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Falling Into It: Novice Tesol Teacher Thinking, Mark K. Warford, Jenelle Reeves

Mark K Warford

The authors conducted a qualitative study in order to understand the preconceptions novice TESOL teachers might have about teaching English language. Long interviews were conducted with nine students (six native English Speakers and three non-native speakers (NNS)) enrolled in one of two courses offered in a TESOL teacher education program. None of the participants had experience as an in-service teacher. Inductive analysis of tape transcripts suggested the presence of several conceptual themes discussed in the teacher thinking literature. Findings suggest that novice TESOL teachers, like their more experienced counterparts, have a system of metaphors to conceptualize teaching. The apprenticeship of …