Teacher Candidates’ Knowledge
Base Related to ESL: A Case Study
Dr. Francis Bangou
Dr. Douglas Fleming
University of Ottawa/ Université d’Ottawa
Faculty of Education/ Faculté d’Éducation
Purpose

Analyzing student teachers' knowledge base
construction related to:

1) English as a Second Language (ESL)
teaching and learning theories;

2) English Language Learners (ELL’s);

3) the act of teaching.
Research Questions

1) What are the beliefs of these teacher
candidates regarding the field of ESL/ ELL
and how do these beliefs change during the
course?

2) Within the context of the course and the
program, what contributes to the
development of this knowledge base?
Knowledge Base
• Freeman and Johnson (1998) argue that teacher
education “has focused more on what teachers need to
know and on how they can be trained than on what
they actually know, how this knowledge shaped what
they do, or what the natural course of their professional
development is over time”(p. 398).

We need to take into consideration: (a) the nature of
the teacher-learner; (b) the nature of schools and
schooling, (c) the nature of language teaching.
Teacher Candidates
• Teacher candidates are not empty vessels.
In fact, learning to teach “is affected by the
sum of a person’s experiences” (Freeman &
Johnson,1998, p. 401).
• Teacher education research must better
document and understand teacher learning
so that we can move beyond discipline
based content frameworks to a grounded
descriptive analysis based on current
classroom practice.
Methods







ESL methodology course taught as an elective at a
large Canadian university
Data collected and analyzed after completion of the
course
Most participants had prior experiences as second
language instructors or learners
4 blog contributions from each of the 32 blog
participants
8 follow up semi-structured interviews
All volunteers selected for participation
Discourse analysis of blog entries
Beliefs and Experiences

Pre-service teachers prior beliefs were
primarily based on their experiences as
students in the program, as second language
learners or as instructors.

“I recognize the importance of empathy in
teachers, [speaking] as a person who
suffers a great deal from testing anxiety”.

“My experience overseas has left me with
the impression that…”
Teacher Candidates Realized that:

Teaching ESL is not just about teaching
language skills

“My question and reflection upon today's
class is: Is this more than just teaching
English?”

ELLs are not monolithic

“There can be range of ELL students”.

ELL’s do not necessarily need pull-out classes

“I [once] believed it was best to have the students
acquire the language skills necessary to
communicate and understand with an ESL teacher
apart from their peers. I now know that there are
alternatives”.

Good ELL teaching techniques help everyone

“The suggestions can benefit all students in the
classroom”.
Reinforcement of Some Beliefs

Beliefs acquired in previous classes were
reinforced, most notably related to
constructivist learning and teaching:

“As teachers we have to remember that our
ELL students come to us with some sort of
previous knowledge that we have to take
into consideration”.

“Not surprisingly, the strategies discussed…
are the same strategies that we… are being
taught within our language classes”.
Struggling with Beliefs

Candidates struggled with the course content
when it contradicted some of the beliefs they
had previously acquired in teacher training:

“I was surprised to read this. In my
Kindergarten class we learned that it is in
fact very important”

and as language learners

“To me it does not make sense. Everyone
should learn the alphabet… that’s how we
all start learning”

Struggles occurred when contradictions
occurred with practicum experiences:
 “Some of the ideas are not realistic”.

“Life in the real world does not operate like
this”.

“Realistically speaking, few schools have
the funds for translators”.
The course was a site of constructions,
deconstructions and reconstructions:
through classroom discussions and activities
“I am looking forward to discussing the how
to’s of effective assessment in class”.

opportunities to bring in other material
“I found this article online”.

and discussing the textbook
“Before reading this I believed…”
The Course Blog
“Within blog postings people would write
really thoughtful things…It kept the thread
of learning going”.
[its a] “really, really dynamic way [to learn
because] it is easier to share your own
personal experiences in that sort of forum.
You have the time to, you know, spell it all
out, the way they were thinking of it and
then you had sort of a time as the reader to
kind of go through it and reflect on it.”
Discussion

A teacher candidate’s ESL/ ELL knowledge
base is not just simply based on applied
linguistics, psychology, methodology, or
language acquisition theories.

It is constructed out of previous teaching
and learning experiences.

This is a long developmental process of
deconstruction and reconstruction that
operates in social contexts and practices.