Language development

provision in teacher training

curricula
George Murdoch

Recent thinking on teacher education has emphasized the range of

methodological training options available. It is argued here that, in
developmental educational contexts, modalities of training have to be
worked out in relation to the need to develop the most valued aspect of a
non-native English teacher’s competence-a high level of English language
proficiency. The second part of the article gives the results of a survey of Sri
Lankan teacher trainee' views on language developmentprovision in their
institutional training curriculum. The findings provide strong support for
curriculum revisions that would intensify the focus on trainees’ language
competence during formal training.

Dimensions of The literature on teacher education has succeeded in defining the

teacher training dimensions of institutional training which can be offered to trainee
teachers (see, for example, articles in ELT Journal 42/1; Richards and
Nunan, 1990). As Britten (1985) has established, one essential element of
the training will be concerned with equipping novice teachers with those
competencies or microskills which characterize the performance of
effective language teachers: using audio-visual aids; introducing
grammatical structures; asking questions and handling student responses;
teaching dialogues; organizing groupwork activities, etc. However, there
is more to teacher preparation than developing particular skills (Britten
1985; Richards and Nunan 1990). Skills-based training needs to be
complemented by a holistic, or macro approach, aimed at developing not
only the teacher’s grasp of the theoretical principles underlying particular
teaching practices. but also those behaviours and more general attitudes to
teaching which are the key to creating a positive learning environment.
Qualities such as the ability to deal with the diverse learning styles of
children, for instance, cannot be directly taught in training, but have to be
nurtured through providing opportunities for observation, discussion, and
reflection.

Modalities of One element of teacher training which has been relatively neglected until
training recently is the actual methodology of training itself. As Nunan (1989) has
stressed in relation to ELT courses, the choice of tasks and activities for
ELT Journal Volume 48/3 July 1994 © Oxford University Press 1994 253

articles welcome
 the classroom is a crucial determinant of how much interest is generated
among students and, consequently, of the value of the course itself in
language learning terms. Ellis (1990) has drawn up a useful inventory of
types of training tasks - ranking, preparing, selecting, listing, etc. -
which can be carried out using appropriate data and materials for
particular components of the teacher education programme. Trainees
should be exposed to as wide a range of training modalities and
procedures as possible, including seminars, workshops, and discussions.
This will maximize the effectiveness of their training, and have a
profound influence on their eventual classroom practices (Parrott 1988
and Ellis 1990). Trainees whose methodological knowledge is mainly
communicated to them via a lecture mode of presentation are likely to
adopt a transmission style of teaching with their own pupils later on,
which will be ill-suited to the task of developing the children’s
communication skills. By contrast, hands-on experience of diverse
activities and procedures in the teacher education classroom will provide
an excellent basis for trainees to determine the types of activities and
groupings that can be usefully utilized in the ELT classroom.
In a developmental educational context, the need to include a range of
training methods is particularly important. Teachers operating in societies
where traditional practices are deeply rooted are often reluctant to decide
for themselves which activities are most appropriate to meet the needs of
their students. (Kennedy 1991) They will tend to expect decisions
regarding how objectives will be achieved to be taken at a higher level of
the system. In this type of socio-cultural climate teachers will only
employ methodologies which have been sanctioned by being employed
during their own period of formal training by those of higher status, i.e.
college lecturers.

The need for While there is a current focus on training processes and options, it has
language been less frequently pointed out that the methodology of teacher training
development also has a major impact on what is of concern to most language teachers:
provision the development of their own language skills. For non-native English
teachers, language proficiency will always represent the bedrock of their
professional confidence. Lange (1990) rates language competence as the
most essential characteristic of a good teacher, and few would disagree
with this view.
A concept less easily accepted by curriculum designers is that language
development has to be given a central place in the curricula for teacher
training institutions. One might usefully take the Sri Lankan situation as a
case to illustrate the problem. In the not too distant past, English was the
medium of instruction in Sri Lankan schools, and the first language of the
country. Now English is a second language in certain business,
professional, and higher education contexts, but in most others is
becoming a foreign language. The reduced national role of English has,
along with other contributory factors, had a negative impact on the levels
of proficiency reached by children when they leave school. As a result,
there is a need to provide language training for trainee English teachers. In
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 training contexts which offer less support from the environment than a
post-colonial society like Sri Lanka, such as the countries of Eastern
Europe, the need for language development provision in teacher training
institutions must be even greater.

