Professional-Oriented English Language Teaching PDF

Professional-oriented English language teaching Professional training. “To better prepare students for the higher educational demands of life and work in the 21st century, teachers need to become high-level knowledge workers” who constantly learn professionally (Schleicher, 2012, p. 11). Foreign l...

Professional-oriented English language teaching Professional training. “To better prepare students for the higher educational demands of life and work in the 21st century, teachers need to become high-level knowledge workers” who constantly learn professionally (Schleicher, 2012, p. 11). Foreign language classes should be close to real-life situations of foreign language communication. To resolve this purpose, the teacher needs to take the modern role of the teacher-manager, able to manage the activities of students, plan, adjust, quickly make changes in the structure of the stages of the lesson, monitor the achievements of results; teacher- leader, who can create creative teams, involve students in project or research activities in the field of country studies; teacher-consultant on preparation for professional international competitions, projects, trips abroad in the framework of exchange programs, self-study of a foreign language in intensive courses in the online system, etc.; teacher – researcher in the field of professional linguodidactics, methods of professional education, innovative pedagogy or psychology of foreign language teaching of students. Practical classes should become a space in which teachers actively improve foreign language skills of business and professional communication; reveal abilities to intercultural communication. Teachers should pass through active teaching approaches, for example, the process of training stations, the method of projects, tasks for training new lexical material, communicative assimilation of grammatical structures. “Collaboration, a focus on 1 student learning in teachers' daily practice and longer-term programs are important aspects of effective teacher professional development programs” (Prenger, Poortman & Handelzalts, 2017, p.77). Based on teaching practice, we can say that comprehensive English training at the moment is impossible without an innovative approach. Teachers identify the primary task of professionally-oriented teaching the introduction of new interactive tasks and the creation of techniques to help students fully integrate into the foreign language environment. Based on The modern theory of language learning is aimed at international barrier-free communication, that is why foreign language teachers and linguists need to upgrade their such professional competencies as regional geography through language, lingua didactic, culturological, preventive in addition to literacy and speech. Teacher Identity Identity as a general term defined by Alsup (2006) is considered as a sense of selfhood and is the subject of change through the passage of time based on the context in which the individual lives and works. Core identity can provide “the ability to initiate action and to register experience” (Gilligan, 2003, p. 167). In line with the researchers’ definitions of identity, Alsup (2006) puts its development as a non-stopping, ever-changing phenomenon that mandates every individual to experience “discursive tension and cognitive dissonance leading to heightened understanding (metaawareness) of the intersections among personal and professional subjectivities” (p. 205). In the field of EFL/english as a foreign language (ESL) education, the subject of teacher identity is considered as a crucial factor affecting their performance and consequently receive and attract the attention of numerous prominent researchers (Stryker and Burke, 2000; Stout, 2001; 2 Walkington, 2005; Alsup, 2006; Rorrison, 2008; Korthagen, 2013). Moreover, various outlooks have been considered by researchers, such as Gilligan (2003), Taylor (1989), Noddings (2005), Isaacs (2007), and Miller (2009), and. They defined teacher identity as a unique sense of selfcarrying by an in-service teacher as a teacher that covers his/her broad attitudes toward teaching and learning. Bullough (2011) asserts that decision-making of teachers in schools and in particular in the classroom is closely related to and affected by understanding the teacher identity, which forms the basis for his understanding of the profession. According to Alsup (2006, p. 14), teachers’ professional identity. “Incorporates the cognitive, the emotional, the bodily, and the creative, such that to not allow (pre-service) student to talk about such issues, to not teach them how and why such issues are important to their teaching lives, to not give them the opportunity to speak and take the time to hear them are doing pre-service teachers and in-service teachers a disservice—we are leaving out, we are forgetting or choosing to forget, an important (if not the most important) part of being a teacher: the teacher identity.” Even so, the development of teacher identity has been seen, at best, as a by-product of teacher education programs rather than as a targeted outcome (Alsup, 2006; Rorrison, 2008), and this