This volume explores the defining element in the work of language teacher educators: language itself. The book is in two parts. The first part holds up to scrutiny concepts of language that underlie much practice in language teacher education yet too frequently remain under-examined. These include language as social institution, language as verbal practice, language as reflexive practice, language as school subject and language as medium of language learning.The chapters in the second part are written by language teacher educators working in a range of institutional contexts and on a variety of types of program including both long and short courses, both pre-service and in-service courses, and teacher education practice focusing variously on metalinguistic awareness for teachers, language improvement, and classroom communication. The unifying factor is that collectively they illuminate how language teacher educators research their practice and reflect on underlying principles.

This volume looks at the preparation of future critical language teachers in the face of an increasingly multilingual and transcultural contemporary world. This is seen through the lens of the collapse of Nation-State borders that crumble in the face of migration and the intense flow of languages that comes with it. It brings together international research that problematizes, theorizes, re-positions and re-conceptualizes myriad structural, systemic, ideological, political and pedagogical issues that intersect with the possibilities and impossibilities of the development of language teachers' agency. The volume examines the needs of linguistically diverse student populations and considers the socio-cultural and socio-political barriers that interfere with the exercise of teacher agency for social justice in language classrooms. It offers a theoretical and empirical overview of how language teacher education has addressed multilingualism and transculturalism in critical approaches in many complex countries in their diversity and/or postcolonial history, including Brazil, Qazaqstan, Scotland, and Thailand.

The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teacher Education provides an accessible, authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date resource of English language teacher education. With an overview of historical issues, theoretical frameworks and current debates, this handbook provides unique insights into a range of teacher education contexts, focusing on key issues relating to teacher and learner priorities, language and communication, current practices, reflective practice, and research. Key features include: a cross-section of current theories, practices and issues, providing readers with a resource which can be used in a variety of contexts; the use of data, transcripts and tasks to highlight and illustrate a range of practices, including examples of ‘best practice’; ‘snapshots’ of ELTE from a number of contexts taken from all around the world; and examples of current technological advances, contemporary thinking on reflective practice, and insights gained from recent research. This wide-ranging and international collection of chapters has been written by leading experts in the field. The Routledge Handbook of English Language Teacher Education is sure to be core reading for students, researchers and educators in applied linguistics, TESOL and language education.

Over the last two decades, Chile has been driven by an economic imperative to build the capability of citizens to be competent in the English language, resulting in a high demand for teachers of English. As a consequence, teacher education programs have modified their curricula to meet the challenges of educating teachers of English as a global language. This book explores EFL teacher education in order to further understand the nature of teacher learning in second language education environments, examining the varying motives, actions and mediating tools that shaped how a cohort of pre-service teachers learnt to teach EFL in Chile. Framed by a cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) perspective, chapters use key qualitative research to determine how specific factors can help and hinder the effective preparation of teachers, illuminating contradictory dynamics between local and national policies, teacher education programs, and pre-service views and classroom realities. The book makes an important contribution to the growing debate surrounding the design of EFL teacher education policy, curriculum and learning strategies, emphasising the importance of engaging pre-service teachers in learning to teach EFL, and the interrelated factors that shape this learning. English Language Teacher Education in Chile will be of key interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of teacher education, curriculum studies, and English language teaching (ESL/EFL), as well as policy makers, TESOL organisations, and those interested in applying a CHAT perspective to language teaching and learning.

This volume examines the theoretical and practical issues related to mentoring/peer mentoring as a support and development strategy for both pre-service and in-service language teachers, and thereby offers a practical and empirical introduction to the field. A stimulating and thorough examination of mentoring and peer mentoring, integrating theory and practice as applied in language teacher education in an Asian specific context. The author discusses findings from a variety of qualitative and quantitative research studies in the light of previous research and in the context of teacher learning theories. Teachers, teacher educators, teacher trainers, supervisory coordinators and administrators will find practical advice, while the volume will be a valuable source of research information for researchers in teacher education and EFL teacher education, in particular for those who wish to employ mentoring or peer mentoring as an approach to teachers’ professional development.

