Research Projects in the Practical Semester of Pre-Service English Language Teachers

Conception and Student Perspectives

Abstract

This paper opens by specifying the general concept inquiry-based learning (Forschendes Lernen) in the context of the subject Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at Bielefeld University, among others by drawing on the paradigm of Action Research and by presenting subject-specific researchfields. On this basis, the paper develops the conception underlying those courses that prepare students for conducting inquiry-based learning in their TEFL Practical Semester (Praxissemester). This conception is reviewed critically on the grounds of the qualitative, Grounded Theory-guided research project SPORT (Students’ Perspectives on the Researching Teacher). In this project, writing tasks and interviews were employed to find out about TEFL students’ conceptions of the teacher-researcher as well as their effects on the Practical Semester and beyond. According to our findings, TEFL students view researching teachers as idealized “super teachers” who succeed in combining two mutually exclusive personalities (the teacher, the researcher). This idealized view entails problematic effects concerning the students’ attitudes towards inquiry-based learning in the practical semester and their later professional life. The paper discusses possible modifications of the course conception that could counter-act these tendencies: On the one hand, certain ideas of Action Research (e.g., professional improvement by researching one’s own practice) should be stressed, while others (e.g., changing school culture beyond one’s own classroom) should be toned down in the light of what can be considered realistic in the context of one Practical Semester.