Introduction to Early Language Learning and Teacher Education: International Research and Practice

Subhan Zein

The past two decades have witnessed profound changes in the social, economic and political contextualisation of language. In the rapidly changing political, social and globalised economic landscapes of the 21st century, language has become cultural capital – mastery of two or more languages has been closely linked with business prospects, state diplomacy, intellectual pursuits and employment opportunities (Grenfell, 2014; Rhodes, 2014; Woolhouse et al., 2013). A significant educational policy change characterising this tendency is early language learning: the teaching of a foreign or second language to children. Early language learning policies have become a worldwide phenomenon where the second or foreign language is taught as a subject or is used as a medium of instruction (Baldauf et al., 2011; Garton et al., 2011; Rhodes, 2014; Williams et al., 2013). Early language learning policy has even been dubbed as 'possibly the world's biggest policy development in education' (Johnstone, 2009: 33).

This present volume focuses on one major issue resulting from the introduction of early language learning policies worldwide: teacher education. The edited volume specifically deals with the teacher education of early language learning teachers occurring in various forms of teacher professional learning, including, but not limited to teacher collaboration, mentoring and supervision, teacher classroom discourse and pedagogical content knowledge. This introductory chapter provides the background of the volume, identifying its rationale and aim. The chapter also discusses a few themes of the volume, outlines its structure and provides a final word.

Rationale and Aim of the Volume

The implementation of policies on early language learning has posed worldwide concerns over the shortage of adequately trained teachers (Butler, 2015; Copland et al., 2014; Emery, 2012; Enever, 2014; Richards et al., 2013; Rowe et al., 2012; Williams et al., 2013) and the inadequacy of teacher education programmes (Le & Do, 2012; Zein, 2016a). The rapid development in policies do not always work in a parallel manner with the provision of pre-service and in-service teacher education courses for early language learning teachers (Enever & Lindgren, 2016). As Rixon (2017: 82) argued,

even the most carefully planned, widely welcomed and feasibly scoped of policy innovations may still be a complex matter, usually needing substantial material and financial support, but above all requiring fundamental shifts in attitudes, teacher knowledge and teacher skills which are not easily brought about.

This is most evident in the case of early introduction of English. All over the world, primary English education policies have actually created unprecedented challenges for teacher education (e.g. Butler, 2015; Emery, 2012; Enever et al., 2009; Enever, 2014; Zein, 2016a). Wilden and Porsch (2017a) reviewed major studies on primary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education in Europe, and they concluded that despite the clarity as to what constitutes 'good FL teaching', teachers struggle to appropriately implement their methodological knowledge and that 'the evidence on primary FL teachers' target proficiency is sketchy at best' (Wilden & Porsch, 2017a: 13). In countries such as Germany, the introduction of English in primary schools and its transition to secondary schools pose challenges to teacher educators in terms of the provision of knowledge about teaching and learning in primary and secondary education (Porsch & Wilden, 2017a: 68). A similar situation is also found in the context of primary EFL in East Asian countries: China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan (Butler, 2015). In her review of the East Asian countries, for example, Butler (2015: 309) stated that 'part of the challenge is that we don't fully understand what qualifications teachers need to successfully teach FLs to young learners', highlighting the various issues relating to teachers' limited language proficiency and limited pedagogical content knowledge. In China in particular, the task to provide instruction to more than 130 million primary school children (Hu & McKay, 2012) means that intensive programmes such as the ITDEQC (Improving Teacher Development and Educational Quality in China) Project will have to be massively expanded (Thomas et al., 2018). In the Southeast Asian context, the issue of designing professional development programmes that can cater for the specific needs of primary school English teachers is a shared concern in Indonesia (Zein, 2017) and Malaysia (Kabilan & Veratharaju, 2013), two countries that are confronted with the urgent task to provide instruction to approximately 26 million and 3 million children, respectively. In Argentina, the shortage of qualified and proficient teachers is one major factor affecting the teaching of English in the country. Focus is now placed on...