Theory And Foreign Language Teaching Case Analysis

The main argument in the article “What, When, How And Why? Theory And Foreign Language Teaching” by Shirley Lawes is theory vs. practice in teacher education. I, as a teacher, find this article very interesting because the gap between theory and practice is an important issue for teaching and teacher education. Shirley says, in this article, that sound theoretical knowledge is crucial for foreign language teachers, it must be in the center from the beginning of initial training and emphasized over other issues. She states that initial teacher training (ITT) is prescribed by some obligatory practical trends and competence-based standards, which don’t attach importance to theoretical knowledge. She believes that the focus of much continuing …show more content…
The approach in universities was: you will learn theory during lectures and will then apply it in practice. Theory, in this context, was presented as a kind of pseudo-scientific justification for practitioner action, the implication being that, by using it to generate hypothetical solutions to problems, it could be applied in practice. (Geisler & Wickramasinghe, 2015) Student teachers often indicated that knowledge acquired in teacher training didn’t enable them to handle the uncertainty, the complexity and the instability of actual practice situations. So, we can state that the training slogan ‘Learn theory at university and apply it in practice’ is outdated. (Zeichner & Liston & Mahlios & Gomez, …show more content…
Reflection can be a rich source of continuing personal and professional development. This provides an opportunity for teachers to renew and review their practice. Through reflection, the teachers can gain an increase in planning and in self-esteem, greater control of their teaching practice, greater belief that they can influence student learning, greater interest in gathering data and information on their teaching. Also, professionals can develop context-specific theories that take their own understanding of their work forward and generate knowledge to inform future practice. When an educator engages in meaningful reflection, conclusions can be drawn that provide insight for future instruction. The primary emphasis is to prepare educators to create learning environments that are conducive to the teaching and learning process which will positively impact student achievement. (Richards&Lockhart, 1996) Cruickshank and Applegate (1981) state the following; reflective teaching gives students time to think carefully about their own teaching behaviors and an opportunity to view other experiences of professionals in action. Teachers find themselves engaged in a meaningful process of inquiry which leads them toward renewed self-esteem and interest in teaching. As a result, teachers become more reflective about teaching and more interested in