A Study Of Qualities Of Proficient University Foreign Language Teachers:Views From University Teachers And Students

With the development of economic globalization and continual international communication, proficient foreign language talents are urgently needed in China. Universities play important roles in cultivating those talents. As important agents in the tertiary education, highly qualified teachers play crucial roles in quality education and cultivation of excellent students. Similarly, teaching reforms depend on the university foreign language teachers, so that their qualities determine whether the reforms will be successful or not. Therefore, proficient university foreign language teachers are important. It is of great necessity to study the qualities of proficient university foreign language teachers.Furthermore, in the present existing literature of the qualities of university foreign language teachers, most studies are from teachers’perspective. It seems that few researches have paid attention to the qualities of proficient university foreign language teachers from the perspectives of both students and teachers. However, students directly take part in the process of teaching, therefore, this research intends to study the qualities of proficient university foreign language teachers from the perspectives of university teachers and students.To this end, the author in this thesis adopted quantitative research by means of survey by questionnaire. The self-developed questionnaire was constructed in seven dimensions of qualities of proficient university foreign language teachers, deriving from the reviewed literature. The questionnaire contained26items and each item used a five-point scale of answers. The subjects were all foreign language teachers which were English teachers, Japanese teachers and other foreign language teachers from School of Foreign Languages and over one hundred students from Tianjin University of Science and Technology (TUST). By careful questionnaires’ checking, a total of74valid questionnaires by teachers and100valid questionnaires by students were selected. The data collected from the questionnaires was dealt with the software SPSS13.0.The research results indicate that proficient university foreign language teachers possess these seven dimensions of qualities:view of foreign language teaching profession and professional ethics; view of foreign language teaching and the ability of foreign language teaching; foreign language elementary knowledge and skills; foreign language specialized knowledge; the knowledge system of pedagogical field; foreign language subject teaching knowledge system and views on learning and development of foreign language teachers. The comparison of qualities of proficient university foreign language teachers between university teachers and students in26items of questionnaire survey, variances of eighteen items are equal and there are not significant differences on the qualities of proficient university foreign language teachers, while the variances of eight items are not equal and there are significant differences.Based on the research results, the implications of the study enable to catch a glimpse of the situations of the aspects of teacher, professional development and university foreign language teaching for university foreign language teachers. For example, foreign language teachers realize their professional learning and development through reflection on their teaching practice; foreign language teaching should be student-centered and pay attention to the exploration of curriculum resources; university foreign language teachers should master many foreign language teaching methods.