The Cultural Practices and Communicative Teaching Intent of Chinese Student Teachers in an American TESOL Practicum

Abstract

Despite the large numbers of Chinese students in Western TESOL and English language teacher (ELT) programs, very little research has been conducted on these students and we know little about their practicum teaching. This qualitative research study addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the student teaching and post-lesson reflections of four student teachers from the People's Republic of China whom I supervised in an American TESOL practicum. In examining their teaching and reflections from the perspectives of Chinese and embedded American activity systems of ELT practice, analysis found that the student teachers reproduced familiar home-cultural practices that conflicted with the communicative teaching practices advocated by our program and in their practicum classrooms. Yet they exhibited a strong communicative teaching intent not found in previous studies. Post-lesson reflections revealed how they struggled to balance the competing demands of these two very different systems of ELT practice.