Contents Explanation of the Abbreviations
Part 1 Background of the Research
Chapter 1 Introduction 4
1.1 National Training Plan 4
1.2 English Language Education Policy in China: Ideology Changes from Political-Oriented to Utilitarian-Oriented 8
1.2.1 Political-oriented English education: the 1860s to the mid-1970s 8
1.2.2 Economic-oriented English education: 1978 to 2000 9
1.2.3 Instrumental English education: expansion after 2001 10
1.3 Problems of English Education in Multilingual Ethnic Minority Areas of Yunnan 12
1.3.1 Language barriers in multilingual areas 15
1.3.2 English teachers, poor teaching quality 16
1.4 Significance of the Research 18
1.5 Research Questions 19
1.6 Research Rational 20
Part 2 Theoretical Framework of the Research
Chapter 2 Key Concepts on Teacher Professional Development 28
2.1 Teaching as a Profession 28
2.2 Professional Teachers in Western Terms and Shide in Chinese Context 31
2.2.1 Professional teachers in Western terms 31
2.2.2 Shide: old Confucian requirements 33
2.3 Stage of Teacher Professionalism in Current China 36
2.4 Teacher Knowledge Base 45
Chapter 3 Social Constructed Cognitive Process 47
3.1 Constructivist Learning Theory 47
3.1.1 The “novice” and the “expert” in constructivist learning process 47
3.1.2 Vygotsky,s dialectical constructivism 48
3.1.3 Instructional scaffolding 49
3.1.4 Organizational context 50
3.2 Constructivist Learning Theory and In-service Teachers, Training 50
Chapter 4 Motivation and Adults,Education Participation 52
4.1 From Maslow to Herzberg 52
4.2 Roger Boshier,s EPS 54
Chapter 5 Teacher Beliefs 57
5.1 Bandura,s Model of Reciprocal Determinism 57
5.2 Teacher Efficacy and Its Influencing Factors 59
5.3 Attitudes in Language Learning 62
Part 3 Major Findings
Chapter 6 Language Learning Attitudes of Secondary School English Teachers in Multilingual Areas 67
6.1 Distribution and Strength of ELA 69
6.1.1 General English learning attitudes 70
6.1.2 Five English learning attitudinal dimensions 71
6.1.3 Spearman rank correlation analysis of ELA 73
6.2 Distribution and Strength of Ethnic Minority Language Learning Attitudes 73
6.2.1 General learning attitudes towards ethnic minority languages 73
6.2.2 Five ethnic minority language learning attitudinal dimensions 74
6.2.3 Spearman rank correlation analysis of the ethnic minority language learning attitudes 75
6 6.3 Strength and Correlation of Language Learning Attitudes 76
6.3.1 Strength and correlation of AC 76
6.3.2 Strength and correlation of AS 78
6.3.3 Strength and correlation of AL 80
6.3.4 Strength and correlation of attitudes to social value of the target language 81
6.3.5 Strength and correlation of attitudes to the particular uses of the target language (PU) 82
6.4 Teachers, General Attitudes to Language Learning 83
6.4.1 “English is a cultural carrier.” 83
6.4.2 “English has more social values than ethnic minority languages.” 85
Chapter 7 Teacher Efficacy of Secondary School English Teachers in Multilingual Areas 88
7.1 ETE Strength 89
7.2 Teacher Efficacy Strength and the Demographic Features 90
7.2.1 Age 90
7.2.2 Teaching years 91
7.2.3 Teaching subjects 93
7.2.4 Professional titles 94
7.2.5 Ethnicity 95
7.3 Difficulties for Teaching English in Rural Areas 95
7.3.1 “I don,t know how I can motivate my students to learn English.” 96
7.3.2 “The principal always assigned me to do other things not related to my teaching.” 99
7.3.3 “Family guidance is so poor that parents barely have positive influences on students.” 100
7.4 The language Barrier for Teaching English in Multilingual Areas 104
7.4.1 “This is a multilingual area and you don,t need to learn English to survive.” 105
7.4.2 “English can only be taught in Chinese, but I have many students who cannot speak Chinese.” 108
7.4.3 “I don,t know their languages and I can only teach in Chinese.” 110
7.5 Beliefs on Professional Teacher and Teaching Profession 112
7.5.1 “If I care more about the students, they would gradually believe in us.” 113
7.5.2 “Sometimes I like being a teacher but sometimes I don,t.” 114
7.5.3 “Being a teacher doesn,t mean teaching knowledge only, and it also means educating students to be responsible for society.” 115
7.5.4 “We are the lowest of the society but doing the hardest job.” 115
Chapter 8 Education Participation Motivation of Secondary School English Teachers in Multilingual Areas 119
8.1 Exploratory Factor Analysis 120
8.2 Strength of Educational Participation 123
8.3 Differences of EPS Strength of English Teachers Among Various Demographic Groups 124
8.3.1 Teaching years 124
8.3.2 Age 127
8.3.3 Professional titles 129
8.3.4 Ethnicity 130
8.4 Correlations Between ELA and EPS of English Teachers 131
8.5 Correlations Between TE and EPS of English Teachers 133
8.6 Differences of EPS Between High and Low GTE English Teachers 134
8.7 Reflections on In-service Training 136
8.7.1 “Long program is better than short one.” 136
8.7.2 “Some techniques are impractical for us.” 138
8.7.3 “Government should send young teachers to learn more, not just experienced teachers.” 141
Chapter 9 Teachers, Professional Development Needs 143
9.1 Three Major Findings 144
9.1.1 AEL contributes most to the motivation in in-service training 144
9.1.2 AES has a considerable effect on the motivation for professional advancement and cognitive interests 145
9.1.3 Instrumental attitudes to English lead to pragmatic needs in teacher training 146
9.2 Need One: Specific Language Support for Teachers Who Cannot Speak Ethnic Minority Languages 149
9.3 Need Two: English Content Knowledge Training 150
9.4 Need Three: Specific PCK Knowledge Suitable to Ethnic Minority Context 152
9.5 Need Four: A Lifelong Support System 155
9.6 Implications of In-Service Training for Teachers from Ethnic Minority Areas 156
9.6.1 Creating a PCD system 157
9.6.2 Building up an online community including trainees, trainers and experts 157
9.6.3 Developing bilingual or trilingual language supporting courses for ethnic minority language speakers 158
9.6.4 Scaffolding teachers with cultural knowledge in language teaching 159
Bibliography 160
Appendix 1 Questionnaire in English 175
Appendix 2 Questionnaire in Chinese 179
Appendix 3 Interview Questions (English) 183
Appendix 4 Reliability and Factor Analysis of Language Learning Attitude 185
Appendix 5 Reliability Analysis of Chinese Teacher Self-Efficacy 191
Appendix 6 Factor Analysis of Chinese Teacher Self-Efficacy 193
Appendix 7 Reliability Analysis of Modified EPS (Chinese) 195
Appendix 8 Exploratory Factor Analysis of EPS (Yunnan) 198
Appendix 9 General Profile of the Interviewees 202
Epilogue 213