Surviving The Transition:A Study Of Senior High School English Teachers' Experiences Of The First Year Of Teaching

It is generally acknowledged that the first year of teaching is highly challenging and demanding for the vast majority of novice teachers,which may result from the gap between pre-service teacher education program and actual teaching.Meanwhile,the first year of teaching as a special and critical stage has significant impact on the whole career development of novice teachers.During the last decade,although a growing body of studies associated with the present study have been carried out,the focuses of these previous research have been mainly based on novice teachers in general education.However,novice English teachers,especially those teachers who work at senior high schools in Chinese context have been largely ignored.Besides,very little research is available about the effect of pre-service teacher education program on novice senior high school English teachers' first-year teaching.Hence,there is a need to explore the correlation between pre-service teacher education program and first-year teaching of novice English teachers of senior high school.This research aims to explore senior high school English teachers' experience of the first year of teaching from four aspects: their overall perceptions of the first year of teaching,the primary difficulties that they encountered,the ways that they dealt with difficulties,and the effect of professional support they gained from teacher education program on first-year teaching.A mixed-method approach was utilized in conducting this study,in which questionnaires and interviews as major instruments were used to collect data.107 participating teachers who graduated from the same university finished questionnaires and 6 of them were invited to be interviewed.Descriptive analysis,frequency,cross tabulation and chi-square analysis of SPSS.18 were utilized to analyze the data.The major findings showed that,first,the experience of the first year of teaching varied from individual to individual.It was influenced by different factors,and most of novice senior high school English teachers expressed that their first-year teaching was difficult and stressful.In addition,there was no absolute relation between the degree of difficulty and the class that they taught.Besides,their overall induction feeling had certain impact on leaving office.Figuring out an effective teaching method was seen as the most significant thing by the majority of novice teachers in the first year of teaching.With regard to surviving the transition from teacher education to actual teaching,most of them chose to reflect in teaching andteach in reflection.Second,having a good mastery of textbook,classroom management,academic performance of students,working pressure,choosing teaching method and teaching design were prominent concerns and difficulties in their first-year teaching.Third,consulting experienced teachers and colleagues was a popular way among novice English teachers to cope with difficulties.Fourth,the positive effect of pre-service teacher education program on first-year teaching was acknowledged by novice English teachers,but they did not apply all professional knowledge to real classroom teaching totally.Not all courses of teacher education were helpful and useful for their first-year teaching but this differed in various individuals.The courses such as teaching practice,English grammar,training of English teaching skills and oral English were very helpful for their first-year teaching,but the courses such as second foreign language and English linguistics were viewed a little helpful.The above findings of this study contribute to knowledge pertaining to actual status quo of novice English teachers' the first year of the teaching in senior high school.Moreover,the results may be of benefit in future teacher education or preparation program and offer valuable feedback and suggestions for teacher educators and schools.