is certainly the case from the perspective of pre-service teachers (Franzak, 2002). Although it is a dominant belief that roles are externally shaped by others’ expectations, Colbeck (2008) asserted that “individuals define their own identities internally as they accept or reject social role expectations as part of who they are” (p. 10). Additionally, it is generally an accepted belief that identity is created, preserved, and modified through discourse and language (Gee, 2000; Varghese et al., 2005; Alsup, 2006). In conclusion, personal and social identities are simultaneously considered as both integrated and separated issues. Olsen (2008) illuminated that by separation, the researchers mean that identities ceaselessly affect each other. In other words, identity can be considered as a product, related to the 3 particular conditions, and a constant flow that affected uninterruptedly by external and internal factors. Sugrue (2005) discussed that identity is not individual and permanent. Individuals may preserve their behaviors and routines but assuredly are significantly influenced by outside factors. Teaching Experience Brandenburg et al. (2016) assert that it is publically believed there is a strong relationship between teachers’ years of teaching experience and their quality of teaching in a different context. They found no evidence of lower teaching quality for novice teachers (up to 3 years of teaching experience), but there were symptoms of low teaching quality for teachers with 4–5 years of experience; however, research has proved that regarding different factors this relationship may vary (Klassen and Chiu, 2010). Inconsistent conceptions used to describe categories of experience are some of the problems in the realm of teaching experience. For instance, the terms “graduate,” “beginning,” and “early career” are used confusingly interchangeable to describe teachers with experience of up to 5 years (Mockler, 2018; Sullivan et al., 2019). What makes this confusion stronger is the terms like “beginner/experienced” and “novice/expert” (Palmer et al., 2005). In the present study, the researchers classified experienced teachers as those with at least 5 years of teaching experience and novice teachers as those with fewer than five. 4  Qualities to be an Excellent English Teacher – Patience Learning a language is difficult. Period. Full stop. Very few people find learning a new language easy, especially adults. It’s a process of “un-doing” as much as “doing,” learning how to form sounds the mouth has never made before, learning to force the brain to not default to the native language’s structure and context. If you’ve never tried to learn a new language before, you can assume it’s ten times harder than you think. Keep that in mind when teaching and employ patience liberally. #2 – Allowing Learning English is a complex process that takes time. And I’m not just talking about the years it takes to master a new language. I’m talking about the long- drawn-out minutes it takes to recall something you learned two days, two weeks, or two months ago. Don’t be too quick to jump in and rescue your students. In one of my favorite interviews, a teacher once advised, “Get comfortable with silence. Allow them to struggle a little bit.” He wasn’t saying that to be mean. He had learned that if he just waited a bit longer than was comfortable, the student would often come up with the answer on their own, which is 1000% more satisfying than having someone give you the answer. And it creates more self-reliant and confident students. 5 #3 – Encouragement Mastering a second language is challenging in ways that few things are. It can be an emotional roller-coaster for the learner, full of frustrating lows, frequent feelings of failure, glorious highs, and satisfying feelings of achievement. All great teachers are good cheerleaders, encouraging students to stick with it and reminding them of how far they’ve come. Almost everyone has a harsh inner critic that loves to create feelings of self-doubt and low self-esteem. When faced with something as challenging and exposed as learning a new language, it’s important to have someone in your corner cheering you on. #4 – Understanding Students have lives beyond their English lessons. Most adult students juggle a complex web of work, family, social lives, responsibilities, and time commitments. There will be times when they don’t complete an assignment or can’t make a scheduled lesson. It’s not personal, and it’s not that they don’t take learning English seriously. It’s just that learning English is never going to be a priority over family commitments or earnings. Before reacting to their seeming lack of commitment, consider everything they have going on in their lives and adjust accordingly. It may just be a one-time thing, or they may need to throttle back for a few months to keep things on an even keel at work or at home. #5 – Organization As with most things, the more organized you are, the easier it will be. Whether you’re teaching online or in a classroom, you’ll want to be uber-organized to keep things running smoothly for you and your students. 