September 2005 Volume 9, Number 2
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From Teacher Candidates to ESL Ambassadors in Teacher Education

Clea Schmidt
University of Manitoba
Canada

Abstract

This paper analyzes the process and impact of a pre-service teacher education course assignment that engaged teacher candidates in developing and delivering an ESL professional development night for faculty colleagues and teachers from the field. The night involved a reader's theatre performance and follow-up discussion of Tara Goldstein's (2003) play Hong Kong, Canada, exploring issues facing students and teachers in a multilingual high school, as well as a resource display containing content-based ESL lessons and resources developed by the candidates. Feedback received from teacher candidates who organized and led the session suggests that the evening was successful in enhancing candidates' ESL-related and professional confidence, and helping them apply learning from the course in practical and meaningful ways. Situating findings within the context of ESL teacher education in Manitoba, implications for collaborative curriculum development and bridging the theory/practice divide are discussed.

Keywords: EFL, ESL, Second Language Teacher Education, Professional Development, Curriculum Development, Canada, Manitoba

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