Professional Development of English Language Teachers in Asia

Why has English language proficiency in Japan remained so low in comparison to other Asian countries? Has Vietnam attempted to improve English language teaching because ASEAN has adopted English as its working language? Why do English language teachers struggle with curriculum changes imposed by governments in order to make them competitive in the international community? Do professional development (PD) programs actually meet the needs of teachers? This book addresses issues surrounding these questions by examining how the Japanese and Vietnamese governments have approached and defined the PD of English language teachers and how such PD programs have been delivered. It further analyses the impact of policy changes on individual teachers and explores how PD can help teachers to implement such changes effectively at the micro-level. PD of language teachers or language teacher education is relatively new as a field of inquiry in Applied Linguistics. By including case studies of Japan and Vietnam in the one volume, this book embarks on the challenging task of demonstrating that PD is an essential element of the successful implementation of language policies in Asia, where World Englishes have been shaped by distinct local contexts.

"How teachers should accommodate to reforms in language education policiesIn response to the tide of globalization, governments across the world are now introducing various new policies in English language education. However, accommodating to those changes in actual pedagogical practice is a highly challenging task for teachers. Drawing on cases from Japan and Vietnam where English has been used as a foreign rather than a second language, this book will discuss such efforts from the perspective of professional development or teacher training. Readers are provided with valuable insights on how global needs may be negotiated in local contexts when the acquisition of communicative skills in English as a lingua franca is often defined as a national goal today." -- Nobuyuki Hino, Osaka University, On How teachers should accommodate to reforms in language education policies:"In response to the tide of globalization, governments across the world are now introducing various new policies in English language education. However, accommodating to those changes in actual pedagogical practice is a highly challenging task for teachers. Drawing on cases from Japan and Vietnam where English has been used as a foreign rather than a second language, this book will discuss such efforts from the perspective of professional development or teacher training. Readers are provided with valuable insights on how global needs may be negotiated in local contexts when the acquisition of communicative skills in English as a lingua franca is often defined as a national goal today." — Nobuyuki Hino, Osaka University

Kayoko Hashimoto is Lecturer at School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Her main research area is Language Policy. Her latest edited books include Japanese Language and Soft Power in Asia (2018, Palgrave Macmillan). Van-Trao Nguyen is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and President at Hanoi University, Vietnam. His research interest includes TESOL, Teacher Education, Language Testing and Assessment, and Language-in-education Policy and Planning.