Page 170 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Identifying the Target Needs of Non-Native Subject Teachers

major approaches to English language teaching: either as a foreign or as a second language. However,
now more governments are interested in making their countries bilingual such as Singapore, Columbia,
Mongolia, Chile, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In this context, one of the ways of
adopting this kind of approach is to start teaching a number of subjects such as science, mathematics,
biology, chemistry in English.
Therefore, now an increasing number of teachers in different corners of the world need to use Eng-
lish effectively in order to deliver subject specific content knowledge and skills to their learners (Low,
Chong & Ellis, 2014; Othman & Mohd Saat, 2009). While doing so, they need to have certain linguistic
competencies and fulfill tasks when using English as the MoI. As listed by Richards (2010 cited in Low,
Chong & Ellis, 2014, p. 66),

• To comprehend texts accurately,
• To be good language models,
• To maintain constant and fluent use of the target language in the classroom,
• To give explanations and instructions in the target language,
• To provide examples of words and grammatical structures and give accurate explanations (e.g. of
vocabulary and language points),
• To use language appropriate for classroom usage,
• To select appropriate target-language resources,
• To be able to effectively monitor one’s own speech and writing accurately,
• To give correct feedback on learner language,
• To provide input at an appropriate level of difficulty, and
• To provide language enrichment experiences for learners

are but some of these competencies and tasks. Moreover, in multilingual settings, the use of English
is not just limited to classrooms. Teachers also need to use it as the means of communication with par-
ents, colleagues, school personnel and other stakeholders for various purposes. Therefore, several other
linguistic competencies and tasks can be added to the list offered by Richards above.
In this context, educating specialist teachers who can focus on their subjects using English as the
MoI is becoming a major concern in several countries around the world. There are certain initiatives
that are already underway in several countries both at pre-service and in-service levels. For example,
in Malaysia pre-service English language teachers are also trained to teach science at primary schools
(Hudson, 2009). In Singapore, where English has been the MoI since 1987, teacher candidates have
to take the Entrance Proficiency Test which “provides a threshold proficiency in English for teacher
candidates applying to teach English medium subjects” (Low, Chong & Ellis, 2014, p. 65). In Vietnam,
where some high schools have started teaching subjects in English recently, there are no official training
programs to prepare subject teachers to teach their subject in English but the Ministry of Education and
Training is planning to offer such programs for both pre and in-service teachers (Nguyen, 2013). On the
other hand, in Finland the University of Helsinki, Department of Teacher Education offers a program in
English geared for both Finnish and international pre-service teachers giving official qualifications for
teaching in basic and secondary education.
As can be detected from these examples, there are three major policies addressing the training of
subject teachers using English as the MoI. One is that teacher candidates take courses on language and
teaching skills in order to teach their subject through English, the other one is that teacher candidates

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