Building a nation's communication and employment opportunities by developing preservice ESL teaching practices

Abstract

Building a nation will require enhancing communication opportunities. The current grow1h of English in the world necessitates more developed ESL education, which requires educating preservice ESL teachers to a higher level of ESL teaching competence. This study involves 19 Hong Kong preservice ESL teachers in a six-week course at a regional Australian university for teaching English as a second language. The ESL preservice teaching course focused on providing pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge for teaching English as a second language in the primary school context. Data collected through observation, interviews, university assessments on professional experiences, and the participants' reflective transcripts provided a means for analysing their development as potential ESL teachers. Results indicated that effectively-designed short-term courses can sufficiently develop pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge for teaching English as a second language and substantially enhance the confidence of preservice ESL teachers for teaching English as a second language. This may lead towards more effective ESL teaching and learning, and a way to strengthen communication between nations and enhancing employment opportunities.