Research On The Pedagogical Content Competence Of College English Teachers From The Perspective Of Sociocultural Theory

College English is one of the most widely covered courses in undergraduate education.With the deepening of internationalization in China,the demand for talents’ English level is becoming higher and higher,which makes the important position of college English teachers apparent.The Guidelines for College English Teaching released in 2017 hopes that teachers can “actively adapt to the new requirements of the college English curriculum system,actively adapt to the new needs of the development of college English Teaching in the information environment,and constantly improve their professional level and teaching ability.” According to the review of literature,the research on college English teachers mainly focuses on teacher learning,teacher knowledge,teacher autonomy and so on.The research on teaching ability is mostly speculative,and even though there are some empirical research,few of which is from the perspective of socio-culture and interpersonal interaction,ignoring the reflection and development of teachers’ teaching ability in socio-culture and interpersonal interaction.As a result,the purpose of this study is to investigate the current situation and ways of improving college English teachers’ pedagogical content competence,with the following two questions:1.What is the current situation of teachers’ pedagogical content competence? Is there a significant difference in individual variables?2.How do college English teachers improve their pedagogical content competence during their interaction with people or sociocultural substances?Pedagogical Content Competence(PCC)in the present study and Pedagogical Content Knowledge(PCK)proposed by Shulman are equivalent in connotation,integrating English knowledge,application ability and teaching ability.Within the framework of sociocultural theory(SCT),human learning is regarded as a dynamic social activity in the natural and social environment,which is carried out in the interaction among human,symbolic tools and activities.Therefore,from the perspective of SCT,the pedagogical content competence of college English teachers is not only traditionally named professional knowledge and teaching ability,but also the six dimensions of this study,which are mainly embodied in six aspects: English subject knowledge and skills(ESK),the ability to design teaching material(DTM),the ability to perceive students’ learning(PSL),the ability to conduct teaching activities(CTA),the ability to assess students’ learning(ASL),and the ability to reflect on teaching(ROT).Through literature reading and from the perspective of sociocultural theory,the research method of combining quantitative research and qualitative research is determined.The teachers in the college English department of a comprehensive university ranking on the list of “Double First-Class” university project are chosen as the participants,and three of them are selected as the qualitative research participants.After observing their classroom practice for a whole term,teachers are interviewed.In addition,purposive sampling is used to choose some students to complete the students’ questionnaire consisting of quantitative questions and argumentation questions.The quantitative statements of teachers’ questionnaire include the current situation of ability development and the approaches to ability development,the data of which are analyzed to figure out the overall level of college English teachers’ PCC and whether there are differences in personal variables(gender,education background,teaching age,professional title and teacher-oriented / non-teacher-oriented major).With the help of SPSS 22.0 and qualitative data analysis method,the collected data are compared and triangle verified.Mediation,internalization,zone of proximal development(ZPD)and dynamic assessment are the core concepts of SCT.College English teachers’ PCC is reflected in providing effective mediation resources(including themselves),finding the students’ ZPD and making it conducive to teaching practice,using dynamic assessment method to promote students’ internalization of knowledge.The way to improve college English teachers’ PCC lies in making full use of mediation resources(substance or human),breaking through their own ZPD,benefiting from dynamic assessment,promoting knowledge internalization,and improving their competence.Through data analysis and discussion,it is found that the current situation of college English teachers’ pedagogical content competence development is in the upper middle level,even though the data gained by students’ questionnaire is lower than that of teachers’ questionnaire.Interestingly,comparing the data from two different sources,it is obvious that the lower average of the six dimensions falls on the dimensions related to students,which is also consistent with the data obtained through classroom observation.The lack of interaction between teachers and students or among students violates the activities and interactions emphasized in the sociocultural theory.The difference of pedagogical content competence between male teachers and female teachers is mainly in the dimension of ROT,but there is no significant significance.In terms of the variable named academic degree,the results of each dimension show a certain trend,but there is no significant significance: teachers with Doctor’s degree have the lowest mean score in the six dimensions,in addition,in the three dimensions of PSL,DTM and ASL,the mean scores of teachers with different academic degrees show a downward trend with the advancing of academic degree.Teachers with different years’ experience have their own characteristics in each dimension of pedagogical content competence,but there is no significant significance: teachers with 5 to 10 years’ experience rank first in terms of the mean value within any dimension;in addition,in the three dimensions of ESK,DTM and CTA,the mean scores show a downward trend with the increase of teaching experience.The professional titles of the respondents are concentrated in associate professors and lecturers,and it is meaningful that the mean scores of associate professors in each dimension are higher than those of lecturers,though there is no significant difference.The most significant variable is teacher-oriented/ non-teacher-oriented majors,and the significant value of the difference in pedagogical content competence concerning this variable is the smallest of the five personal variables,indicating that the internal difference is the largest,and the teachers graduating from teacher-oriented majors get larger mean scores than those from non-teacher-oriented majors,and there are significant differences in the dimensions of ROT.As for the ways of improving college English teachers’ pedagogical content competence,there are four main mediating effects: available cultural artifacts,profitable social activities,significant others and reflective individuals.The synergy of these mediating tools promotes the accumulation and internalization of college English teachers’ pedagogical content competence.There are two research significance in the present study.On the one hand,from the perspective of sociocultural theory,it fully explores the pedagogical content competence of college English teachers,enriching the concept and application at the theoretical level;on the other hand,it provides empirical basis for promoting the development of college English teachers and improving the teaching quality of higher education.