Language Policy Implementation: A Look at Teachers’ Perceptions
Language Policy Implementation: A Look at Teachers Perceptions
Keywords: teachers perceptions, language policies, implementation, discrepancy, classroom reality, college English teaching
Hong Wang
Faculty of Education, Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada
Bio Data
Hong Wang (Ph.D.) is an assistant professor in teaching English as a second/foreign language at the Faculty of Education, Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada. Her research interests are ESL/EFL teacher education and professional development, teaching English as a second or foreign language, language policies, and curriculum implementation and evaluation. Some of her studies have been published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Asian EFL Journal, and TESL-EJ. Before joining Mount Saint Vincent University in 2006, she was a SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Carleton University, Canada.
This study explores teachers perceptions of the language policy implementation in the Chinese tertiary context. With data collected from classroom observations and follow-up interviews, the findings revealed a discrepancy between policymakers intentions and teachers executions. Teachers failed to implement faithfully what was required from policymakers in the classroom. Rather, they conducted teaching based on the classroom and political realities. Their factors were mainly student and departmental, which included large class size, students language proficiency, motivation, learning behaviour, perceptions of teachers role, and institutional evaluation mechanism on teaching excellence. The implications of this policy implementation point to the importance of understanding why there exists such a discrepancy within that context.
See pages: 1-25
[/private]Category: Monthly Editions, Volume 29
