Exploring The Writing Teaching Practices Of Native-English-Speaking Teachers In China

In recent years,more and more native-English-speaking teachers(NESTs)have been employed to teach in schools and universities in China.However,they have been questioned and challenged,especially for their lack of teaching experience and competence in teaching Chinese students.As a result,most NESTs are asked to teach oral English courses and few of them are arranged to teach writing or other courses.Nevertheless,limited attention has been given to English language teaching by these NES teachers in China.To contribute to this domain,this study focused on English writing teaching practices done by NES teachers.Taking the narrative inquiry approach,this study investigated the writing teaching practices of two NESTs in Beijing,which lasted for half a year with Daniel and a whole year with Albert.Multiple sources of data were collected,including classroom observation,formal interviews and teaching materials.The data were first analyzed with the help of the qualitative research tool,called Nvivo 11 and further interpreted from the perspective of the theoretical framework—the process of identity/role negotiation and the role of the capital.Findings emerged from the data analysis indicated that the teaching of these two NESTs was more student-centered and they could all take good advantage of their own possessed capitals to involve more cultural elements in their teaching and innovate their teaching methods.Also,under the influence of their possessed capitals,which can act as affordance,constraints and the catalyst for the negotiation,their identities,such as foreigners versus Beijingers and inexperienced teacher versus experienced teacher,kept negotiating,interacting with various factors(the lived classroom,the textbook and also their own experiences),which were all reflected in their own practices.What's more,with these findings,implications for English writing teaching and other researchers are provided in the last chapter.