Suggestions for One way trainees can receive increased levels of language support is
strengthening through activity-based teacher education tasks. There may well be a case
language support for making more use of those modalities of training for methodology
components which significantly extend trainees’ communicative
competence.

Activity-based tasks Besides hands-on experience of classroom activities adjusted to the level
of the trainees, many other activities related to pedagogic topics provide
excellent opportunities for communication practice: preparing materials
and presenting them before peers in the training group; practice of
language associated with asking students different types of questions and
responding to their answers and questions (Johnson 1990); taking part in
trainee panel discussion and question and answer sessions (on teaching
particular skills): keeping a diary of training and teaching practice
experiences. Such practice usefully consolidates the work carried out in
sessions devoted exclusively to language development. It is therefore
necessary to re-evaluate the conventional distinction in teacher education
between linguistic and pedagogic studies (Thomas 1987:36), and think
more in terms of activities which help to develop both pedagogic and
language competencies.

Self-development Simply establishing a symbiotic relationship between language study and

strategies methodology components will not be sufficient in itself to tackle the scale
of the language needs of trainee teachers in a country like Sri Lanka.
There is a need to explore other ways of strengthening the focus on
language work. If possible, the exigencies and contact teaching hours of
other subjects in the overall curriculum - educational psychology,
principles of education, etc. - should be reduced to release more time for
language study. Where the curriculum is rigid in this respect, a fairly
formalized extra-curricular reading programme can have a significant
impact on achieved levels of competence. Trainees can, for example, be
required to submit a set number of completed book questionnaires per
term, or describe their reading experiences to the rest of the group at
regular intervals during the training period. Other programmes of this
nature could be developed according to the self-study resources available
to students-radio programmes. video and TV programmes, or tape
recordings. for example. Encouraging self-development strategies not
only helps trainees to raise their proficiency levels during training, but
also develops habits which can enable them to maintain their standard of
English when they are teaching in a less linguistically-rich environment.
This is important for English teachers working in remote rural areas
where the community of English speakers may be very restricted, even
within the school itself.
Language development for teacher trainees 255

articles welcome
 Focus on classroom Other measures for tackling language development might be to ensure
language and that the content of texts is accessible and sufficiently stimulating to drive
learner strategies successful language activities; to include work on classroom language;
and to highlight learner strategies which can enable trainees to learn more
efficiently. Such course elements will positively influence trainees’ later
approaches to classroom teaching.

Survey of The ideas which have been put forward in this article arose out of
trainees’ views curriculum workshops at the three key English teacher training institutions
in Sri Lanka - Bolawalana English Teachers’ College. Peradeniya English
Teachers’ College, and Pasdunrata College of Education. These colleges
are all participating in the British Council/Overseas Development
Administration Sri Lanka Teacher Education Project. One main initial
objective of the workshops was to revise the language syllabus for the
institutions. They succeeded in establishing a consensus among the English
lecturers at the colleges regarding the curriculum revision needed to
improve language proficiency levels. However, there was some anxiety as
to how these ideas would be received by the trainees. Perhaps, it was felt,
students would not share lecturers’ ideas about the benefits of particular
modalities of training, such as activity-based learning. For this reason, a
decision was taken to review the students’ attitudes.
A survey questionnaire (see Appendix 1) was administered to 208
students in the two English Teachers’ Colleges - Bolawalana and
Peradeniya. These colleges were selected because their student
populations are identical in character, being composed of teachers who
have taught for a number of years in schools, whereas Pasdunrata is a pre-
service institution. The questionnaire was given to second-year students
since it was felt that first-year students would not have sufficient
experience of activities, curriculum components, and teaching practices
to provide informative responses.
The survey questions addressed the key issues which have been discussed
in this article:
l the relative importance of language development in relation to other
curriculum training components
l the impact of the methodology employed for teaching pedagogical
components on trainees’ language proficiency
l views on the degree to which language competence is the key to
successful English teaching
l preferred modes of interaction in language and methodology classes
l the expansion of the language programme to include examination of
classroom language and learner strategies training
l preferences regarding the subject content of materials used for the
language development programme.

