A Study On School-based Cooperating Teachers' Impact On EFL Pre-service Teachers' Teaching Practice In The Practicum

Teaching practicum has provided a precious opportunity for pre-service teachers to integrate theoretical learning with teaching practice in the real classroom situation and get themselves well-prepared for their future teaching career.Cooperating teachers,who are usually expert in the specific subject teaching area,are also supposed to play a pivotal role in mentoring pre-service teachers as role models during the internships.Previous studies have reached many areas in the field of teacher education,including different practicum modes and status quo of the practicum among some subjects like mathematics,physics as well as music.However,there is a paucity of research which focuses on practicums provided for English majors and cooperating teachers from the perspective of student teachers,especially in mainland China.With regard to the incongruence existing in the development of internships provided by different countries and subject areas,there is a necessity to pay due attention to English pre-service teachers and the impact of their cooperating teachers in current practicums in China so as to promote quality enhancement.Therefore,the present study aims at exploring cooperating teachers' impact on the teaching practice of pre-service English teachers during the practicum.The following three major questions were formulated in the research:(1)What are the areas of influence that cooperating teachers exert on student teachers' teaching practice?(2)What approaches do the cooperating teachers use to mentor student teachers and which do most student teachers prefer?(3)What are the areas of unrealized effect of cooperating teachers on student teachers' teaching practice?From the perspective of pre-service teachers,this study has attempted to investigate the approaches in which most cooperating teachers mentor their mentees and the impacts they exert in pre-service teachers' professional development in their teaching practice.Fifty-five postgraduates majoring in English education from an M.Ed.program of Central China Normal University participated in the research.And this study combined the quantitative and qualitative research to make the data more convincing and scientific,in which questionnaires,interviews as well as participatory observation were used to help collect data.The findings of this study are summarized as follows.Firstly,cooperating teachers have exerted conspicuously positive influence on student teachers' progress in their lesson preparation,teaching performance and reflective practice.Secondly,collaborative approach has construed to be the preference for most cooperating teachers and student teachers during the mentoring practice although mentors' authority to some extent still exists in the mentorships.Thirdly,reflective practice and many other specific qualities like classroom management are the areas where cooperating teachers provide the least guidance and influence for their mentees because of the time limitation of the internship and neglect of cooperating teachers.Given that there exists the latent development space for a higher-quality practicum provided for pre-service teachers,this study also yields some implications for the improvement of current internship programme:collaboration and mutual efforts of both teacher educators and cooperating teachers should be made in mentoring the pre-service teachers effectively.Meanwhile,researchers should explore better strategies in training cooperating teachers and promote the practicum development on the basis of further studies.Most importantly,pre-service teachers should cherish the learning opportunity and form a studious stance to learn from these experienced teachers and pursue a comprehensive development.