Influence Of Senior-High School EFL Teacher Training On Teaching And Professional Development Of Teachers

Nowadays, due to the development of English language teaching, EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher training is being implemented all over the world. In the early period, FL (foreign language) teachers could only learn teaching skills and methods from textbooks, but now their professional development can be improved through FL teacher training. FL teacher training abroad has been mature, however, EFL teacher training in China, generally based on behaviorism principles, still has some limitations.Based on constructivism and humanism theory, the present study, through a study on key English teachers training in Northwest Normal University in 2009, attempts to (1) investigate what EFL teachers need to gain in the EFL teacher training; (2) interpret what influence the EFL training model has on English teaching and professional development of English teachers in different age, gender and teaching experience; (3) find out the implications of the EFL training model and suggest a better way to training EFL teachers.The present study starts by reviewing literature on concerning the definition of teacher training, the distinction between FL (foreign language) and L2 (second language) learning and teaching, the history and evolution of Sino-foreign school FL teacher training models, and the previous studies on FL teacher training at home and abroad. Based on the limitations of previous researches, the specific research questions and the research design are proposed.Then, a detailed account of the case of the EFL teacher training is given. The participants were 32 senior middle school key English teachers who came from GanSu province. When analyzing the data, the researcher divided participants into different groups according to different age, gender and teaching experience. Instruments, used to measure the research findings in the present study, included a trainee's need survey, a questionnaire about influence, and a follow-up interview. The obtained data were then submitted to Independent Samples T-test by SPSS17.0.Based on the analysis, the study shows, first, different groups of trainees have different needs about training. The trainees under 35 years old, who have been working less than 10 years, wanted to know some English teaching skills and methods in classroom. The female trainees between 35-44 years old, who have been working for 10-20 years, were interested in the new English teaching materials and textbooks and something about the collaborative learning. While the male trainees in this group paid much attention to their personal professional development. The trainees over 44 years old, who have been working more than 20 years, wanted to know something about English teaching evaluation and theory. Second, from the mean score of the questionnaire, the general impression of the trainees on this EFL training model is great and this training model has basically met their needs of English teaching and personal professional development. However, the results of data analysis show this EFL teacher training model does have the significantly different influence on teachers in different age (p=.006, p=.038, p=.017), gender (p=.003) and teaching experience (p=.000, p=.028, p=.001).Researcher then draws some conclusion based on the major findings, and implications for this case of EFL teacher training model are put forward. The EFL teacher training should focus on trainees'needs and interests. When the trainers have clearly known about trainees'needs and interests, the next step they should do is to dig deeply trainees'teaching ideas formed in their own teaching experience. It is very important to change the traditional opinion which takes the trainers as the center part of training and use different training on teachers in different age, gender and teaching experience in the future EFL teacher training. The follow-up study also plays an important role in investigating the long-term results of EFL teacher training model.Finally, limitations of the study and recommendations for further research on the related issues are proposed.