Survey results The full results of the survey are shown in Appendix 2, but it is worth
highlighting a number of clear-cut results that enabled decisions to be
made about curriculum revisions.
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 The first question asked students to rate various activities that might be
used in a methodological component dealing with reading skills in terms
of their impact on trainees’ language skills. The top five activities
selected, in descending order of popularity were:
1 (c) Creating materials for classroom teaching.
2 (i) Discussions after viewing a film or observing a class being taught.
3 (d) Brainstorming pre-reading stimuli for a coursebook reading list.
4 (h) Student preparations on a topic or set reading.
5 (b) Ranking different materials according to their interest value for
pupils.

Creativity and It is significant that the most highly-ranked activities are those which
interaction require the highest levels of creativity, interaction. and production from
the trainees. Activities which allow trainees to assume an active, involved
role in the teacher education classroom are clearly perceived as beneficial
for expanding communicative competence. These findings were
confirmed by the results for Question 2, which asked trainees to express
their preferences with regard to groupings in methodology sessions in
terms of positive influence on the growth of language skills. The desire for
more interactive, learner-centred work was reflected in ranking group
work (1) and working in pairs (2). above teacher-directed classes (3) and
individual work (4).

Twinning training The responses to Questions 1 and 2 imply that there is a favourable
objectives reaction from trainees to the concept of twinning training objectives in
course components so as to tackle pedagogical and linguistic needs
simultaneously. Direct support for the idea was elicited in Question 3 by
asking trainees to indicate their reaction to the following statement:

Teaching skills and techniques should be developed by methods that

maximize opportunities for students to develop and practise their
language skills.

An emphatic 95 per cent of respondents accepted this statement (either

'agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’).
In considering the implementation of such a twinning concept. the
findings from Questions 10 and 11 are highly relevant. Trainees indicated
that speaking was the most important skill for English teachers (Question
10), and that in terms of practice activities. role plays. discussions, and
reading/writing activities were of great value (Question 11). There would
therefore seem to be a strong case for introducing learner-centred
interactive activities into pedagogic modules, since the language practice
involved in carrying out these activities would make them doubly useful
to the trainees.

Classroom Questions 7 and 8 concerned the dimensions of the language

language improvement programme during college training. Eighty-five per cent of
respondents indicated that learning classroom language would have a
Language development for teacher trainees 257

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 beneficial effect on their teaching performance (Question 7) and, as
already mentioned, it is clear that familiarity with classroom language and
routines would maximize the effectiveness of trainees’ own language
training. This is confirmed in the findings from Question 10, which asked
respondents to react to the following statement:

I would like to find out about how best to learn English and study
effectively during my language development course.

Eighty-four per cent supported this statement, and there can be no doubt
that an expansion of the traditional language syllabus to include focuses
both on cognitive aspects of learning a language and the language utilized
in the process of learning English would be well tolerated by trainees.

Textual content Question 13 tackled the issue of what subject content would best foster
interest in learning English. Trainees were provided with a list of options
and were asked to select as many of the subjects as they felt would provide
good bases for language activities. The results showed that modern
literary texts was the most popular subject: second was classroom
situations and experiences; current affairs and students’ own writing tied
for third place. It would appear, therefore. that these particular trainees
would not be motivated by establishing topic content connections
between the language programme and other curriculum subject areas.
Instead, they prefer a diversity of texts which deal with contemporary
social issues and topics related to their future professional lives as English
teachers. This was borne out in the responses to Question 14, which asked
trainees to suggest other possible topics. The topics specified were
aesthetic subjects, social studies, religion, and personal experiences.

