom
behavior, students’ classroom behavior, and
student achievement. The focus then was on
what the teacher does rather than what the
teacher is. This missing paradigm has since
been filled by constructivism, which has
shown that teacher learning is an individual
cognitive process involving construction of
knowledge (Pennington, 1995).

26. Teaching Models and Strategies
Wallace (1995) identifies three primary
models of teacher education that have
characterized both general teacher
education and also teacher education
for language teachers, which he calls:
the craft model
 the applied science model
 the reflective model.

34. Secondary models in teacher education
and development
 Program or curriculum-based
 Skills-based model
 Site/organization-based model
 Multi-level or comprehensive model
 Comprehensive, inter-sectorial
model

35. Program or curriculum-based
model:
It designed to implement a specific
instructional program or a new
curriculum that includes new learning
objectives, or required learning
activities. This is sometimes referred to
as a "cascade" model where knowledge
is passed down from experts, usually
through workshops and training
sessions.

36. Skills-based model:
This model focuses on general or specific
teaching skills such as classroom
management, lesson planning and many
more. These models often use a
scaffolding approach, where the skills are
developed over time in a planned
sequence, going from dependence on
experts to independence.

37. Site/organization-based
model:
In this model, teachers work in
teams on individually on long-
term plans. This can be done
at a school level or at a school
district level, often through
teacher centers (Borg, 2006:1)

38. Multi-level or comprehensive
model:
It occurs where teacher
development is part of a system-
wide approach that develops the
skills of school principals,
support staff such as guidance
counselors and school
psychologists.

39. Comprehensive, inter-sectorial
models:
This model develops teacher
competencies in partnership
programs with other sectors that
employ professionals such as public
health nurses, social workers and so
on (Allwright, 1997).

40. Models of second language teacher
education program
 Apprentice-Expert Model
 The Rationalist Model
 The Case Studies Model
 The Integrative Model(Wallace, 1997)

41. Apprentice-Expert Model
 The oldest form of professional
education,
 It consists of the trainee working
closely with the expert teacher,
 Knowledge is acquired as a result of
observation, instruction, and practice,
 This approach to SLTE allows the
learner to develop experiential
knowledge.

42. The apprentice-expert model has
been criticized as being a static
approach to a dynamic
profession, a profession that has
changed radically over the past
decades (Wallace, 1997:6-7).

43. The Rationalist Model
This model involves the teaching of
scientific knowledge to students who, in
turn, are expected to apply this knowledge
in their teaching.
Ur (1992:56) refers to this approach as the
"rationalist learn-the-theory and the results
of such rational and objective examinations
are conveyed to the students by experts in
the field.

44. The Case Studies Model
The case studies model of
professional education involves the
discussion and analysis of actual case
histories in the classroom. The
objectives of this model include the
generalization of particular behaviors
into broader understandings of the
discipline.

45. The Integrative Model
The integrative model is a systematic
approach to SLTE that ensures the learner
gains pedagogic, content, and support
knowledge through a variety of
experiences and activities. In order to
bear fruit, a reflective practice component
must be included in this program
(Wallace, 1997:6-7)

46. Conclusion:
growing demand for effective SLTE programs
in response to worldwide expansion in the use
of English has highlighted the need for a
coordinated organizational response, which has
led to the demand for recognized qualifications
for language teachers. SLTE today is a vital
component of the field of TESOL and makes a
central contribution to our understanding of
what lies at the core of this enterprise, namely,
teachers, teaching, and the nature of teacher
education (Ellis, 1997).

47. References
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50. May my friend departed
soul rest in peace…