6 Right from the start, commit to a system of organization that will allow you to keep individual students’ lessons and schedules streamlined. I have folders within folders. Folders on individual students. Folders of teaching resources broken down into worksheets, reading, online websites, etc. The longer you let chaos reign, the less likely you will be to retain students or be hired for a second term. #6 – Flexibility Allow for cultural differences. We are all hard-wired with a set of preconceived notions about how a classroom or private lesson is supposed to operate. Mostly, these come from our personal experiences and the education system we grew up in. But you will find that different cultures have different operating systems when it comes to education and even one-on-one interactions with private tutors. Clinging too tightly to our own rigid ideas about how teachers and students are supposed to interact can get in the way of, and even undermine, the learning process and the success of our students. Be flexible and open to adopting new rules of conduct and communication. #7 – Adaptation It probably won’t always go as planned. Actually, I can guarantee you it will not always go as planned. Embrace the art of “spontaneous adaptation” or going with the flow. Be willing to pivot if your student expresses a desire to focus that day’s lesson on a more pressing language need. Or, if you’re teaching in a classroom, know that there will be days when, perhaps without your knowledge, students will have to leave the class to attend to some other academic matter. When it comes to teaching English, you’re playing the long game. You want to see incremental improvement over time. It’s much more about cumulative effects than 7 individual lessons. So, if a particular lesson doesn’t go as planned, it’s not as big a deal as it may seem in the moment. Just remember the long game. Characteristics of Effective Teachers Many studies have investigated the characteristics of effective teachers which most strongly influence students' learning and achievement (Demmon-Berger, 1986; Koutsoulis, 2003; Lang et al., 1993; Lowman, 1995; Witcher et al., 2001). These studies asked students to identify effective teacher characteristics by means of self- report questionnaires or interviews. Lang et al. (1993) developed a list of 32 characteristics of effective teachers through interviews with college teachers, and asked 167 participants (administrators, chairpersons, college teachers, and students) to identify and rank three characteristics considered important to teaching. They found that the teachers rated 16 characteristics significantly different from the students and that the overall difference was significant. The mean ratings for three characteristics including being knowledgeable of world events and knowing students and teaching them in ways which they learn best were higher for student respondents, whereas the remaining 13 characteristics including knowing the subject well and encouraging students to learn independently received higher mean ratings from teacher respondents. The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) reported 15 characteristics of effective teachers in two categories: management and instructional techniques and personal characteristics (Demmon- Berger, 1986). These characteristics were found among the teachers who tended to be good managers, use systematic instruction techniques, have high expectations of 8 students and themselves, believe in their own efficacy, vary teaching strategies, handle discipline through prevention, are caring, are demographic in their approach, are task oriented, are concerned with perceptual meanings rather than with facts and events, are comfortable interacting with others, have a strong grasp of subject matter, are accessible to students outside of class, tailor teaching to student needs, are flexible and imaginative. In a similar vein, Lowman (1995) found that exemplary teachers excelled in one of the two dimensions: the ability to generate intellectual excitement and interpersonal rapport in students. To confirm this study, Lowman (1996) further investigated 500 teaching awards nomination letters from the students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and found 39 descriptors of effective teacher characteristics. Even though all but six of the 39 descriptors fit into the two dimensional model of effective teachers, Lowman argued that the data fit better when two more dimensions of motivation and commitment were added to the two-dimensional model. The four dimensions found in order of weight were intellectual excitement (16 items), interpersonal concern (10 items), effective motivation (7 items), commitment to teaching (2 items), and others (4 items). In order to better understand the characteristics of effective teachers, efforts were made to find constructs in a long list of effective characteristics. Witcher et al. (2001) examined pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the characteristics of effective teachers by asking the participants to identify, rank, and define three to six characteristics that excellent teachers possessed. They found a total of 125 characteristics which were classified into the following six categories