Welcome to the first issue
of "Nexus,"a new annual electronic journal devoted to teacher
training, development, and education.
What do those terms mean? I
would like to share with you my definitions so you may understand what I mean
when I use those terms, because after posting that question to TESL-L, the
electronic discussion list for ESL/EFL teachers, I saw from the responses
received that there was no unanimously agreed-upon definition for each term.
In the past, I used
"teacher training" and "teacher development"
interchangeably, and used"teacher education" as an umbrella term
encompassing both of the other phrases.
To me, "teacher training" referred to a teacher being taught
how to do something by someone (a trainer) with expertise in a particular area
or areas. "Teacher
development" implied improving the skills that a teacher already
possessed. I thought of
"teacher education" as a general, all-purpose term that included
everything involved in the training and development of teaching
professionals. Like teacher
training, teacher development and teacher education were conducted by
people--developers, educators--who were experienced in training teachers to be
(better) teachers. Although I preferred
the term "teacher education," I frequently used the term
"teacher training" instead, as that seemed to be more familiar to
most people. My goal for this
journal is that it be a resource for people who are engaged in helping teachers
become better teachers.
I decided to name this
journal "Nexus: A Journal for Teachers in Development" for two
reasons. First, a nexus is a link
or a connected group, and I would like this journal to be a connection between people
interested in the education of teachers of English to speakers of other
languages (ESOL). Also, I
intentionally used the word "development" to connote an on-going
process of education and because many ESOL teachers work in developing countries. It
is my hope that this journal will in
a small way provide useful information to everyone involved in furthering the
profession of English language teaching.
The first article in this
issue deals with, most appropriately, distance education. Mercedes Rossetti discusses
the
characteristics that are necessary to be a good teacher in distance education
programs. In his article, Paolo
Rossetti (no relation) describes a presentation on using the Internet that he
designed for teachers at a conference in Italy while he himself was in
Canada. Steven Schofield explains
why teachers should use authentic video in their classes and examines several
factors that teachers should take into consideration when selecting videos to
use. The next article, by Baobin
Zhao, describes the college or university programs that secondary school
teachers in China must complete in order to become qualified teachers. The last article,
which I wrote, is a
review of a textbook that deals with training teachers of English to use
communicative techniques.
The next issue of
"Nexus" will be published in November 1999. To submit articles for consideration, please email them to
me at <nexusjournal@earthlink.net> by July 31, 1999; write
"Nexus--Submission" in the Subject line. To request the guidelines for submission, write to me at the
above address and put "Nexus--Request for Guidelines" in the Subject
line. I would appreciate any
feedback about the journal and am especially interested in any suggestions for
how I may improve it. Again, write
to me at the above address and put "Nexus--Feedback" in the Subject
line. Please feel free to share
this issue with your colleagues; if they would like a free subscription, just
tell them to write to the same address and, in the Subject line, write
"Nexus--Subscription Request."
I hope you enjoy the
journal.
=====================================================
1) Distance Education in English Teaching, by Mercedes Rossetti
2) Distance Teacher Training: A Virtual Tour of the Internet
from an EFL Teacher's Perspective, by Paolo Rossetti
3) Selecting Authentic Video for the Adult EFL Classroom, by
Steven Schofield
4) Training Teachers for Secondary School English Teaching in
China, by Baobin Zhao
5) Book Review: Teach English, by Adrian Doff; Reviewed
by Susan L. Schwartz
