Yoshiyuki Nakata

Improving the Classroom Language Proficiency of Non-Native Teachers of English: What and How?.

The present paper attempts to examine the possibilities of the Classroom Language Assessment Benchmark (CLAB) as a professional development tool for EFL teachers in Japan. Two questionnaire surveys were carried out several months after the last day of the graduate course (both in 2006 and 2007) where CLAB was used as a self- and peer-assessment tool of teachers’ classroom English in their trial lesson.The questionnaire results show that the Classroom English Observation Program (CEOP) using CLAB and the Classroom Language Assessment Sheet (CLAS) is a useful approach for raising trainees’ awareness of their classroom English and helping them to strive for improved classroom language proficiency, suggesting that CLAB should be used not as a tool for their qualification assessment but as a tool for their professional development. The paper concludes that an improved, simplified benchmark and assessment sheet should be developed so that when used together they would serve as an important means for language teachers’ professional development.

Insider–outsider perspective: revisiting the conceptual framework of research methodology in language teacher education

The present paper discusses three types of research perspective on the insider–outsider continuum: outsider research, (insiders) outsider research, and insider research. It examines the essential features of the insider–outsider distinction with reference to categories such as researcher, students, classroom context, contribution, control of condition, quality criteria, disclosure of information, and example of research. The paper concludes that the insider–outsider perspective can serve as a means of building a strong theoretical base in language teaching research that will help language teacher practitioner–researchers to situate their work within a wide variety of research types.