in order of endorsement rate: student-centeredness (79.5%), enthusiasm for teaching (40.2%), ethicalness (38.8%), classroom and behavior management (33.3%), teaching methodology (32.4%), and knowledge of subject (31.5%). Among the demographic variables, gender made the strongest contribution to the participants’ responses with females endorsing learner-centeredness and males endorsing classroom and 9 behavior management. More recently, Koutsoulis (2003) identified 94 characteristics of effective teachers by 25 high school students in Cyprus. Koutsoulis found that the 94 characteristics could be classified into three categories: human characteristics such as the ability to show understanding and teacher friendliness; communication characteristics such as the ability to communicate with students and to handle teacher-student relations; and teaching and production characteristics such as making lessons interesting and motivating and teacher’s subject matter knowledge. Another finding of this study was that students at different achievement levels understood teacher effectiveness differently. The low achieving students endorsed more human and communication characteristics than the high achieving students, whereas the high achievement students acknowledged more teaching and production characteristics than their counterparts did. In sum, the studies on effective teaching summarized above revealed that some of the characteristics of effective teachers were universal, that other characteristics were group dependent, and that numerous effective characteristics could be classified into a few categories including subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and socio-affective skills, with different endorsement rates according to groups such as teachers and students, male and female students, and high achieving and low achieving students. Characteristics of Effective Foreign Language Teachers (EFLT) Compared with many studies done on the characteristics of effective teachers in general education, there is a dearth of studies on the characteristics of EFLT (Brosh, 10 1996; Molica & Nuessel, 1997). This is deplorable because foreign language education lags far behind general education in effective teacher and teacher education, and because foreign language education, to date, has been undertaken with more intuitive than scientific approaches. Brosh (1996) identified the characteristics of EFLT as perceived by high school teachers and students in Israel with interviews and a questionnaire consisting of 20 items of teacher characteristics. Both groups attributed the highest importance to items regarding commanding the target language and teaching comprehensibly, whereas neither the teachers nor the students endorsed items regarding positive attitudes toward native speakers and teaching in the target language. In addition, the teachers gave more weight than students to items related to developing motivation and research orientation, whereas the students gave more weight than teachers to items related to treating students fairly and making lessons interesting. To identify the characteristics of a good language teacher, Molica and Nuessel (1997) studied good language learner behaviors in the hope that knowledge of good language learner traits can help the good language teacher create a classroom environment that will facilitate second language learning (Rubin, 1975). They outlined the traits of good language teachers as follows: Professional training such as professional meetings and instructional techniques; language proficiency such as four skills and cultural comprehension; instructional materials such as visual and audio materials; evaluation such as assessment of students and professional testing; and classroom environment such as reduction of second language anxiety and maintenance of classroom discipline. In the studies of foreign language teacher education, researchers have discussed effective teacher characteristics because the goal of teacher education is to produce quality teachers (Bernhardt & Hammadou, 1987; Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Vélez- Rendón, 2002). The discussion has been centered on a teacher’s knowledge base in terms of subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. Vélez-Rendón 11 (2002) defined subject matter knowledge as what teachers know about what they teach and pedagogical knowledge as what teachers know about teaching their subjects. Put another way, subject matter knowledge in foreign language education refers to the target language proficiency in many cases, whereas pedagogical knowledge alludes to second/foreign language acquisition theories, teaching methods, and testing. Indeed, foreign language proficiency has been considered a crucial variable important to foreign language teaching (Buchmann, 1984; Lafayette, 1993; Schulz, 2000). Buchmann (1984) argued that teachers' command of a foreign language made it possible to use the target language in class, personalize lessons according to students’ backgrounds, and facilitate effective lesson planning. s was discussed in the general teacher education and in the studies by Brosh (1996) and Molica and Nuessel (1997), socio-affective skills are a crucial trait defining effective teacher characteristics. Indeed, the importance of these skills has been recognized in many areas in foreign language education such as research in foreign language acquisition theories (Krashen, 1985; Long, 1996), motivation (Dőrnyei, 1998), and learning strategies (Oxford, 1990), to name a few. Thus, even though socio-affective skills overlap with pedagogical knowledge in a broad sense, these skills are worth being discussed as an independent category rather than discussed under the category of pedagogical knowledge. In sum, the characteristics of EFLT consist of three different categories of knowledge: subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and socio-affective skills. 