Language Finally, a number of questions solicited views on the importance of

competence as a language study during teacher training. In responding to Question 8, 89
priority per cent of trainees agreed that a teacher’s confidence is most dependent
on his or her own degree of language competence. Question 15 asked
trainees to indicate what proportion of their time at college should be
devoted to language work. Over half the 208 students polled wanted 50
per cent more of their course to be given over to this. If we take the
percentage of students who wanted 40 per cent or more of their
curriculum hours to be spend on language work, then the proportion goes
up to 77 per cent (I 60 students). There is, then, overwhelming evidence
that language proficiency should be the number one priority in the training
curriculum. Further confirmation for this belief was provided by the
results for Question 16, which asked students to rank the various
components of their overall curriculum in terms of relative personal
importance. Students placed language improvement in top position,
above ELT methodology (2) and educational psychology (3).

Conclusion The results of the survey clearly demonstrate that trainees would fully
support any moves to intensify or expand the language training
curriculum provision in Sri Lankan teachers’ colleges. Furthermore, the
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 hypothesis that non-native teacher trainees regard language proficiency as
the foundation of their ability to fulfil their future professional role
certainly seems to be valid, at least in a developmental teacher education
context like Sri Lanka. In our concern for fostering interactive
methodological practice and the ability of teachers to develop their
students’ knowledge of the language system, we may tend to
underestimate how inadequate teachers themselves will feel if they lack
confidence in their own language performance. We must question the
effectiveness of a pedagogical focus which fails to address this core
anxiety. All the evidence suggests that a greater concern with language
training. particularly durin g early phases of the training programme,
would produce more competent teachers. There is certainly no reason to
regard the various strands of the language component as poor cousins of
other curriculum subjects in the institutional training curriculum. Given
its role in moulding the confidence of the successful non-native English
teacher in developmental educational contexts, it is high time language
improvement was afforded proper status.
Received April 1993

References training courses for teachers whose first language

Bowers, R. (ed.) 1987. ‘Language Teacher
Education: An Integrated Program for ELT
Teacher Training’. ELT Documents 125 London:
Modern English Publications/The British Council.
Britten, D. 1985a. ‘Teacher Training in ELT: Part 1’.
Language Teaching 18: 112-28.
Britten, D. 1985b. ‘Teacher Training in ELT: Part 2’.
Language Teaching 18: 220-38.
Duff, T. (ed.) 1988. Explorations in Teacher
Training. Harlow: Longman.
Ellis, R. 1990. ‘Activities and procedures for teacher
preparation’ in J. Richards and D. Nunan (eds.).
Johnson, R. K. 1990. ‘Developing teachers’
language resources’ in J. Richards and D. Nunan.
Kennedy, J. 1991. ‘Perspectives on cultural and
individual determinants of teaching style’. RELC
Journal 22/2: 61-75.
Lange, D. L. 1990. ‘A blueprint for a teacher
development program’ in J. Richards and D.
Nunan (eds.).
Nunan, D. 1989. Designing Tasks for the
Communicative Classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Parrott, M. 1988. ‘Dealing with disparate needs on
is not English’ in T. Duff (ed.) 1988.
Richards, J. and D. Nunan (eds.) 1990. Second
Language Teacher Education. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Thomas, A. L. 1987. ‘Language teacher competence
and language teacher education’ in R. Bowers,
(ed.) 1987.
The author
George Murdoch is a British Council English
Language Teaching Officer. He is the Adviser for
Institutional Development on the ODA-funded Sri
Lanka Teacher Education Project. He holds an MA in
English from Cambridge University and an MA in
Applied Linguistics from the Institute of Education.
London University. Previous postings have taken him
to Oman, Kuwait, Iran, and France. Particular
interests in the field include the teaching of literature.
and reading and curriculum development.

