论文摘要：

Typically, the pre-service teacher education programme is seen as the start of the teacher’s professional development. Student teachers systematically learn to teach in the pre-service teacher education programme, which is considered as their initial stage of professional development. Over the past two or three decades, there has been a lot of research on pre-service teacher education with a focus mainly on investigating the curriculum design and its effectiveness in helping student teachers learn to teach. However, little research has been conducted to explore in depth the pre-service teachers’ beginning process of learning to teach, its typical features, and learner needs at this stage of learning. The present study is designed to make a contribution to the nascent body of researches on language teacher learning. 

This qualitative multiple-case study explored the student teachers’ processes of learning to teach in a pre-service EFL teacher education programme, the typical features that characterize such a process, and their real needs at this stage of learning in China. The following research questions guided the present study: 1) What characterizes the student teachers’ processes of learning to teach in a pre-service EFL teacher education programme?; 2) Are there any changes taking place in terms of their teacher knowledge, beliefs and teaching abilities? If yes, what are the changes and how knowledge, beliefs and teaching abilities relate to one another? ; 3) What factors can be identified which influence their processes of learning to teach? The participants of the study are four student teachers engaged in a pre-service EFL teacher education programme of a Normal university. Research data sources included questionnaire responses, interview data, observation notes and field notes. The qualitative data analysis followed the methods of “content analysis” and “categorization”.

The results revealed that in the pre-service EFL teacher education programme, the student teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, teaching skills and reflective abilities all developed to a large extent with their respective characteristics. Meanwhile, their understanding of teaching (e.g. teaching beliefs) and their confidence in themselves as a teacher evolved in a unique, dynamic, interactive and reflective developmental process. The factors that facilitate or impede this process of learning to teach include their previous learning and teaching experience, personal attributes, learning styles, the content and teaching methods of the programme and interpersonal factors. 

This inquiry contributes to a better understanding of how student teachers, studying in the pre-service EFL teacher education programme in China, learn to teach the language. It thus has implications for the teacher educators to better know the process of student teachers’ professional development before entering the teaching position and their real needs, and to better support student teachers before and during the pre-service teacher education programme. It is anticipated that the knowledge generated from this inquiry would afford new insights and so inform the design and implementation of pre-service teacher education programme, especially in Normal universities.