Professional Qualities Of Primary School English Teachers

Since the fall of 2001, English course is offered at primary level nationwide in China. The quantities and qualities of English teachers, however, can not meet the needs of primary school English teaching. There are many problems in the professional qualities of primary school English teachers, especially for rural places of China where a great number of position-transferred teachers can not teach effectively. The present case study focuses on three primary school English teachers, evaluating their professional qualities and recognizing the problems in an attempt to offer implications for teacher's professional development.Teacher's professional qualities have three dimensions. Concerning primary school English teachers' professional qualities, the three dimensions are embodied in seven aspects: (1) professional ethics; (2) English proficiency and knowledge of English culture; (3) knowledge on theories; (4) ability of designing and organizing classes; (5) ability of using resources (6) talents and (7) sense of professional development. The seven aspects interact with each other, forming a system of primary school English teacher's professional qualities. Based on the system, the present study investigates three teachers' knowledge, beliefs and teaching behaviors by means of analyzing the data from class observation, teacher interview and student interview.The class observation and evaluation measures the teaching aims, teaching content, teaching procedure, teaching methods, teaching capacities, teaching effects as well as special teaching features. The teacher interview aims to investigate the teachers' purposes of lesson design, reflection on teaching, knowledge on teaching methods, understanding of the National English Curriculum Standards, understanding of English learning, understanding of assessing students' learning and sense of professional development. The student interview focuses on student's opinions on English classes and English teachers, which serves as a complementation to evaluation of teachers' professional qualities.The data analysis results show that the three teachers' professional qualities fall short of the criteria of the quality system. The English language proficiency, especially oral English of the teachers is poor; the teachers' understanding on English culture is superficial; their qualities in professional ethics and ability of using resources are quite ordinary; they have poor knowledge on relevant theories; the class design and organizations emphasize forms but ignore practical effects; the deficiency in their talents reduces the attractiveness of their classes; the teachers appear passive in professional development with weak sense of doing researches.In planning the professional development of primary school English teachers, a balanced development of their professional quality system should be emphasized. Teacher training should not simply rest on improvement of language proficiency, rather, the teacher educators should promote the teachers' progresses both in theories and skills, and encourage as well as direct teachers to conduct reflective teaching and action research in order to strengthen the relations between theories and practice. Above all, it is of great significance to enhance teacher's sense of professional development.