This book aims to challenge established teaching cultures to promote teacher autonomy and autonomy-oriented pedagogies in language teacher education. Offering a set of inspiring case studies that illustrate language teacher education for autonomy as a space of multiple possibilities, the book fuses theory and practice and gives a holistic view of the changing landscape of language teacher education, accounting for the transformative power of educational practices that help teachers think and act in informed, context-specific, and learner-centred ways. It also demonstrates the importance of autonomy in language teacher education contexts, specifically to foster teachers’ professional learning, identity, and agency, as well as in assessing and reshaping teacher education programmes. This book will be particularly useful to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in the fields of teaching and teacher education, modern foreign languages, and teaching and learning language research more broadly. Curriculum designers and language teacher education programme directors may also find the volume of use.

Embracing a sociocultural perspective on human cognition and employing an array of methodological tools for data collection and analysis, this volume documents the complexities of second language teachers’ professional development in diverse L2 teacher education programs around the world, including Asia, South America, Europe, and North America, and traces that development both over time and within the broader cultural, historical and institutional settings and circumstances of teachers’ work. This systematic examination of teacher professional development illuminates in multiple ways the discursive practices that shape teachers’ knowing, thinking, and doing and provides a window into how alternative mediational means can create opportunities for teachers to move toward more theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices within the settings and circumstances of their work. The chapters represent both native and nonnative English speaking pre-service and in-service L2 teachers at all levels from K-12 through higher education, and examine significant challenges that are present in L2 teacher education programs.

This volume addresses innovations in language teacher education, offering a diversity of personal/psychological perspectives and topics in the theory and/or practice in language teacher education. The text deals with innovations in teaching for learning, teacher autonomy, dynamic self-reflection, peace education, professionalism, action research, socio-emotional intelligence, embodiment, professional development, NeuroELT, and more. Organized in three sections, the chapters inspire readers to reflect upon what it means to grow as a teacher as they navigate the intra- to inter-personal continuum. The editors draw the main themes together and discuss them in light of an innovations framework developed by Rogers (including relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability) in order to express, in concrete terms, the ways in which each idea can be considered innovative. Throughout the anthology, the reader will find specific, novel ways in which to work towards good practice in language teacher education.

Content Knowledge in English Language Teacher Education provides original professional experiences and research accounts of teaching language in the specific context of English language teacher education programmes in diverse international settings, with contributions from Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, Ecuador, Japan, Mexico, the USA and Turkey. The volume focuses on how teacher educators plan and deliver modules which help future teachers understand English as a system and develop English language proficiency. The contributors describe and analyse their professional practices in designing, delivering and evaluating modules or courses on understanding the English language as a system, i.e. content knowledge, exploring the teaching of elements such as phonetics, phonology, grammar, pragmatics, philology, and discourse analysis. In addition, they draw on their vast professional experience to explore how to successfully develop competence and language skills in English so that teachers can become models and proficient users of the language for their students. The contributions range from more historical and functionally linguistic focused chapters to more sociocultural explorations of teaching English to future teachers including interculturality, multilingualism, World Englishes, critical thinking skills, academic writing, and literacy through literature. The accounts shed light on the diverse practices of educators from many different countries, contexts, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds, drawing links between policy and practice, to locate much of English language teacher education and curriculum development outside the so-called 'inner circle' of native English-language speaking contexts, practitioners, and researchers.

How do students acquire a second language? How can teachers most effectively teach a second language? How do students and teachers develop communication in the language classroom? This textbook is written specifically for a language teacher education programme. It provides teachers with the opportunity to move away from a belief-based teaching approach to a fact-based teaching approach in order to connect knowledge and evidence with innovation. Alessandro G. Benati structures this book around ten key questions that have driven the field of second language learning and language teaching. This provides readers with a clear understanding of: · the relationship between theory and research in second language acquisition and language teaching · the nature and role of language and communication · the results and implications of classroom-based research Pedagogical features in each of the ten units include: call-out boxes highlighting main ideas, further clarification sections to explain key terms, tasks and quizzes at the end of each unit to consolidate learning, and a teacher education evaluation form at the end for readers to reflect on the programme.