1. English and English language teaching today English has become a global lingua franca or a hyper-central language in an ever shrinking world witnessing cultural fusion (Al-Issa, Citation2016). It has taken on 12 new roles locally and globally (Al-Issa, Citation2016). People around the world learn it for different purposes (Al-Issa, Citation2016). It is taught and learnt worldwide by millions of teachers and students, respectively (AlIssa, Citation2016). According to Al-Issa (Citation2017), students today bring all kinds of backgrounds, needs, interests, abilities, and expectations to the English Language Teaching (ELT) classroom. Along with this evolution came a shift in paradigms and beliefs gathering momentum about the multiple theories, approaches, methods, and methodologies that govern an expanding field like ELT (Al-Issa, Citation2016). Like English, ELT too, and through the incorporation of “informationalism” (Warschauer, Citation2000), else known as the “new global” or “post-industrial economic order”, has given rise to the challenging and demanding Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach, which through using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) specially in developing and newly industrialized countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, emphasizes functional interaction and assists students to develop critical literacy and critical inquiry to impose their voices on the world through using English as a discourse for integration and empowerment. This has important implications for the decisions practicing ELT in different parts of the world make. It further has important implications for the knowledge held and roles played by Teacher Educators (TEs), who in the age of globalization, and according to Warschauer, “spend much of their time analyzing symbol-based (numerical and textual) information” (p. 517) to help “societies compete in the international economy” (p. 517) where a mastery of “highly advanced communication skills in English” (p. 519), was achieved through adopting approaches like English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in general and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) in particular to assist learners “to compete for the better jobs in society” (p. 519). 13 2. ELT TEs at present TEs have been striving throughout the world to encourage and facilitate their Student Teachers’ (STs) learning “implicitly” and “explicitly” (Boei et al., Citation2015) through designing and implementing courses and programs and attempting to commit to blending teaching and research in their classes that can help empower their STs and hence prepare them as professional practitioners and informed reform agents in a complex world governed by cultural, economic, political, and social competing agendas shaping educational policies and practices (Apple, Citation2011). In fact, “the TE stands at the centre of the process of building the profession” (Shagrir, Citation2010, p. 46) and the work of TEs “… greatly influences the quality of teachers” (Vloet & van Swet, Citation2010, p. 149). Professional teachers are required to continue learning to cope with the ever evolving, challenging, and demanding world of ELT. Professionally prepared teachers are thus central to student success. According to Maley (Citation1992), teachers are always expected and demanded to be committed professionals through “conscientious workmanship” and “application of skilful work to a high standard of performance” (p. 96). This is particularly the case as students today bring all kinds of backgrounds, needs, interests, abilities, and expectations to the ELT classroom (Al-Issa, Citation2017). Goodwin et al. (Citation2014) established a relationship between students’ learning and the quality of their teachers and consider teachers as the most important factor in student achievement. Goodwin et al. (Citation2014) stressed that “commonsense reasoning tells us that quality teacher education relies on quality TEs” (p. 284). However, different aspects of the different ELT teacher education and training programs around the world have been reported as failing to support STs’ learning 14 (Al-Darwish, Citation2006; Al-Issa, Citation2005, Citation2010; Coskun & Daloglu, Citation2010; Jones & Jones, Citation2013; Kömür, Citation2010; Kourieos, Citation2012; Muthanna, Citation2011; Ochieng’ Ong’ondo & Borg, Citation2011; Oder, Citation2014). Conclusions were