English Teacher – Educators’ Approaches and Practices: A Case Study in Three Different Contexts

Year 2017, Volume: 5 Issue: 3, 434 - 450, 30.09.2017

Maria E. Lemus-hidalgo

Abstract

The present article drew on a larger interpretivist case study research on the knowledge, beliefs, approaches and practices of the language teacher educator in three different contexts. It was constructed with the participation of seven educators of teachers of English as a foreign language. Four of them worked in two different Mexican universities which were in distinct parts of the country, and three educators worked for a Spanish university; all of them taught theoretical and practical courses of an English language teaching program. The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of the similarities and differences in the approaches and practices developed by the language teacher–educators. Questionnaires, observations, interviews and video recordings were the methods used for the collection of the data. The case study shows that, according to the participants’ opinions, the teacher -educators tend to a learning centred approach in Mexico whereas the teacher educators in Spain combine teaching strategies of both approaches: Content centred approach and learning centred approach. Nevertheless, the teaching practices of all the case study teacher educators are similar despite the differences of contexts, and they are mainly representative of the Learning-focused approach to teaching.

Keywords

Teaching approaches, beliefs and teaching practices, ELT

English Teacher – Educators’ Approaches and Practices: A Case Study in Three Different Contexts

Abstract

Keywords

Teaching approaches, beliefs and teaching practices, ELT

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