Teachers learn to use critical incidents as a professional development tool in teaching young English learners

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Despite the growth of theory and research on young English learners and the widely-recognized importance of critical incidents (CIs) in teachers' professional development (PD), little research has examined young-learner teachers' CIs. This study investigated the impacts of a PD course structured around CIs sharing/discussing on 14 L2 teachers' understanding of teaching young learners.

Design: Narratives and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data.

Findings: Data analyses indicated that the teachers reported various interpersonal, pedagogical, and professional CIs, especially problems with learner engagement and the learners who problematized the teachers' knowledge frequently. Additionally, the results of the interviews indicated that the teachers experienced conceptual, practical, and personal-professional changes in their treatment of CIs as a function of participation in the PD course.

Value: The study proposes a typology of young-learner teachers' CIs and argues that young-learner teaching requires its specific form of teacher education that fosters in the teachers awareness of emotional, pedagogical, and interpersonal dimensions for teaching this group of learners.

KEYWORDS:

• Young learners
• critical incidents
• professional development
• L2 teachers

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the teachers who participated in the study. We would also wish to thank the editors and reviewers of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Asqar Pourhassan

Asqar Pourhassan is a PhD candidate of Applied Linguistics at Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. He works on areas such as young learners and policy and planning in language learning and teaching.

Mostafa Nazari

Mostafa Nazari is a PhD candidate of Applied Linguistics at Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. His area of interest in Second Language Teacher Education and he has published in TESOL Journal, RELC Journal, Computer Assisted Language Learning, etc.