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 Appendix 1 Survey questionnaire of the views of student teachers in Sri Lankan teacher
training institutions on curriculum provision for language development.
1 To what extent would the following activities in methodology classes on teaching
reading aid the growth of your language skills? Rate each one using the five point scale
(1 = most effective, 5 = least effective).
a. Listening to a lecture about teaching reading skills. I 2 3 45
b. Ranking different materials according to their interest I 2 3 4 5
value for pupils.
C. Creating teaching materials/activities for classroom teach- I 2 3 4 5
ing
d. Brainstorming pre-reading stimuli for a course book read- I 2 3 4 5
ing text.
e. Comparing different lesson plans for teaching the same 1 2 3 4 5
material from the textbook.
f. Summarizing orally and then in writing the main points the 1 2 3 4 5
lecturer has made about the key reading strategies.
g. Categorizing texts in terms of different functional/rhet- 1 2 3 4 5
orical categories, e.g. narrative, argumentative, etc.
h. Student presentations on a topic or set reading. 1 2 34 5
i. Discussions after viewing a film or observing a class being 1 2 34 5
taught.
j. Copying down a lecturer’s note. 1 2 345

2 Rank these groupings for activities in methodology sessions according to their value
for language development (1 = most valuable). Write the appropriate number in the
box provided.
working individually

working in pairs

working in groups

whole class with teacher directing

In questions 3-9 tick the column with the headin, g that best summarizes your reaction to
each statement.

Strongly Agree Not Disagree Strongly

Q agree sure disagree

3 Teaching skills and techniques

should be developed by
methods that maximize
opportunities for students to
develop/practise their language
skills.
4 Student teachers cannot improve
their English enough simply via
studying methodology and
preparing for teaching practice.
5 The way in which language is
taught in teacher training
institutions has a very strong
influence on the procedures
student teachers adopt for
teaching English in schools.

continued

260 George Murdoch

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 Strongly Agree Not Disagree Strongly
Q agree sure disagree

6 The teaching of spoken English

during formal training should be
based largely on the interactions
which take place in the school
context.
7 If student teachers are taught
classroom language, this will
have a very beneficial effect on
their later classroom
performance.
8 A teacher’s confidence is most
dependent on his/her own
degree of language proficiency
9 I would like to find out about
how best to learn English and
study effectively during my
language development course.

10 Rank the four skills according to their degree of importance for an English teacher in
Sri Lanka ( 1 = most important)

Speaking

Reading

q Listening

Writing

11 Which of the following activities do you find useful for improving your English?
Circle the appropriate answer.
singing Yes No
role play Yes No
drama activities Yes No
pronunciation practice Yes No
problem-solving activities Yes No
dictation Yes No
learning and practising grammar Yes No
writing about personal experience Yes No
debates/discussions Yes No
reading widely Yes No
activities to practise particular reading/writing skills Yes No
simulations Yes No

12 Are there any other language learning activities you feel are valuable but are not
mentioned in 11?

13 Which of the following subjects would best provide sources of stimulating input for
language development activities’? Tick (_) the appropriate boxes (you can choose as
many as you want).

Language development for teacher trainees 261

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 modern literary texts

classroom situations, experiences. and issues

other subjects in the training course curriculum

current affairs

q students’ own writings

other societies and cultures

14 What other topics/subjects. not mentioned in 10, could be dealt with on a teacher
education language course’?

15 What percentage of your time would you like to spend simply developing your
language skills on your training programme? Tick the appropriate box.

q less than 5%

05-10%

q 10-20%
10-30%

30-40%

40-50%

more than 50%

16 Consider the value of these components of a training programme for English

teachers. Rank them in order of personal importance from 1 to 10 (1 = most
important).

