An Investigation On The Present Situation And Strategies Of English Teachers’ Professional Development In Rural Junior High Schools

Since the 1980 s,teachers’ professionalization has gradually become the trend of teacher education development in the world.In order to adapt to the trend of the times and promote the development of education,our country are constantly making efforts in promoting teachers’ professional development.The National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Compendium puts forward that “focusing on rural teachers,to improve the overall quality of teachers in primary and secondary schools.” Because of its uniqueness,rural junior high school teachers have become the focus of the national training and development.With the deepening reform of basic English courses,the requirements of the rural English teachers’ ability and quality are continually improved.Therefore,the researches on English teachers’ professionalization(ETP)in rural junior high schools(RJHS)have high theoretical and practical values.The thesis first hackles the literature review,including the relevant concepts,researches at home and abroad and theoretical basis of teachers’ professionalization.It is found that there are many domestic and foreign researches on teachers’ professionalization,and the researches gradually tend to be on specific disciplines and rural areas.But these researches are more about theories or focus only on some certain areas,so more specific field researches are still necessary.On the basis of theoretical knowledge,the thesis chooses English teachers of RJHS in Sheqi of Henan Province as the object of the investigation,and adopts the methods of questionnaire survey and case interviews.Then the basic profile and professional situation of English teachers in RJHS are understood deeply.Through the data analysis and discussion,the study finds that there are many problems in English teachers’ professional development(ETPD)of RJHS.They are the shortage and low quality of English teachers,the unreasonable structure,the imperfect professional knowledge,the inadequate professional skills,the weak professional awareness and the insufficient external power.Finally,combining the theories with the real situation in RJHS,concrete suggestions and strategies are put forward for the problems existing on ETPD in RJHS.The whole strategy is divided into two steps.The first step is started from the self-development of English teachers.It can be achieved from two aspects.One is to strengthen the professional self-awareness of English teachers.Another is to take effective concrete measures,including extensive study of professional knowledge,reflective teaching,actively participating in training and taking importance to peer coaching.The second step focuses on the protection and incentives of external factors,mainly from both school and social aspects.RJHS should create a good school atmosphere by improving the teacher evaluation system and establishing an effective school-based training platform for ETPD.The educational administration department can provide strong system guarantee and material incentives for ETPD by constituting and improving the policies and regulations related to English teachers.