MACRO LevelTeacher development context EFL in multilingual inclusive state preschools in the Salzburg area
(→ chapter 3)
1. Survey of state preschool teachers’ contexts of work (→ chapter 3.2):The size and characteristics of children’s groups (→ chapter 3.2.1):How many groups are in your preschool? (question 1a).How many children are in your group? (question 1b).How many children speak German as their second or third language? (question 1c).State preschools offering German as a second language (→ chapter 3.2.2):Is German taught in your preschool? (question 2a).Who teaches German in your preschool? (question 2a-1).State preschools offering English as a foreign language (→ chapter 3.2.3):Is English offered in your preschool? (question 2b).Who offers it? (question 2b-1).When offered by a visiting teacher, which children take part? (question 2b-2).2. Preschool teachers’ attitudes towards introducing English in preschool: perspective of the children (→ chapter 3.3):How do you judge learning a foreign language in preschool from the perspective of the children? Rather as an advantage or a disadvantage? (question 3a).There are a number of personal everyday opinions you come across about introducing English in preschool. What is your attitude in the matter? (question 3b).Children should learn German first. (question 3b-1).Introducing English in preschool is a benefit for other languages as well, including German. (question 3b-2).An additional language would burden many children because preschool life is challenging enough for them. (question 3b-3).Children learn a language in a playful way. If a further language (e.g., English) is offered in a child-appropriate way, children will experience that learning languages is fun and consequently they will be relaxed and open for new experiences. (question 3b-4).3. Preschool teachers’ attitudes towards introducing English in preschool: perspective of the teachers (→ chapter 3.4):From your perspective as preschool teacher, would you consider teaching English rather as a benefit or a burden? (question 4a). Can you imagine offering English yourself in your preschool? (question 4c).Preschool teachers’ education in teaching English: offers and needs (→ chapter 3.4.1):Was the course ‘English in Preschool’ offered during your preservice teacher education? (question 4b).Did you take part? (question 4b-1).Preschool teachers’ communicative English language competence (→ chapter 3.4.2):Do you have the feeling that your English is adequate / not adequate? (question 4c-1).Preschool teachers’ disposition to teacher English to their groups (→ chapter 3.4.3):Would you teach English if appropriate support were provided? (question 4c-2).Logistically accommodating English in the state preschool context (→ chapter 3.4.4):May the reasons (against introducing English in your preschool) be related to the general situation of your preschool, such as coping with daily life in preschool and the logistics of running the morning? (question 4c-3).
MESO LevelTeacher development contextThe participating selected preschool: as a social community of practice Profiles of preschool teachers
(→ Chapter 6.2.4)
What were the participants’ initial attitudes towards introducing English?What initial experiences (knowledge and skills) did the teachers have in the area of English teaching?What communicative English language competence did participating preschool teachers have?
MICRO LevelThe individual participating preschool teachers: individual teachers’ competence development and summary of common experiences
(→ chapter 7.2)
1. The teachers’ reassessment of their attitudes towards introducing English (→ chapter 7.2.1):Were the teachers able to reflect on and re-assess their attitudes towards introducing English in their contexts?In what way did the support provided by teacher education assist them in the process of re-assessing their attitudes?2. The teachers’ motivation to become involved in the teaching process (→ chapter 7.2.2):Did the teacher education engage the teachers in the process to teach English, despite their initial reluctance to introduce it into their groups? What elements of the teacher education contributed to it? 3. The teachers’ developing English teaching competences (→ chapter 7.2.3):Did the teachers gain competences in integrating English tasks into their daily routine in a way that suited their teacher personality? What individual strategies did they develop in this process? Did the teachers gain English teaching competences to create a ‘powerful learning environment for language learning?Did they develop the confidence to use the foreign language in the classroom? 4. The teachers’ reflective practice as professional habit (→ chapter 7.2.4):Were the teachers able to reflect on their English teaching? In what way did the design of the education model support the teachers in this process? Did the teachers become involved in their professional development, by making use of the reflective tools that the teacher education provided?
Table 1:
A survey of the research questions and related chapters of the study
The following chapter will specify why an approach of participatory action research qualifies as a suitable design to answer these research questions and to align the interests of research and teacher education.
5.2 Aligning research and teacher education through an approach of participatory action research
Action research is a well-established approach in language teacher development and offers a synthesis of research and teacher education. It seemed appropriate to meet contextual demands for various reasons (cf. Burns, 2010, p. 11). The approach supports the development of teachers’ competences while it integrates reflective tools that provide research data on
