Novice Teachers and Linguistics: Foregrounding the Functional

• Published in: TESOL quarterly Vol. 46; no. 3; pp. 589 - 598
• Main Authors: Chappell, Phil, Moore, Stephen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-Blackwell 01.09.2012
• Subjects: Australia; Beginning Teachers; English (Second Language); Foreign Countries; Graduate Study; Language Teachers; Learning Theories; Linguistics; Pedagogical Content Knowledge; Practicums; Preservice Teachers; Program Descriptions; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Teaching Skills; Australia
• ISSN: 0039-8322
• DOI: 10.1002/tesq.44

This forum article describes a postgraduate certificate teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) program with a strong linguistics orientation and argues that such a program provides novice language teachers with knowledge and skills superior to those of programs which focus more on methodology and practicum experience and less on linguistic knowledge. Such programs are commendable, but they can be challenged in terms of the quality and usefulness of the linguistics training they impart to their students. The preservice postgraduate TESOL program described in this article foregrounds knowledge about language and has been developed in a linguistics department at a leading Australian university. It achieves tight coherence and integration between coursework and practical experience through a language-based theory of learning involving an orientation to language as a social resource and medium through which learning takes place. Two coursework units and a practicum have been designed, putting Halliday's systemic functional linguistics theory into practice, ensuring that preservice teachers are engaged with the complexities of language and communication through all aspects of the course in a way that instills confidence in their subject knowledge and teaching abilities. (Contains 2 figures.)