HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ------------ TRAN THI THU THANH A STUDY ON REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AS A TOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BY EFL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS AT HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hue University THUA THIEN HUE, 2022 HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ------------ TRAN THI THU THANH A STUDY ON REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AS A TOOL FOR THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BY EFL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS AT HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: ASSOC. LE PHAM HOAI HUONG THUA THIEN HUE, 2022 ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ TRẦN THỊ THU THANH NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THỰC HÀNH CHIÊM NGHIỆM NHƯ MỘT CÔNG CỤ ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN NGHIỆP VỤ CỦA CÁC GIÁO VIÊN GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH NHƯ MỘT NGOẠI NGỮ TRƯỚC KHI DẠY HỌC TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. LÊ PHẠM HOÀI HƯƠNG THỪA THIÊN HUẾ, 2022 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signed: Trần Thị Thu Thanh Date: 19/ 12/ 2022 i Abstract This research aimed to investigate reflective practice as a tool for EFL pre-service teachers' professional development at Hue University of Foreign Languages. More specifically, it focused on exploring EFL pre-service teachers‟ perceptions as well as how they implemented reflective practice for their professional development (PD). The study also explored their evaluation of their reflective practice and suggestions that were made to get better reflective practice. The participants were the third and fourth-year students from Hue University of Foreign Languages.
The data were collected by means of a questionnaire and an interview. The findings reveal that the majority of the students were well aware of the reflective practice as an effective tool for professional development together with its definition, aims and benefits. In addition, EFL pre-service teachers reported that they carried out different types of reflection through utilizing such tools as reflective journal, teaching/learning portfolio, video recordings of their own classes, action research, supervisors‟ feedback , class observation, study group and workshop. Moreover, they stated that they reflected on teaching aspects such as classroom management, knowledge and proficiency, and teaching activities and techniques.
Despite the EFL pre-service teachers‟ satisfaction in implementing reflective practice, they faced several challenges in doing reflective practice. From the findings and the limitations of the study, implications and suggestions for helping EFL pre-service teachers to carry out reflective practice for PD more successfully are put forward. ii Acknowledgements My thesis has been completed with the supports of many people. I would like to thank them for their thoughtful help.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor for her valuable guidance, thoughtful comments, sympathy and encouragement. Without her help, I cannot complete this thesis. I am also grateful to all the professors and lecturers at Hue University of Foreign Language for their insightful lectures and useful guidance during the course. I would also like to express my thankfulness to the third and fourth year students at Hue University of Foreign Language for the great cooperation in the collection of data for my study.
Finally, I am deeply indebted to my family for their love and encouragement who have supported me to overcome all difficulties and fulfill this thesis. iii iii List of Tables Table 4.1: reliability statistics of cluster 1 .2: efl pre-service teachers‟ perceptions towards pd and the necessity of pd .3: efl pre-service teachers‟ perceptions towards the definition of reflective practice .4: efl pre-service teachers‟ perceptions towards the aims of reflective practice .5: perceived benefits of reflective practice .6: reliability statistics of cluster 2 .7: types of reflective practice .8: the areas of teaching that the efl pre-service teachers reflect on .9: reported common activities for reflective practice .10: satisfaction in implementing reflective practice .11: challenges of efl pre-service teachers in doing reflective practice .12: suggestions made by efl pre-service teachers after reflection. 69 iv List of Figures Figure 1. kolb‟s reflective model (kolb, 1984, p.
participants by gender. participants by age. Frequency of common activities of reflective practice ………………………….61 v List of Abbreviations HUFLIS : Hue University of Foreign Languages and International Studies EFL : English as a Foreign Language PD : Professional Development vi Table of Contents Statement of original authorship. III List of tables .IV List of figures.
V List of abbreviations .VI Table of contents. VII Chapter I: Introduction. Structure of the thesis. 5 Chapter II: literature review.
Conceptualization of teacher professional development. Approaches to professional development. Reflective practice as a tool for efl pre-service teachers‟ professional development. Efl pre-service teachers‟ needs of using reflective practice.
Procedure of reflective practice. Types of reflective practice in language teaching. Common activities used for reflective practice. Research on the global scale.
Research in viet nam. 32 Chapter III: Methodology. Data collection tools. Research reliability and validity.
42 Chapter IV: Findings and discussion. Efl pre-service teachers‟ perceptions of reflective practice. Efl pre-service teachers‟ perceptions towards pd and the necessity of pd. Efl pre-service teachers‟ perception of reflective practice as a tool for efl pre-service teachers‟ professional development.
How efl pre-service teachers implemented reflective practice for their professional development. Types of reflective practice in language teaching. The areas of teaching that the efl pre-service teachers reflect on. Reported common activities of reflective practice.
