University EFL Teachers' Knowledge Visualization Belief Characteristics And Practices

With the continuous development of society,science and technology,information technology marked by computer and network technology has been promoted to enter the field of foreign language teaching.The ways and means of transmitting foreign language knowledge have been diversified,and the teaching methods of foreign language teachers have changed dramatically.The external technological changes and the implementation of the national education policy put forward new requirements for teachers to carry out teaching in the technical environment.University EFL teachers need not only the necessary language literacy,but also better information literacy and multimedia teaching ability to meet the requirements of the development of educational information on college English teaching.Knowledge visualization teaching is not only the change of teachers' teaching thinking,but also the change of teachers' problemsolving methods.In order to adapt to the change of teaching methods brought about by technological changes,improve learners' learning efficiency through effective ways,and promote their professional development in accordance with the current of the times,university EFL teachers' knowledge visualization beliefs and teaching practice have become the key issues in college English teaching.This study takes three English teachers who teach college English(integrated course)in a university in southwest China as the research object.Through classroom observation,the paper presents and analyzes the three subjects' practice of knowledge visualization teaching in college English(integrated course),and systematically combs the individual experience,learning experience and teaching experience of the research object combined with in-depth interview.By integrating classroom observation data,in-depth interview data and other auxiliary data,the study deeply explores the formation,development and characteristics of knowledge visualization belief of the participants,as well as the teachers' personal knowledge visualization teaching concepts,teaching methods and teaching designs.Through the literature review of the core concepts and the theoretical and conceptual frameworks constructed in this study,this paper reveals the interactive development process and related influencing factors of language teachers' knowledge visualization beliefs and practices,and explores university EFL teachers' negotiation of their teaching practices and pedagogical beliefs through knowledge visualization to advance their professional development in the context of the ongoing integration of technological tools into college English teaching.This study finds that university EFL teachers tend to use visual representation of knowledge as follows: university EFL teachers have a commonality of visual-verbal cognitive style of individuals as learners,and their teaching practice of carrying foreign language knowledge(image-text combination)through visual representation is affected by their cognitive style.In the selection and use of visual representation,it shows the commonness of designing and drawing all kinds of graphics and images based on teaching content;in college English(integrated course)teaching,knowledge visualization means(visual representation)is used to express and present foreign language knowledge,or to integrate English subject content knowledge(English-CK)or to present its pedagogical knowledge(PK),but their use of visual representation(quantity and type),foreign language knowledge carried by visual representation(time share / preference),and their ultimate goal of teaching through knowledge visualization practice are different.Another important factor that affects the level of TPACK,the cognitive style of teachers' knowledge visualization and the differences in practice of university EFL teachers is their prior knowledge and concepts and their belief in teachers and teaching,that is,English teachers' practitioner knowledge.Therefore,university EFL teachers' knowledge visualization teaching practice characteristics are influenced by their English-TPACK level,practitioners' knowledge,visual-verbal cognitive style and teachers' beliefs.Their knowledge visualization pedagogical characteristics are as follows: visual representation as a scaffold for the construction of mutual reading and writing strategies;audio-visual environment as a basis for the interactive language practice context;visual learning as a basis for independent inquirymediated enterprising classroom.The common features of knowledge visualization practices of the research objects are reflected in the intervention of knowledge visualization pedagogical thinking,the use of knowledge visualization pedagogical tools,and the reshaping of foreign language teachers' pedagogical beliefs and practices as reflected in their knowledge visualization pedagogy.However,the differences mainly lie in teachers' individual beliefs and practices of knowledge visualization for achieving college English teaching goals;teachers' different understandings of the functional expression and meaning transfer of visual representations of knowledge visualization in college English teaching;and teachers' different ways of organizing and selecting technical support for knowledge visualization teaching practices.The influencing factors of university EFL teachers' knowledge visualization beliefs and practice are mainly affected by individual factors,situated factors and external factors;these three factors constantly shape the change and development of teachers' knowledge visualization beliefs and teaching practice with complex dynamic system characteristics in the process of teachers' growth,learning and professional development.The individual factors mainly include: family-of-origin capital,educational background,professional learning and training,career history and teaching practice.The situated factors mainly involve: the promotion of school-based technology,the creation of teaching culture,the setting and requirements of teaching scheme,the response of teaching policies,resource allocation,teacher training and peer interaction(community of practice).The external factors mainly involve: current technology background and multimedia learning culture,educational informationization reform,higher foreign language education policy,development and utilization of multimedia learning resources and MOOC,standardized examination and academic achievement transformation.All of the above factors are influenced by the overall socio-cultural context over time and are constantly changing to form a dynamic and complex system as a whole.This study has practical significance in both theoretical and practical aspects,for university EFL teachers,teacher educators and school administrators who are currently in the rapid development of information technology,the country vigorously promotes the modernization of foreign language education and the flood of information age.On the theoretical level,through the in-depth explorative study of university EFL teachers' knowledge visualization belief characteristics and teaching practice,this study probes into the extensive theoretical construction and discussion of teachers' beliefs,specifically expounds foreign language teachers' knowledge visualization beliefs and focuses more deeply on the formation,development,characteristics of foreign language teachers' knowledge visualization beliefs and their interactive relationship with knowledge visualization teaching practice.From the three aspects of foreign language teachers' integration of technical knowledge in English teaching,foreign language teachers' knowledge visualization belief characteristics and foreign language teaching knowledge visualization design,this paper forms the theoretical reconstruction of the above three dimensions of college English teaching under the current information technology environment,so as to provide theoretical basis for the majority of English teachers in colleges and universities to carry out action research referential resources.At the practical level,the in-depth description and analysis of this study can provide some samples for college or university policy makers and teacher educators in the reform of foreign language education informatization,call their attentions to create relevant and timely teacher training mechanisms for university EFL teachers' professional development,and promptly provide university EFL teachers with special training on digital literacy,information literacy,media literacy,and visual literacy.By promoting the adjustment of external and situational factors,the teachers' teaching concepts,skills,and pedagogies under the influence of individual factors can be adjusted and transformed in response to the development of the times.