reached by different authors (Al-Issa, & Al-Bulushi, Citation2010; Kourieos, Citation2012) regarding TEs’ lack of engagement in academic professional development, which has negatively affected their pedagogical and interpersonal competence and reflected badly on preparing effective and competent teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to influence change. Richards (Citation2008) thus raises questions about the need for quality and accountability in Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) in the value-laden politically, economically, and culturally driven age of globalization, which has its direct and indirect effect on the practitioners’ hidden curriculum and policies and practices. Richards views accountability as complex and looks at it from three different perspectives. First, the standards of SLTE programs, which involve the what and how knowledge the English teacher should have. Second, the impact of SLTE programs on STs’ beliefs, understandings, knowledge, and practices. Third, the evaluation of SLTE programs with respect to the short and long-term impact they can have on the STs’ professional development. The role of the professional TEs is obviously highly critical in all three aspects. 3. What makes a professional TE? A review of the non-ELT literature revealed that the professional TEs are those who possess strong disciplinary knowledge, as in pedagogical content knowledge and academic reflective practice knowledge (Goodwin et al., Citation2014; Shagrir, Citation2010), and those who can empower their STs’ affective/cognitive 15 and academic aspects (Conklin, Citation2015). As far as the former is concerned, the quality and quantity of TEs’ complex knowledge and the modes of delivery powerfully affect the theories and practices STs’ adopt (Shagrir, Citation2010). The professional TE’s pedagogical content knowledge thus entails aspects like supporting STs’ learning through conscious and unconscious modeling of teaching and the role of teachers (Ben-Peretz, Kleeman, Reichenberg, & Shimoni, Citation2010; Goodwin et al., Citation2014; Korthagen, Loughran, & Lunenberg, Citation2005; McKeon & Harrison, Citation2010; Shagrir, Citation2010). The professional TE’s pedagogical content knowledge further includes serving as “brokers” or “gatekeepers” who engage in actively designing and implementing instruction and transforming the array of possible curricula, resources, and instructional strategies in order to provide concrete learning activities for their STs (Lunenberg, Dengerink, & Korthagen, Citation2014). Swennen, Jones, and Volman (Citation2010) and Tack and Vanderlinde (Citation2014) argued that while modeling, as an “implicit” means of encouraging and facilitating learning (Boei et al., Citation2015), is good and important, it is insufficient. They argued for “explicit modelling” or “practical knowledge articulation” to show how innovations work in practice. Moreover, professional TEs are required to pursue academic professional development (Ben-Peretz et al., Citation2010; Boei et al., Citation2015; Dengerink, Lunenberg, & Kools, Citation2015; Goodwin et al., Citation2014; Minott, Citation2010) through engaging in conducting research (Boei et al., Citation2015; Goodwin et al., Citation2014; Loughran, Citation2014; Lunenberg et al., Citation2014; Shagrir, Citation2010; Swennen et al., Citation2010; Tack & Vanderlinde, Citation2014). Thus, academic professional 16 development, where TEs strive to become the best professionals they can be, was divided into three subjects: “institutions, subject domains, and the academic individuals themselves” (Shteiman, Gidron, Eilon, & Katz, Citation2010, p. 341). It was viewed to include self-directed inquiry as in reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, which allowed for “self-analysis of professional practice” of TEs (Dengerink et al., Citation2015, p. 80) and which primarily referred to addressing and empowering individual professional needs, “… updating and build up work-related knowledge” in a rapidly expanding information era (Minott, Citation2010, p. 326). Furthermore, TEs are responsible for empowering their STs and equipping them with the necessary strategies to become “independent professionals” (Leung, Citation2009) and take responsibility for their professional development in their respective contexts. Conklin (Citation2015) was critical of the limited preparation TEs received prior to becoming TEs. Conklin called for more explicit and systematic preparation of TEs due to the changing social and political contexts so as to allow TEs “to address diversity and equity in their work preparing teachers” (p. 318). She articulated “a framework to guide coursework focused on the pedagogy of teacher education with a specific emphasis on critical, social- justice pedagogies” (p. 320). The framework took into consideration the learning needs of the STs “in the context of larger social and political forces” (p. 321), which shaped “who is engaged in teacher learning, what they are learning, and how they are learning” (p. 321) to inform and improve TEs’ practices, which suggested that student teaching “is a complex phenomenon that requires attention to