College English Teacher Development in China

This study addresses the professional development of college English teachers in mainland China. It is designed to examine the relationship between teachers' motivation and their attitudinal elements including teacher engagement and commitment, and teaching approaches. This study adopts a mixed-method design that starts with a quantitative phase in which data were collected and analysed to examine the hypothesised predictive power of teachers' motivation on their engagement, commitment and teaching approaches. In the second phase, qualitative data acquired via semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis were collected to further interpret, explain and elaborate the quantitative results in greater depth. As language teaching has been an often-researched discipline in the teacher motivation literature, this study prompts one to rethink and reflect on the effectiveness of college English curriculum reform and provides implications for current college English teaching and the development of college English teachers.

Introduction - Literature Review - Methodology - The Charateristics of College English Teachers' Goal Orientations for Teaching - The Relationships between Teachers' Goal Orientations for Teaching, Engagement and Commitment - The Relationships between Teachers' Goal Orientations for Teaching and Approaches to Teaching - Discussion and Conclusions

Using a mixed-method design, a survey of 597 college English teachers was followed by interviews and documentary analysis with 25 cases. This study explored the characteristics of college English teachers' goal orientations for teaching and its relationship with teachers' engagement, commitment and their approaches to college English teaching.