Future teachers´ writing skills matter
Submitted by:
Stanislav Štěpáník
Abstract:
The aim of the paper is to evaluate the level of language and communication skills of future Czech language teachers, manifested in their writing. There are two basic principles underlying the study: (i) The teacher is the fundamental determinant of the education process; the teacher’s knowledge and skills in the field are one of the crucial parts of the teacher’s professional competency (e.g. Goodwyn, 2011, or Vašutová, 2007); (ii) Writing is one of the most complex activities that students perform in school as it involves various cognitive processes and a range of language knowledge and skills (e.g. Myhill et al., 2012a, b, or Šebesta, 2005).
The first part of the paper introduces the underlying principles and the methodological backgroud of the study. With standardised criteria we analysed and evaluated essays written by students at the Czech Language Department at the Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague in their final year of the Master’s teacher training programme. The second part of the paper describes the results of the research structured according to the evaluation criteria: (i) the formal fulfilment of the task, (ii) spelling, morphology and lexis, (iii) syntax and composition (cohesion and coherence of the text), (iv) the level of originality, creativity, inventiveness. The third part analyses the teacher training programmes at the schools of education in the Czech Republic through the perspective of communication skills development. The last part binds the results together and drafts recommendations for improvement as the results suggest (i) unsatisfactory language and communication skills of future Czech language teachers, and (ii) high degree of theorization and low amount of practice in the Czech language teacher training programmes in the Czech Republic.
References
Goodwyn, A. (2011). The expert teacher of English. Oxon: Routledge.
Myhill, D. et al. (2012a). Grammar for writing? The impact of contextualised grammar teaching on pupils’ writing and pupils’ metalinguistic understanding. End of Grant Report. Available online: <http://www.researchcatalogue.esrc.ac.uk/grants/RES-062-23-0775/outputs/read/c5bff83b-28d3-4945-8b8c-eb4b4c8406ae>, cit. 6. 2. 2017.
Myhill, D. et al. (2012b). Re-thinking grammar: the impact of embedded grammar teaching on students’ writing and students’ metalinguistic understanding. Research Papers in Education, 27(2), p. 139–166.
Šebesta, K. (2005). Od jazyka ke komunikaci. Praha: Karolinum.
Vašutová, J. (2007). Být učitelem: co by měl učitel vědět o své profesi. Praha: PedF UK.