Professional Development Program For Guangxi Secondary EFL Teachers In The Context Of New Curriculum Reform

Since the 1980s, human quality has been an issue holding the attention of the whole world. Accordingly, teachers'professional development has been focused attention to and studied. With the initiation of the new curriculum reform of basic education in China, the research has aroused more and more concern. On one hand, the reform provides not only opportunities for teachers, but also challenges for them. On the other hand, teachers'professional development also accelerates the implementation of the reform.The thesis is aimed at a study of the in-service EFL teachers'professional self-development in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the context of the new curriculum reform and it attempts to explore their subject matter knowledge in ELT, English proficiency level, beliefs in English teaching, self-evaluation , teaching research, reflection on teaching and so on. And it tries to provide some suggestions to both school administrations as well as teachers. The thesis is composed of five parts. Chapter I , Introduction, introduces the background and the rationale of the study. Chapter II , Literature Review, overviews teachers'professional development , including its background , definition, and related studies at home and abroad. Chapter III relates to the survey conducted on 98 EFL teachers from different secondary schools in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in this study, which explores the requirements of the teachers'professional development in the context of new curriculum reform. Chapter IVis Findings and Discussion. Based on the questionnaires of 98 in-service EFL teachers of secondary schools, some problems have been found, such as teachers'deficiency of subject matter knowledge, lack of action research, burdensome classroom teaching tasks, and devoid of time, and financial support to go for further study. It is shown that EFL teachers of secondary schools are confronted with various frustrations and difficulties. To solve the problems, implications and applications are provided. For government and school authorities, they are hoped to carry out a diverse range of in-service educational projects , and help to carry out action research. While for teachers, they are advised to conduct reflective teaching, the methods of which contain teaching journals, video recording, peer observation, questionnaires and surveys , interviews , etc. They are also advised to learn how to collaborate with others by means of peer observation and team teaching. Chapter V is Conclusion, which suggests that EFL teachers should put the approaches of reflective teaching and collaboration into practice so as to enhance their ability in teaching and research . Since the study is carried out in a small scale, it is impossible to inquire all the problems. A number of relevant issues still remain further discussed and investigated.