College English Teachers' Cognition On Oral English Teaching: A Sociocultural Approach

Research on foreign language teachers has undergone paradigm shift during the last four decades, responding to that in general education. In the 1970s, "process—product" research dominated the field, in which correlation analyses between teacher behavior or qualities and student achievement have been conducted, in the hope that they would identify the factors that contribute to effective teaching and learning, and provide references for other teachers and teacher educators. Focus of research was shifted to the inner factors influencing teacher behaviors in the 1980s, such as teacher beliefs. The internal psychological process of an individual teacher is considered as a decisive factor shaping teachers' behaviors. In the 1990s, the buck of research on teacher cognition started to appear, picking up a momentum in the second half of the decade which continues to gather pace. In a review paper on teacher cognition (Borg, 2003), Borg used the term "teacher cognition" to refer to the cognitive dimension of teaching—what teachers know, believe, and think. Research on teacher cognition mainly addresses four major problems: what teachers have cognition about, how these cognitions develop, how they interact with teacher learning and how they interact with classroom practice.However, most studies in this domain study teacher cognition in general, with a limited number of more focused studies on different curricular aspects of language teaching. Grammar teaching and literacy instruction in FL and L2 contexts have both been awarded some attention. Some other major areas, such as the teaching of speaking and listening remain little researched from a teacher cognition perspective. Another central issue is the insufficient importance attached to the role of the sociocultural context. The study of cognition and practice without an awareness of the contexts in which these occur will inevitably provide partial, if not flawed, characterizations of teachers and teaching (Borg, 2003b). A considerable amount of research studied the context of classroom teaching and how this context influenced teachers' actual classroom behavior. However, very few studies have explored how teacher cognition developed through the mediation of culturally and historically constructed tools in the specific sociocultural context.This thesis studies college English teachers' cognition on the specific curricular area—oral English teaching. A Sociocultural approach is taken, which views foreign language teacher cognition as a particular form of human high mental function, the development of which is mediated by culturally, historically and psychologically constructed tools. This is mainly a qualitative research, supplemented by quantitative data. 34 college English teachers in College of Foreign Languages, Shandong Agricultural University were chosen to answer a questionnaire about teacher cognition on oral English teaching. Two teachers were selected for case study. Interviews and classroom observation were conducted to get deeper insights into the development of teacher cognition and teachers' actual classroom teaching. Descriptive analysis was conducted with the quantitative data gathered from the survey and an inductive approach was taken to analyze the qualitative data, searching for recurrent themes. Data from the three resources ensure triangulation, which makes the study more reliable.Findings from the research show that teachers do hold complex system of cognition about oral English teaching, which is a mixture of the progressive and conservative ideas. Teacher cognition developed in the particular sociocultural context, and was influenced by such mediation tools as personal learning experience, teaching experience, context and teacher education (the lack of teacher education, to be more exact). Teacher cognition about oral English teacher shapes their classroom teaching to a large extent, however, divergences are also observed, due to such mediation tools as time factor, and the unpredictability of oral English class and the lack of legitimate status of oral English teaching in the context of college English teaching in mainland China.This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction about research background, significance of the study, and the overall structure of this thesis.Chapter two reviews the relevant literature concerning foreign language teacher cognition, development of teacher cognition and the relationship between teacher cognition and classroom practices. Major achievements and limitations of the previous research are discussed, on which basis the research questions for the present study are raised.Chapter three elaborates on the methodology used in this research. Attention is focused on describing the social and cultural context for the research, the participants, especially two teachers for case study, instruments used, research procedures, data collection and analysis.Chapter four reports and discusses the results of the research. Based on the three research questions, results are displayed and expounded. Findings of this study are compared with relevant research both at home and abroad. Finally, the results are interpreted and explained.Chapter five is conclusion. First, major findings of the research are concluded. Implications of this study for college English teachers and teacher educators are discussed. Finally, limitations of this research are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.