A Phenomenological Study On Novice English Teachers' Teaching Lives In Chinese Universities

Each year a large number of "new graduates" become foreign language teachers (FLT) in Chinese universities, which not only injects new vigor and hope for FLT, but also brings about new challenges and a series of problems. The most important problem is how to support these new FLT so as to make them become experienced and competent as soon as possible. Therefore, concern about teaching lives and development of FLT naturally has become one of the hot topics in national and international teacher education and development, hence leading to a wide range of researches on new FLT by many domestic and foreign scholars.Western studies on new FLT started earlier and mainly focus on the influence of the "apprenticeship of observation", new teachers'problems and concerns, new teachers'socialization and new teachers'induction and support. Research scope is gradually expanding and research paradigm is gradually shifted to qualitative-based research supplemented by quantitative research. Means of data collection and analysis tend to be pluralistic. So it can be said, to date, that western studies in this area have already entered a relatively mature and stable stage of development. However, there still exist many weaknesses in western studies such as too much emphasis on new teachers' problems with inadequate interpretation perspectives, lack of concern for new teachers'successful and emotional aspects of life, too much emphasis on new teachers in primary and secondary schools while less concern for those in universities, and lack of research from a phenomenological perspective and so on. In contrast, domestic studies on new FLT are just beginning. These researches basically adopt the same research frame of domestic studies on new teachers in a general sense, mainly including theoretical explanations and empirical studies with little achievement. Though in recent years, there is a tendency to have more studies on new FLT in universities, these studies are still not systematic and lacking depth in terms of research perspective and level. Up to now, there is no one who has ever studied teaching lives of new FLT with a phenomenological research perspective. Therefore, domestic studies in this area are still in a marginalized state, and there is an urgent need for more attention and greater investment.Based on the author's first year of teaching experience as a college English teacher over ten years ago, on the potential pressure and challenges confronted by current new English teachers in universities, and on the characteristics of first-year teaching in one's teaching career, this thesis, under the guidance of phenomenological theory, conducts a research on the first-year teaching lives of new English teachers in Chinese universities. Twelve new English teachers were first selected by purpose sampling. Then under the guidance of a phenomenological, in-depth interview, a pilot study was carried out on three teachers and six teachers were formally interviewed with the help of "information sufficiency" and "information saturation". Each interview contains three tasks and lasts 90 to 120 minutes (including two "Coffee Break"). The interview was audio-taped together with some field notes. Afterwards, the interviews were transcribed verbatim, and ultimately an "interview text" of approximately 230000 words (including more than 60000 words of the pilot interview transcriptions) was built. Using a "bottom up" approach with reference to "four-step method" by Giorgi, constant comparative methods and coding methods, etc., the interview transcriptions were classified and analyzed. As a result, six themes were summarized, namely, cognition and emotion, classroom teaching, interpersonal relationships, induction and supporting system, consciousness and need in doing scientific research, and future career intention and development planning. Thus, according to the inherent logical order of recognition—practice—effect, the first-year teaching lives of these new English teachers are described and analyzed from a phenomenological perspective, and some of the important phenomena and problems will be interpreted with certain socio-psychological theories. Then, based on the previous descriptions and analyses, new teachers'pre-service education, in-service induction and supporting system and their self-support will be briefly reviewed through reflection, and some suggestions for improvement will be put forward so as to promote new teachers'healthy development. Meanwhile, in addition to the advantages of the phenomenological, in-depth interview, the means of triangulation, member checking and constant reflection are also adopted to ensure research reliability and validity.The research shows that preservice education of these new teachers does influence their current teaching lives to a large extent. The overall performance of teachers from normal universities (NUT) is better than teachers from non-normal universities (NNUT) in terms of teaching methodology, practical capabilities in teaching practice, etc., and NUT display significant differences in cognition, classroom teaching, teacher-student relationships and occupational will, etc. These findings, to certain extent, reflect the characteristics and advantages of normal education and the deficiency of non-normal education. However, according to the actual teaching performance of NUT and NNUT, it is found that the relationship between new teachers'preservice education and their teaching practice is not linear but very complex, which further indicates that it is very necessary and important for us to strengthen the "personalized" preservice training and inservice induction. What's more, both NUT and NNUT display a strong sense of "survival" in their early career, which is the reason why they tend to utilize two social strategies of "strategic compliance" and "internalized adjustment" with an "endured" state of mind to deal with difficulties and setbacks in their work. In addition, various school-based inductions and supports arc mainly supply-oriented and focus on teaching with no or little support concerning psychology and doing research, which does not help to ease some psychological burden in their early career, and which does not help to promote these teachers' progress and development in scientific research. Besides, both NUT and NNUT display a stronger sense of professional crisis and development. In view of these findings, the greatest inspiration for us is to adhere to the "people-oriented" concept of new teachers'development.The innovation and contribution of this research are mainly reflected in the following aspects. Firstly, a phenomenological perspective is adopted in the empirical study of English teacher's teaching lives for the first time in China. Secondly, there still exist in the previous studies some weaknesses in research subjects, content and perspectives, namely, too much concern for general new teachers while ignorance of new FLT, too much emphasis on new teachers in primary and secondary schools while less concern for those in universities. In view of this, with new English teachers in Chinese universities as the focus of attention and the first-year teaching lives as the subject of descriptions, this thesis has an in-depth description of new teachers'teaching lives through comparison and contrast between NUT and NNUT. Therefore, this study deepens the research area for the integration of teacher education. Thirdly, through the reproduction of the teaching lives of new teachers, this thesis could provide the practical guidance and suggestions for the improvement of preservice education, inservice induction system and self-development, which is more helpful for the integration of new teachers'development. Fourthly, in line with an open mind, this study has a comprehensive interpretation of new teachers'first-year teaching lives with its nature and significance. To be specific, in the study, equal attention is paid to both new teachers'current teaching performance and the influence of their past educational experiences and their future career intentions and development, equal attention is paid to both new teachers'confusion and frustration and their "successful stories", and equal attention is paid to both external and internal factors affecting new teachers'development, which fully shows that "learning to teach" is a long and complex process. This not only helps to deepen the understanding of the characteristics of new teachers'"survival stage", but also helps to improve people's attitude towards the evaluation of new teachers.