A Study On Professional Development Of Primary School English Teachers

It’s widely believed that the study on primary school English teachers’ professional development began with the21th century in the western countries while in China, the study has attracted more and more attention in the last five years. New English Curricular Standards in the Phase of Compulsory Education and New Teacher Education Standard issued by Minster of National Education Department in2011updated the philosophy of teaching and the requirement for primary school English teachers. Thus, the researcher conducted a case study in four primary schools of Nanchang, The purpose of the study is to investigate the current situation of primary English teachers in terms of their professional development, in which the information concerning their background, and their professional life is considered, then discuss the professional qualities and analyze the contextual and internal factors of their professional development.The study adopted both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative study was conducted by means of questionnaire, and the qualitative data obtained from the classroom observation, semi-structured interview, non-structured interview, and researcher’s journal, which were presented in the form of four teachers’ professional development stories and the descriptive data.Through the data analysis, primary school English teachers’professional life was described; a framework of professional quality for primary school English teachers was constructed. And some conclusions were made, first, the overall level of primary English teachers’professional development in Nanchang is below the medium level; second, teachers’professional development stages are not in accordance with their teaching years; third, three factors influence the primary school English teachers’ professional development, involving teachers’awareness,the approaches and strategies of teacher professional development, schools’administration and evaluation of teachers.