| Demo classes are generally taken to show solely for the sake of showing with no practical value. Teachers’ professional development seems to have been restricted to theoretical argumentation with no practicable manual for practitioners. This study, bringing the two together, seeks to make inquiry into the way young English teachers acquire their professional development by means of giving demo classes.The subjects of this research, the young English teachers from the vocational school where the author teaches, are approached via observation, questionnaires, and interviews; and all the data relevant to their demo classes, including the teaching materials, reflections and evaluations are organized and analyzed to find out how demo classes facilitate the teachers’ teaching design, skills and self-knowledge.The research results are as follows:(1) Demo classes are a likely platform for the professional development of young teachers, for almost 40%of English teachers are 30 years old or younger,48% of them teach less than five years,90% of them give one or two demo classes a semester, and over 70% of them spend 24-96 hours preparing one such class. To make possible such a platform they are required to dismiss their fears and rid themselves of their customary behavior habits.(2) Demo classes can pave the way for young English teachers’ professional development:(a) Peer observations and experienced teachers’ critiques help improve their teaching design and skills, hence accelerating their transformation into veteran teachers; (b) Under the pressure of criticisms by the elder teachers, young teachers reflect on their own teaching and enhance their self-knowledge, whereby their in-depth thinking on EFLT could occur-Individual differences of students, student-centeredness, holisticity of teaching, reconciliation of linguistic skills with specialty, and the criteria for a success class. |
