Teacher Training and Professional Development of Chinese English Language Teachers ─ Changing from Fish to Dragon

This up-close look at Chinese ESL teachers documents undertakings at formal and informal levels to support and sustain their expertise in ways that balance collaborative and competitive efforts, situated and standards-based programs, ethnically responsive and government-based efforts, and traditional and 21st-century teaching visions. English is a mandated subject for approximately 400 million Chinese public school students. Making transparent the training received as pre-service and in-service teachers, this book provides a rare window into how Chinese teachers of ESL reconcile professional development needs with the responsibility to teach large numbers of students while navigating societal, cultural, and institutional cross currents. It also explores the range of ways China invests in the professional development of its English language teachers.

Faridah Pawan is a professor in ESL/EFL teacher education in the department of Literacy, Culture and Language Education, Indiana University, Indiana, USA.

Wen-Fang Fan is a professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Tsinghua University, P.R. China.

Miao Pei is an associate professor in language pedagogy in the Faculty of Education at Being Normal University, P.R. China.