A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Foreign English Teachers' Online Reflection Based On Their Research Journals

With the development of information technology,more and more Chinese and foreign English teachers use network technology to develop their professional skills.The objective of this study is to compare online reflection between Chinese and foreign English teachers based on their research journals.Based on this objective,the writer proposes the following questions: What are the similarities and differences of online reflection content between Chinese and foreign English teachers based on their research journals? What are the similarities and differences of online reflection level between Chinese and foreign English teachers based on their research journals?This study uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches.The research corpora are chosen from six websites in China and other countries.They are 400 research journals written by altogether 20 Chinese and foreign English teachers.The research instruments include framework of reflection content,and categories of reflection level by Taggart,ROST Content Mining 6.0,and SPSS 19.0.There are seven categories in the framework of reflection content: teaching theories,teaching methods and strategies,self-assessment,research and learning,teaching resources and study of linguistics.Taggart's reflective thinking pyramid includes three reflection levels: technical level,contextual level and dialectical level.Meanwhile,Content analysis software ROST Content Mining 6.0 is used to analyze the content of research journals.Statistical analysis software SPSS 19.0 is used to count the frequency and percentage of them.The results show that:(1)The main reflection content in both Chinese and foreign English teachers' research journals is the teaching methods and strategies.Chinese English teachers reflect more on teaching plan,test and education,while foreign English teachers focus more on teaching skills,technology and self-awareness.(2)Technical level accounts for most in both Chinese and foreign English teachers' research journals.The percentage of contextual level in Chinese research journals is larger than foreign research journals.The percentage of dialectical level in foreign research journals is larger than Chinese research journals.That means the reflection level of foreign English teachers is little higher than Chinese English teachers.According to the results from this study,the writer gives some advices to Chinese English teachers: cultivating teachers' critical thinking;continuing practicing;insisting on writing reflective journals;improving teachers' research ability;enhancing collaborative reflection between teachers.