21.4045, Diss: Applied Ling: Cook: 'Outsourcing In-Service Education: The ...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-21-4045. Wed Oct 13 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.4045, Diss: Applied Ling: Cook: 'Outsourcing In-Service Education: The ...'

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1)
Date: 12-Oct-2010
From: Melodie Cook [cookmelo at unii.ac.jp]
Subject: Outsourcing In-Service Education: The effects of a Canadian pedagogical programme on Japanese teachers' of English teaching practices
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 21:05:24
From: Melodie Cook [cookmelo at unii.ac.jp]
Subject: Outsourcing In-Service Education: The effects of a Canadian pedagogical programme on Japanese teachers' of English teaching practices

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Institution: Macquarie University 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2010 

Author: Melodie Lorie Cook

Dissertation Title: Outsourcing In-Service Education: The effects of a Canadian 
pedagogical programme on Japanese teachers' of English
teaching practices 

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Rachel Varshney

Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis reports on three studies examining an overseas pedagogical
programme of study designed for junior and senior high school Japanese
teachers of English (JTEs) and the impact of the programme on their
teaching practices. 

Several years ago, when the researcher was visiting the host university
where she used to work as an ESL instructor, a former colleague mentioned
that teachers were coming from Japan to learn Communicative Language
Teaching methodologies in Canada. Thinking this would be an ideal topic for
doctoral research, the researcher visited the Coordinator of Special
Programmes, Emma (a pseudonym), to see if she would be willing to have a
study of the programme undertaken. Because no such study of the programme
had been completed, and because Emma honestly expressed that she didn't
know what happened after JTEs returned to Japan, she kindly consented.

In order to understand more about the programme's conception, design, and
delivery, the first study examined general recommendations for
communicative language teaching (CLT) in-service education and training
programmes for teachers who teach English as a foreign language and used
such recommendations as a yardstick against which to measure the 2007
Canadian programme. In particular, the study examined three dimensions: the
programme planning dimension, the programme execution dimension, and the
cultural dimension. Three paradigms were used to compare cultural and
educational differences between Japan and Canada: the interpretation-based
versus transmission-based culture paradigm (Wedell, 2003), the
collectionist versus integrationist educational paradigm (Holliday, 1994a),
and the routine/uncertain culture versus non-routine certain culture
paradigm (Sato, 2002). This qualitative study indicated that while the
programme met almost all of the recommended criteria, especially at the
programme execution dimension, a more thorough knowledge of Japanese
educational culture and a re-examination of some assumptions on which the
programme is constructed may be useful to programme planners and trainers
in helping JTEs overcome barriers to adopting CLT practices into their lessons.

The second and third studies tracked Japanese teachers of English after
returning to Japan; the second study examined outcomes six months after
completing the Canadian programme, and the third, one year later. Both case
studies found that JTEs could effectively incorporate what they had learned
overseas if they were not bound by practical constraints, such as grammar
or translation-based entrance examination pressures; external influences,
such as a perceived need to conform to colleagues' teaching practices, or
if they were teaching specifically communication-oriented classes. Overall,
findings implied that host programme planners and instructors could benefit
from a closer look at constraints faced by third-year public school high
school teachers in particular, since this group of teachers faces the
greatest number of obstacles incorporating CLT into their regular teaching
practice. 




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