Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research
Volume:7 Issue: 3, Oct 2019

Reflective practice (RP) has become popular in many professions as a mark of professional competence. With this increase in popularity, many different definitions have developed alongside the many different approaches that have been advanced with many different theoretical underpinnings attached to these approaches. This is also the case within the field of education where although most educators agree some form of reflection is desirable, there is still no agreement on what RP is or how it should be implemented. RP has also been fully embraced within the teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) and unfortunately with the same lack of clarity as to what it is or how it can be implemented. One reason for this lack of clarity it that we seem to have forgotten where it originated and why it made a resurgence much later. In this paper I look back at two of the giants of the RP movement and then outline how I have interpreted their work and my own work in the implementation of RP for TESOL teachers. I also look to the future (reflect-for-action) of RP for TESOL teachers.

This article presents how reflective practice is promoted through continuing professional development (CPD) workshops for pre- and in-service EFL teachers in Indonesia. The purpose of such workshops is threefold: to encourage teachers to take responsibility for their professional growth; to guide teachers in selecting specific aspects of practice for further development; and to stimulate teachers to reflect individually and collectively on the teaching-learning process to deliver successful lessons and maximise student learning. With this in mind, the current contribution starts by operationalising the concept of reflective practice and describing reflective practitioners. It also details when, how and why English language practitioners should engage in reflective practice. The article concludes with a set of useful activities that help transform English language teachers into reflective practitioners.

Reflective practice in TESOL is widely used in pre-service and in-service teacher education contexts and is regarded as beneficial for ongoing professional learning. While models of reflective language teaching vary, they all aim to improve classroom outcomes for teachers and students. A holistic approach to reflective practice includes teachers’ beliefs, philosophies and the interaction of their teaching practices with moral and social issues outside the classroom as part of the self-reflective teaching process (Farrell, 2015; Larrivee, 2000). Reflecting on the teaching journey in this way can help teachers make sense of how individual beliefs about teaching interact with professional experiences, and how these interactions inform decisions in the classroom. The aim of this narrative paper is to describe the developmental process I went through during my first year as a teacher of beginner, refugee-background students in an adult migrant English language teaching program in Australia. Self-reflective data primarily sourced from teaching journals kept during my first year of teaching were analysed using Farrell’s (2015) Framework for Reflecting on Practice. Following a brief introduction of the framework, its application to this current study is discussed. Findings highlight the important roles philosophy, theory, critical reflection and mentors played in my pedagogical decision- making and overall learning processes. The paper concludes with a discussion about implications for ESOL teachers, graduate students and educators in TESOL teacher education programs.

This paper presents an action research study conducted to explore how to strengthen pre-service EFL teacher professional identities through reflective practice at a university in the north of Chile. A 10- week workshop was developed to introduce participants to reflective practice as they took their extended teaching practicum. Reflections were fostered through an approach that was structured, conversational and collaborative. Qualitative data about the 12 participants’ perceptions of the workshop were gathered using a focus group discussion. The hybrid thematic analysis of their responses indicated that participants’ emerging teacher professional identities were strengthened in three highly relevant ways: participants developed confidence in their ability to problem-solve, their appreciation of collaboration grew, and they became more aware of the need for teachers to change. The conclusions and implications drawn may be of use to teacher educators in other contexts who are considering how to foster professional identity through reflective practice in pre-service teachers.

The study examined the extent to which Iranian EFL teachers were familiar with reflective journal writing (RJW), the possible contribution of a consciousness-raising interactive workshop to the participants’ individual and collective journal writing, and their perception of the barriers to RJW. The study enjoyed a qualitative design employing interviews and journal writings for data collection. Thirty Iranian EFL teachers sat a face-to-face interview. They were also asked to write two reflective journals, (one individually and one collectively), before, and two others after attending a consciousness-raising interactive workshop on reflection which adopted Richards’ (1995) framework on teacher reflection and Soodmand Afshar’s (in press) journal content guide. The grounded-theory-based content analysis was employed to analyze the data collected. The results indicated an improvement in participants’ familiarity with RJW after the event. Furthermore, the barriers to RJW were identified as ‘institutional issues’, ‘teacher issues’ and ‘educational system issues’.

The present study explored the development of language teacher immunity among Iranian in-service English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL) teachers (N=15) working at public high schools. Drawing on semi-structured interview data, the study found that low self-confidence, students’ demotivation, low income, limited facilities, lack of enough time to teach English, parental expectations, and negative attitudes toward English were the main triggers of language teacher immunity among the participants. Reflecting on those disturbances, the participants employed certain coping strategies such as prior preparation, establishing a good rapport with learners, and exercising agency in providing required facilities and negotiating objectives with learners’ parents. The strategies adopted by the participants revealed that reflective practice should be an integrated undertaking involving reflection on personal, sociocultural, and educational factors rather than being limited to practice per se. The study introduced imposed maladaptive immunity as a transitional stage from exercising agency to setting into a state of complete indifference due to lack of support from macro-level educational policy makers. Finally, the study implied that language teacher education programs should raise EFL teachers’ awareness of the developmental stages of language teacher immunity as an integrated reflective practice.

Although co-authoring is commonly practised, we know little about its actual process. How do authors choose their collaborators? How do they make decisions about the writing process? What obstacles do they face and how do they overcome them? What do they see as the benefits and pitfalls of co- authoring? This article begins by demonstrating the prevalence of co-authoring of journal articles in the field of Applied Linguistics and TESOL. The somewhat limited literature on authoring, particularly collaboration, is reviewed. Using a duoethnographic approach, as researcher-participants we research our own co-authoring process and present our findings in a case study. Key ideas related to choosing and working effectively with co-authors and important qualities in a co-author are discussed, encapsulated in the maxims of mutual benefit and relationship building. We also reflect on our experience of using duoethnography to capture disruptions to our thinking about the co-authoring process and developments in our understanding of ourselves as writers and of our relationship as co- authors. The article concludes by reiterating the benefits that both less experienced and more experienced authors can derive from co-authoring and by recommending co-authoring as an important supportive and collaborative practice for professional development.

In the age of globalization and international competitiveness, teacher education (TE) emerges as a national necessity in governments’ attempts to promote “knowledge societies” (p. 1). The primary impetus behind International Research, Policy and Practice in Teacher Education: Insider Perspectives, edited by Jean Murray, Anja Swennen, and Clare Kosnik, is to deepen our understanding of how teacher educators’ perspectives as insiders could make changes in policy, research, and practice. In addition to an Afterword chapter, the volume amalgamates 13 chapters written by twenty-five authors. In the Preface, A. Lin Goodwin brings into light the inconsistencies, quick sands, and anxieties that teacher educators (TEds) have to live by. For example, even after joining academia, TE is still regarded “as a field without a knowledge base” (p. v). Despite the close inspection over their job, TEds do not totally submit to the policy makers’ directives. For Goodwin, this collection comes at an opportune moment when the world is witnessing a “global reform movement” (p. vi).

The current pocket book published by Cambridge University Press is a handy book for language teachers around the world. In an interview with the author about the rationale behind the publication of this book (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1xejkhG6H_g), Professor Jack C. Richards, an internationally recognized figure in the field of language teaching, states that far more people have over the years been involved in learning and teaching languages and that the profession has expanded with rising standards; and all this necessitates having quality teachers, with updated knowledge, to help achieve the goals of language institutions. Indeed, this highly- regarded ELT personality adds that the book is aimed at teachers and teacher trainers who want to reflect back on where they were in their teaching profession and where they need to go and suggestions are also made for program directors who are searching for activities to implement for professional development.