Efl pre-service teachers‟ evaluation on their reflective practice. Efl pre-service teachers‟ satisfaction in implementing reflective practice. Challenges of efl pre-service teachers in doing reflective practice for professional development. Suggestions made by efl pre-service teachers after REFLECTION.
Efl pre-service teachers‟ perceptions of reflective practice for their pd. Efl pre-service teachers‟ implementation of reflective practice for their pd. Efl pre-service teachers‟ evaluation of their reflective practice for pd. 74 Chapter V: Conclusion, implications, limitations and suggestions for further study.
Summary of the key findings. Efl pre-service teachers‟ perceptions of reflective practice. Efl pre-service teachers‟ implementation of reflective practice for their professional development. Efl pre-service teachers‟ evaluation on their reflective practice.
Limitations of the study. For educational administrators at huflis. For efl pre-service teachers. Suggestions for further study.
82 Appendixes Appendix 1 Appendix 2 x Chapter I: Introduction 1. Background English is an international language and as a means of communication between nations, cultures and international organizations. In the trend of globalization today, English has become a prerequisite for success and national integration into the world family. With the strong development of the English language in modern society in Vietnam, the teaching and learning of English has become one of the very pressing needs.
One of the most crucial factors that make the teaching and learning process successful is the English teachers. Consequently, it is increasingly important for English teachers to become more flexible to be able to evaluate their teaching and adapt it to their context. It is the reason why English teachers are always encouraged to think critically and deeply about their teaching experiences during their professional development. According to Hayes (2010), professional development (PD) refers to many types of educational experiences related to an individual‟s work.
Doctors, lawyers, educators, accountants, engineers, and people in a wide variety of professions and businesses participate in professional development to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that will improve their performance on the job. For English teachers, professional development is a part of lifelong journey. They need to continually expand their knowledge and skills to implement the best educational practices so that they can help students learn at the highest levels. White (2019) defined that pre-service teachers are those who are in a teacher- education program in order to pursue teaching credentials in public schools or private sectors domestically or internationally.
As they are in the beginning stage of being teachers, pre- service teachers often struggle to employ theories from university coursework in their teaching (Duquette, 1993; Fang, 1996; McCormack et al. In fact, their beliefs about their professional development can affect how they develop professionally. Therefore, 1 professional development is essential not only for in-service English teachers but also for pre- service ones. Pre-service teachers‟ gradual transformation from student to professional requires examination of their biases, understanding of their students, and thoughtful deliberation regarding their approaches to instruction.
Reflection is an integral part of teaching practice completed by the end of the teaching practice program. Reflective practice is essential because it reflects an awareness of what student teachers have done as a reflection of their knowledge construction process during teaching practice. It can be seen that reflective practice is considered an effective tool for their professional development. Reflective practice is “a compass of sorts to guide teachers when they may be seeking direction as to what they are doing in the classrooms” (Farrell, 2012, p.
In other words, it is the teacher‟s opportunity to contemplate what they have done in their teaching in order to find the solutions towards the problems that may appear in the classrooms. Rationale While teacher professional development is often cited as a key lever for moving education off dead-center toward a better future, the professional development of EFL pre- service teachers in the context of Viet Nam has its own challenges. First of all, the major challenge is that EFL pre-service teachers are out of English language environment when they study with Vietnamese lecturers and classmates. Consequently, they lack practice with native speakers.
They do not have the opportunity to be acquainted with the methodological trends in language education in the English-speaking settings. Therefore, the professional development of EFL pre-service teachers should cover all aspects of advanced training, including language, intercultural, methodological and technological skills. An English teacher must not only have a good command of target language, but also be aware of his or her national culture and culture of the target language, and be competent in intercultural communication. 2 Secondly, EFL pre-service teachers will have to face up with an overwhelming number of unfamiliar issues, such as classroom management, instruction, curriculum, school culture and operations, test preparation and administration, state standards, parent relations, and interactions with other teachers when they start working in new school environment.
Also, they often struggle to bridge the gap between theories they learn from coursework and the practice of teaching. As the result, they will have got difficulty choosing suitable tools in language education area that can help them meet the requirements of the workload at school. These are the reasons why professional development courses should contribute to introducing different tools for language education in schools, which improves the quality of education. At this stage in a pre-service teacher‟s career, developing reflective practice is critical for them to cultivate the ability to see beyond the immediate needs of the moment.
Finally, although abundant research on global scale and in Viet Nam documents the professional development of EFL in-service teachers, too little is being done at the pre-service teacher level to prepare novice English teachers to recognize and meet their needs of lifelong professional development. In addition, not many researches provide deep insights into reflective practice as one of the most crucial and effective tools that help EFL pre-service teachers expand their knowledge and skills.