英文摘要 |
The English Language Teaching Material and Method course in our department aims at providing an opportunity for students who are interested in teaching English to integrate the theories they acquire in the lectures to actual classroom practice. However, unlike the English Departments of normal universities or teacher's colleges in this country, our department offers our students, i.e., the prospective teachers, neither a curriculum of 20-credit-hour in education, nor a practicum of 8-credit-hour in language teaching, let alone a one-year internship practice in classroom teaching in regular school systems. Therefore, the only chance for students in the Material & Method class to practice teaching is in the class. However, due to the large number of students and the limited class time, each student receives very little instruction of as well as the time allowed for practice in the particular course. During the past two years, the individual student got only one or two chances, of only five to fifteen minutes, in practicing teaching, which really undermined the purpose of setting up the course. This paper proposed solving the problem through integrating some teacher training simulations into the regular class schedule of this particular course, because a teacher training simulation offers a practice-based training experience with focus on peer learning, learning by doing, self-direction and self-actualization, and reflective teaching. A well-designed teacher training simulation helps maximize the effectiveness of the course with respect to teaching practice. Two example designs are attached at the end of the paper for reference. |