many factors and influences” (p. 320). Thus, Goodwin et al. noted the worldwide questioning of university-based TE programs and the fading public confidence in schools of education, despite the fact 17 that entry to teacher education is linked to holding a degree in higher education, which facilitates achieving accreditation and quality control and measurement (Snoek, Swennen, & van der Klink, Citation2011). Goodwin et al. (Citation2014) were critical of the fact that research has given scant attention to “… what TEs should know and be able to do” (p. 284), which makes TEs a “distinct professional group with its own policy measures” (Snoek et al., Citation2011, p. 661) and has direct bearing on their STs’ underperformance and shifts accountability to TEs as professional and knowledgeable practitioners. 4. What makes a professional ELT TE? Like the literature on non-ELT teacher education, but notably to a lesser degree, there has been some discussion in the SLTE literature about TEs as being “powerful socialization models” and “influential role models for their prospective teachers” (Al-Issa, Citation2005, p. 347). However, the literature on SLTE problematized ELT TEs’ knowledge and found it conscious, deep, comprehensive, and consisting of “micro” and “macro” categories (Moradkhani, Akbari, Ghafar Samar, & Kiany, Citation2013) with knowledge of the target language being rated highest specially by non-native English speaking stakeholders (Moradkhani et al., Citation2013). Other types of complex and strong disciplinary knowledge such as pedagogical content knowledge and professional development knowledge are acquired through two channels. First, conduct different types of research (Farmer & Nucamendi, Citation2004; Moradkhani et al., Citation2013) to raise one’s awareness about the latest findings in the field and “critically examine new ideas and their potential for application” (Moradkhani et al., Citation2013, p. 135). Second, collaborate with their colleagues (Moradkhani et al., Citation2013) to critically reflect on one’s own professional knowledge and STs’ learning and 18 experiences through looking at the different artifacts available at their disposal in the different contexts in which they exist (Singh & Richards, Citation2006). This is bound to help them adjust their teaching and adopt the latest educational and pedagogical processes and practices like “co-operative learning”, “student- centred”, and “reflective inquiry” (Singh & Richards, Citation2006, p. 14), for example, which according to Farmer and Nucamendi, is a reflection of “ethical commitment” and has the potential to impact STs’ learning (Brookfield, Citation1995). This way, TEs bridge the gap between theory and practice (Moradkhani et al., Citation2013), establish new practices, and take new roles (Hawkins, 2004 cited in Singh & Richards, Citation2006) since training is evolving and is “… closely associated with political, economic, social, and cultural contexts” (Al-Issa, Citation2005, p. 347). The ELT literature also discussed the role and impact of TEs as being empowering educators (Moradkhani et al., Citation2013; Singh & Richards, Citation2006). Through the sociopolitical and contextual knowledge they possess (Moradkhani et al.) professional TEs are in a position to critically examine the SLTE course room and the complex nature of teaching and learning to shape their STs’ knowledge. Such knowledge, is affected by multiple implicit and explicit factors and can have direct bearing on STs’ affective/cognitive and professional development and help them develop as progressive teachers, informed and dynamic thinkers, critical inquirers and professionals, theory generators and developers and new knowledge and meaning sharers and constructors, autonomous and critical reflective practitioners, and powerful agents of change. Singh and Richards outlined a wide host of suggestions such as collaborative and discovery learning, social active participation, and acquisition and sharing of new professional knowledge and 19 discourse as their points of departure, which redefine the roles and responsibilities of ELT TEs as powerful and significant empowering educators. Farmer and Nucamendi (Citation2004) thus viewed these qualities as possessed by the professional ELT TE as leading to achieving “Total Quality Management” in ELT and “accountability” to “individual clients” and to the “society as a whole” (p. 7). This is particularly important at a challenging era witnessing a shift in beliefs about ELT (Hawkins, 2004 cited in Singh & Richards, Citation2006) and characterized as post or anti-method where “principled eclecticism” (Brown, Citation2002; Larsen-Freeman, Citation2000; Mellow, Citation2002) has become a commonly discussed proposition across the many diverse international contexts and in a world described by Farmer and Nucamendi as “uncertain”. References Kern, N. (2013). Technology-integrated English for Specific Purposes lessons: real-life language, tasks,and tools for professionals. In G. Motterem, Innovations in learning technologies for Englishlanguage teaching. (pp. 87-117). British Council. Kler, S. (2015). 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