educational psychology

q principles of education

language improvement

teaching practice

ELT methodology and techniques

testing

linguistics/sentence structure

phonology

study of literary set texts

classroom observation/microteaching

THANK YOU

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Appendix
2 Survey results
1 To what extent would the following activities in methodology classes on teaching
reading aid the growth of your language skills‘?
Results (in rank order. I = most effective):
1 Creating teaching materials/activities for classroom teaching.
2 Discussions after viewing a film or observing a class being taught.
3 Brainstorming prereading stimuli for a coursebook reading text.
4 Student presentations on a topic or set reading.
5 Ranking different materials according to their interest value for pupils.
6 Summarizing orally, and then in writing. the main points the lecturer has made
about the key reading strategies.
7 Categorizing texts in terms of different functional/rhetorical categories, e.g.
narrative, argumentative, etc.
8 Comparing different lesson plans for teaching the same material from the
textbook.
9 Listening to a lecture about teaching reading skills.
10 Copying down a lecturer’s notes.

2 Rank these groupings for activities in methodology sessions according to their value
for language development.
Results (in rank order: 1 = most valuable):
1 working in groups
2 working in pairs
3 whole class with teacher directing
4 working individually.

3-9 Results are given in percentiles.

Tick the column with the heading that best summarizes your reaction to each statement:

Strongly Agree Not Disagree Strongly

Q agree sure disagree

3 Teaching skills and techniques 52 43 1 I 2

should be developed by methods
that maximise opportunities for
students to develop/practise their
language skills.
4 Student teachers cannot improve 21 41 9 23 5
their English enough simply via
studying methodology and
preparing for teaching practice.
5 The way in which language is 23 36 18 15 2
taught in teacher training
institutions has a very strong
influence on the procedures
student teachers adopt for
teaching English in schools.
6 The teaching of spoken English 20 35 21 12 5
during formal training should be
based largely on the interactions
which take place in the school
context.

continued

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 Strongly Agree Not Disagree Strongly
Q agree sure disagree

7 If student teachers are taught 39 46 7 4

classroom language. this will
have a very beneficial effect on
their later classroom
performance.
8 A teacher’s confidence is most 49 40 5 3
dependent on his/her own
degree of language proficiency.
9 I would like to find out about 34 50 9 4
how best to learn English and
study effectively during my
language development course.

10 Rank the four skills according to their degree of importance for an English teacher in
Sri Lanka.
Results (in rank order: 1 = most important):
1 Speaking
2 Listening
3 Writing
4 Reading

11 Which of the following activities do you find useful for improving your English’?
Results (percentage of students that selected each activity):
Role plays 95%: Debates/discussions 95%; Learning and practising grammar 94%;
Activities to practise particular reading/writing skills 91%; Pronunciation practice
89%; Drama activities 87%; Writing about personal experience 86%; Problem-
solving activities 83%; Reading widely 84%; Dictation 73%; Simulations 72%;
Singing 65%.

12 Are there any other language learning activities you feel are valuable but are not
mentioned in 11?
Results (most mentioned activities):
language games: creative writing tasks: solving problems: quizzes

13 Which of the following subjects would best provide sources of stimulating input for
language development activities’?
Results (in rank order):
1 modern library texts; 2 classroom situations, experiences. and issues; 3 current
affairs; 4 students’ own writings; 5 other subjects in the training course curriculum:
6 other societies and cultures.

14 What other topics/subjects, not mentioned in 13, could be dealt with on a teacher
education language course’?
Results (subjects most mentioned):
aesthetic subjects: social studies: religion: personal experience

15 What percentage of your time would you like to spend simply developing your
language skills on your training programme?
Results (number of students selecting each option):
more than 50%: 115;40-50%: 45; 30-40%: 30; 20-30%: 8; 10-20%: 2; 5-10%: 2;
less than 5%: 1.

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16 Consider the value of these components of a training programme for English
teachers. Rank them in order of personal importance from 1 to 10 (1 = most impor-
tant)
Results (overall ranking):
1 language improvement 6 principles of education
2 ELT methodology and techniques 7 phonology
3 educational psychology 8 study of literary set texts
4 linguistics/sentence structure 9 classroom observation/
5 teaching practice microteaching
10 testing

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