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Assessment policies, curricular directives, and teacher agency: quandaries of EFL teachers in Inner Mongolia

journal contribution
posted on 2015-01-01, 00:00 authored by Indika LiyanageIndika Liyanage, B Bartlett, T Walker, X Guo
In the debate over English language teaching approaches and methods, the influence of examinations on classroom pedagogy and the nature of these examinations are critical considerations for teachers. In the Inner Mongolian context, as for all China, examinations reflect traditional conceptions of teaching and learning, classroom teaching conditions such as class sizes, and the English-as-a-foreign language setting. In this situation, decisions about classroom pedagogy and objectives and whether teaching focuses on test-taking rather than on the learning of language go to the core of teacher agency. In this paper we foreground the struggles and dilemmas experienced by English language teachers in Inner Mongolia in attempts to exercise agency amidst the instructional demands of an exam-oriented community, and a misalignment created by an exam remaining centered on discrete skills rather than students' proficiency in applying ranging uses of the language they are learning. These conditions are now located within New English Syllabus expectations are that teachers will implement their knowledge of educational theories and of current English teaching methodology to create opportunities for more broadly based learning and proficiency.

History

Journal

Innovation in language learning and teaching

Volume

9

Pagination

251-264

Location

London, Eng

ISSN

1750-1229

eISSN

1750-1237

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal, C Journal article

Copyright notice

2015, Taylor & Francis

Issue

3

Publisher

Taylor & Francis