Event Date: 20th November 2021
Abstract:
This talk is based on a joint publication with the related title for Cambridge Elements Series (with Dr. Jian Tao). In the talk, the presenter presents the notion of language teacher agency as a key construct for us to understand language teachers’ professional practice and development. Dr. Andy answers the ‘what’ question, offering major conceptualisations of agency and explaining how they shape the way that language teacher agency can be approached. Then he continues with the ‘why’ question and elaborate on the different reasons that language teacher agency matters at multiple levels of a given context. He also discusses how it intersects with such concepts as teacher identity, emotion, belief and knowledge. He concludes the talk with suggestions on how to promote teacher agency through making changes to contexts and/or actors.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Xuesong (Andy) Gao is a language teacher educator at the School of Education, University of New South Wales, Australia. He has been involved in language teacher education in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan. His research interests include language learner autonomy, language education policy, and language teacher education.
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