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Language Teaching Materials and Teacher Education in Chile: An Activity-Theoretical Study of the Learning of Materials Design

Carabantes Leal, Luis; (2020) Language Teaching Materials and Teacher Education in Chile: An Activity-Theoretical Study of the Learning of Materials Design. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

Since the mid-90’s, a growing body of literature about language teaching materials has evidenced their frequent use in classrooms. This scholarship highlights the role of materials as language teaching artefacts and has also raised concerns about their cultural and ideological content, especially commercial textbooks. However, these views remain absent from English teacher education, where only scarce attention is given to materials selection, adaptation and design. Against this backdrop, this thesis explores the learning of materials design by a group of preservice teachers of English in Chile during the final year of their teacher education. Using interviews, stimulated recalls, focus groups, observations, document analysis, language teaching materials, and an offshoot of sociocultural theory known as Activity Theory, this thesis explores the contradictions emerging in the process of materials design experienced by the student-teachers, the conceptual tools that mediate their design, and the contextual elements influencing the rationales used by the participants. The results show that the learning of materials design is shaped by contradictions between the preservice teachers’ beliefs, between elements of the teacher education programme, between the preservice teachers and elements of their school placements, and between the preservice teachers’ beliefs and the motive of teaching English. The results also suggest that the student-teachers’ design is mediated by conceptual tools such as a prevalent focus on receptive skills, reducing the cognitive challenge posed on learners, textbook dependency, and the subjugation of the topics to discrete language. These contradictions and conceptual tools are importantly influenced by contextual factors. The study supports and furthers our knowledge of teacher learning in relation to materials design. It highlights the schoolteachers’ pivotal role enculturating student-teachers into the profession in issues concomitant with materials design, and documents how the development of some conceptual tools, such as textbook dependency, is promoted at the university setting.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification: Ph.D
Title: Language Teaching Materials and Teacher Education in Chile: An Activity-Theoretical Study of the Learning of Materials Design
Event: University College London
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author 2020. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10098566
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