INTRODUCTION

Offering the kind of school-based experiences within a teacher education curriculum that can help teacher-learners to make a transition from their academic program to the realities of teaching in a school is an important consideration for language teacher educators. The focus of this chapter is primarily on how practicum teacher educators and teacher-learners can approach teaching as development (as opposed to training) through a variety of practical teacher development activities. I highlight that these activities, if conceptualized within a teacher development framework, not only offer opportunities for teacher-learners to examine and understand their teaching values and behaviors while taking the practicum, but also provide the skills that they can use to continually develop their teaching throughout their careers. However, unlike Legutke and Schocker-v. Ditfurth (Chapter 21), who provide an overall conceptualization for integrating school-based experience into the curriculum, this chapter focuses exclusively on the use of the practicum by language teacher educators as a transitional process.

SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

The practicum has long been recognized as an important part of an English language teacher’s education, and it is included in most programs, whether offered within an ELT, TESOL, or English Education curriculum. A practicum usually involves supervised teaching, experience with systematic observation, and gaining familiarity with a particular teaching context.

A variety of terms is used to refer to the practicum, including practice teaching, field experience, apprenticeship, practical experience, and internship. However, teacher–learners’ experiences in these different types of practicum may vary considerably in intensity and level of responsibility. For example, during an internship the teacher–learner might be an assistant, but in a practice teaching setting, he or she might carry a full teaching load.

However, despite the variation in terminology, role, responsibility, and setting, the goals are generally much the same. As Richards and Crookes (1988) point out, practicum goals include providing opportunities for teacher–learners to: (1) gain practical classroom teaching experience; (2) apply theory and teaching ideas from previous course work; (3) discover from observing experienced teachers; (4) enhance lesson-planning skills; (5) gain skills in selecting, adapting, and developing original course materials.