A Study On Problems And Countermeasures Of The Professional Development Of Elementary School English Teachers In The Undeveloped Areas

Teachers'professional development is the real need and direction of our country's teacher education reform in the background of the New Curriculum Reform as well as the internal need of the teachers'self-improvement. It has already become the hot issue in the education field. However, elementary English teachers in the undeveloped areas, as the part of the whole teacher groups, have not been paid attentions to their professional development. It is very necessary to promote the rural teachers'professional development, improve the whole quality of the rural teachers and then enhance the rural education level for ensuring the equal access to education, and realizing the balanced development of education in both urban and rural areas, and constructing harmonious society.This study first expounded the documental research of teachers'professional development and the English teachers'professional development both at home and abroad, and then clarified the contents of professional development of the elementary school English teachers, based on the achievements of previous studies and considered the new curriculum standards and subject characteristics of elementary schools. In this study, the elementary school English teachers from Chongqing rural areas were taken as the main participants, and the research methods of semi-structured interview and classroom observation were explored to investigate the status quo of English teachers'professional development in rural elementary schools, from the perspectives of expertise, professional competence, affection, attitude, and values, and self-development consciousness.The purpose of the study is to answer the following three questions:1. What is the status quo of the English teachers'professional development in Chongqing rural elementary schools?2. Whether the rural elementary school English teachers are faced with problems or not in the process of professional development? Which problems are they faced with? And what are the reasons?3. What are the solutions to the problems in the professional development for the elementary English teachers?Semi-structured interview and classroom observation were employed to collect the qualitative data. The data analysis mainly followed Freeman's (1998) theme-centered idea in order to explore and analyze the problems of the professional development of elementary school English teachers in Chongqing rural areas, and find out the reasons.The findings revealed that, from the analysis of personal factors, the problems that the elementary school English teachers in Chongqing rural areas are faced with in the process of professional development are as follows: the insufficiency of expertise, the weakness of professional competence, and the desalination of self-development consciousness; from the analysis of school factors, the problems lied in three aspects, and the three aspects were the deficiency of supportive environment of teacher professional development and the lack of autonomous development motivation; the existing problems in teacher training, and the serious conflicts between teachers'work and study; from the analysis of social factors, the problems contained three parts, they were the low status of elementary English discipline, the shortage of the investment of the financial funds, and the slowly changed teaching personnel system reform.At last, on the basis of data analysis and discussion, some countermeasures were put forward for the professional development of elementary school English teachers in Chongqing rural areas.This study hopes to investigate and analyze the present condition and the problems of the elementary school English teachers'professional development in Chongqing rural areas, and puts forward some strategies for their professional development, to provide the basis of science with available training pattern for the professional development of the elementary school English teachers in Chongqing rural areas.