Investigating The Impact Of Overseas Training On University English Writing Teachers' Professional Learning

As the essential part of foreign language teacher education,teacher learning has attracted the attention of more and more researchers in the field of foreign language teacher education.Although the achievements of foreign teacher learning research abroad are remarkable,the research on teacher learning is far from enough in China.Teacher learning is still a young research field in our country and there are many important topics to be explored.At present,under the background of internationalization of higher education and double first-rate construction of universities,a large number of foreign language teachers have been sent to foreign countries to carry out professional learning activities such as visiting,engaging in advanced studies and studying for degrees in order to be equipped with the ability to cultivate high-quality talents with international competitiveness and global vision.Overseas training has become an important way of foreign language teachers' professional learning and development in Chinese universities.Through overseas training,foreign language teachers can be exposed to a variety of new teaching methods and their teaching methods and teaching beliefs will also be influenced by foreign educational culture.After returning to China,these teachers may be faced with the challenge of applying the new knowledge and skills they have learned during overseas training to teaching in their local context,which is a complex process that needs constant adjustments and adaptation to the external environment.Although teachers' overseas study is an important and complex teacher learning activity,few studies have been carried out to investigate the impact of overseas training on Chinese foreign language teachers' professional learning.This study takes the case of several university English writing teachers to explore the impact of overseas training on language teachers' professional learning.It explores changes in teachers' cognition,emotion and behavior,as well as the factors that affect teachers' professional learning.The study not only helps to understand the impact of overseas study on foreign language teachers' professional learning,but also has some implications for the education and development of English writing teachers.This kind of exploration isparticularly necessary considering the fact that there are few professional development activities designed specifically for English writing teachers and there is a lack of effective mode and way for training university English writing teachers in China.This study adopts case study method to analyze the influence of overseas training on university English writing teachers' professional learning as well as influencing factors.Data are mainly drawn from teacher interviews and document collection.Data analysis employs Korthagen's onion model of teacher learning to examine the influence of overseas study on the professional learning of university English writing teachers from the aspects of mission and identity,belief and ability,behavior and environment,as well as main factors that influence the effectiveness of overseas training for the returnee teachers' professional learning and development.It is found that the university English writing teachers in this study changed at every level of the onion model through overseas study,including strengthening writing knowledge,improving teaching ability,changing teacher beliefs and promoting professional.Various factors such as student characteristics,class size,external support and teacher characteristics affect the transformation and internationalization of teachers' overseas learning achievements.In a word,this study helps to deepen our understanding of how overseas training may affect foreign language teachers' professional learning and development.It expands the scope of foreign language teacher education research in China.It can contribute to the theory and practice of foreign language teachers education and development,especially the training of writing teachers.