Journal 1-Review

Title: Action research in language teacher education
Author: Christine Thorne and Wang Qiang
ELT journal Volume 50/3 July 1996 Oxford university Press 1996

Abstact
In recent years the notion of reflective teaching in teacher education has come to prominence. It is believed that trainee teachers should be encouraged to examine the aims and value of various traditions and methods and reflect on their own teaching in the light of experience and theoretical knowledge they have accumulated through professional reading and the teacher education programme. This article focuses on the implementation and development of a pioneering action research project in the Sino-British MA in English programme at Beijing Normal University. The aim of the project is to introduce the nation of action research into China to encourage reflective teaching and classroom research among trainee teachers and to act as a bridge between the theories studied during the two year programme and the practical realities of the classroom.

Sample:
-English language teacher
-the project is spread over two semester

Setting:
-Sino-British MA in English programme at Beijing Normal Universities

Methods:

• Teaching practice
• ELT methodology such as video and audio
• Workshop, seminar and discussion
• Data collections

Procedures:
-using teaching practice (TP) and ELT methodology component
-the project divided into 2 stage which are:

• during the first semester to familiarize the participants both theoretically and practically
• during the second semester where by students teaching pairs undertake their own cycle of research with their teaching practice (TP)

-collection of data by using the technique of case studies, audio and video technique, teacher and
learners diaries, questionnaires, interviewing, and classroom observations technique.
-each semester will concludes with planning stage that consist of:

• problem identification session
• preliminary investigation
• formulation of possible solutions
• data collection and evaluation

-for second semester, the focus was stress on the full-scale implementation of the research plan.
-trainee teachers do the weekly tutorial meeting to discuss specific problems and
solutions, stages of implementation, data collecting instruments, and data analysis.

Findings:
- the changes occured where:

• the increased the awareness of the teaching and learning process
• improvement in classroom research skill
• more varieties of classroom activities
• improving students ability to use the language