Online Teacher Research Mentoring for Professional Learning: Experiences of Chinese English Teachers

Ronggan Zhang holds an MA with Distinction in TESOL (Leeds, 2004), an M Phil in English and Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, 2009) and PhD in Education (Leeds, 2022). He also has 30 years’ experience of serving as an English language teacher, teacher trainer/mentor, and researcher in China. He taught English for 15 years at the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University, and then worked as a researcher and teacher trainer/mentor, first at Beijing Institute of Central China Normal University and later at Yuexiu District Centre for Education Development of Guangzhou City and Guangdong Academy of Education.

Title
A brief overview of the 2022-2023 National Online Development for English Language Teachers Project (NODE)

Abstract
Fraser will present a brief overview of the 2022 – 2023 NODE pilot between the British Council and the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), highlighting the rationale behind the programme, its key findings and how we hope its impact can influence and support English teacher CPD activities moving forwards. 

Bio
Fraser has over 20 years’ experience working within the China ELT sector in both basic education and higher education settings across China. His experience extends to teaching, school management, authoring and editing for the popular PEP primary textbooks, and teacher training through numerous British Council projects and Cambridge ESOL CELTAs. He holds a Master’s in Education, a DELTA diploma, and numerous global TESOL/TEFL certifications.

Title
The NODE Teacher research Project: A brief overview

Abstract
In this introductory presentation, I will provide a brief background to the British Council NODE teacher research project and the mentoring process through which participants were engaged. I will then share lessons learned from our engagement with Chinese teachers and reflect on the benefits of teacher research to both teachers and mentors.

Bio
Harry Kuchah Kuchah is Research Impact Champion and MA Education Programme Lead for the School of Education, University of Leeds, UK. Previously, he worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and policy maker in Cameroon. He has also served as a Consultant on language policy and practice with the British Council, the Council of Europe, and Windle Trust International, and is currently Chair of the British Council English Language Advisory Group. His research interests include teaching English to young learners, English-medium education, and language teacher education. Harry is co-editor of International Perspectives on Teaching English in Difficult Circumstances (Palgrave Macmillan 2018) and Ethical and methodological issues in researching young language learners in school contexts (Multilingual Matters 2021) and he has published several articles and book chapters.

Title
My story of working with disruptive students

Abstract
This presentation shares my experience of working with disruptive students in my classroom. Through the British Council Teacher research mentoring project, I was inspired to seek solutions to my own classroom challenges. I identified a problem I had noticed in my classroom – disruption. I explored the problem of disruptive students in my class by asking my students to write down short notes about why they and their peers were being disruptive and to propose some ways in which I could deal with this issue. Insights from student responses helped me become aware of my own wrong assumptions and I was able to find better ways of working more closely with my students.

Bio
QIU Liangjie (Rachel) is an English teacher from Guangdong Beijiang Experimental School in the City of Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, China. She has 15 years’ experience of teaching junior high school students English since she graduated from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

Title
How can I engage all my students in group work?

Abstract
This presentation shares my story of trying to help engage my students in group work. Using ideas from exploratory practice, I sorted to explore my own perspectives and those of my students and other colleagues on the reasons behind their lack of engagement in group learning with the aim of responding to the question: How can I make all my students engage in group work? Through self-reflection on my own practices and responses from my colleagues and my students I was able to find out what influenced my students’ participation in group work most. This helped me to try different ways to enable my students to engage in group work more usefully.

Bio
LIANG Xiaoyan (Summer) is an English teacher from the Affiliated Foreign Language Middle School of Xinzhou Teachers University. She graduated from Xinzhou Teachers University, majoring in English Education. She has more than 10 years’ experience of English teaching.

Title
How to motivate my students to be active in class?

Abstract
In this presentation, I will share my exploratory action research experience of trying to motivate my students to be actively engaged in class. Similar to many other teachers, I found that many of my students did not seem to actively participate in class and lacked motivation to put up their hands and answer questions voluntarily. To address this issue, I used questionnaires and one-to-one interviews with my students to explore and gained a better understanding of what could be hindering my students’ willingness to engage. I also kept a reflective teaching journal in the process. Responses from my students led me to make changes in my teaching that helped my students be active in class. 

Bio
FEI Zhai (Faye) is an English teacher at the Affiliated Foreign Language Middle School of Xinzhou Teachers University. She graduated from Xinzhou Teachers University, majoring in English Education. She has more than 10 years’ experience of English teaching.

Title
Improving my Vocabulary Teaching for my 2nd Grade Students.

Abstract
This presentation shares an account of my efforts to improve my practice of teaching vocabulary to 2nd Grade students in China. Faced with my students’ difficulties in learning new vocabulary items, I designed a short questionnaire, asking them to help me find answers to the following four main puzzles: How do my students feel in my class? What difficulties do my students face in the English class? What can help my students learn new words in class? What strategies can I apply to help my students use new words in class? After collecting and reading my students’ responses, I identified a number of helpful suggestions from them and developed several techniques to improve my vocabulary teaching. I then tried out one of these techniques – encouraging students to use their body language through Total Physical Response to learn new words – and found this very effective in helping them learn vocabulary.

Bio
GAO Yingqi (Cassie) is a novice English teacher from Denghu No. 3 Primary School of Foshan City, Guangdong Province. She graduated in 2022 from Jiangsu Second Normal University where she studied English Education for four years.  

Title
How can assessment help my students with their English learning?

Abstract
This presentation will focus on the practice of teaching-learning-assessment alignment. In my exploration action research, I set out to investigate how I could use assessment as a useful tool for language learning. To achieve this goal, I used different information seeking methods to find how current assessment helped with my students’ English learning. Through self-reflection as well as data collection through my colleagues observing my classroom and student questionnaires and lesson notes, I found ways to improve my practice so that teaching and learning could be better aligned with assessment. This presentation will share the exploration and my reflections on the research process. 

Bio
TIAN Le has been teaching English at HUST Primary School for more than ten years since her graduation from Central China Normal University (CCNU). She is the twice first-prize winner of the Hubei Provincial Teaching Contest (2015 and 2021). She has also participated in several research projects on critical thinking, dialogue instruction, etc.