Zhu, D; McKinley, J; (2021) Doing TESOL Postgraduate Studies Overseas: Teacher Training, Studying Abroad, (and/) or a Master’s Degree? In: Barnawi, OZ and Ahmed, A, (eds.) TESOL Teacher Education in a Transnational World. (pp. 238-255). Routledge: Abingdon, UK.

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Abstract

TESOL postgraduate studies in Anglophone countries are finding international students increasingly in the majority, especially in one-year master’s programs such as those in the UK. These programs are especially desirable for such students as they expect to not only get an advanced degree, but also to gain some English teacher training, and to hone their own English language skills by treating the year overseas as a study abroad experience. In this preliminary study, we examine the data collected in semi-structured interviews with 20 TESOL postgraduate students from China in their first month in the same program at a UK university. We discovered disparate interpretations of the program. The most common expectation was developing language skills in what they saw as the start of their study abroad year, expressing frustration with the lack of diversity in the student cohort, and wishing to make friends with “foreigners” (i.e., non-Chinese). This study has implications for TESOL postgraduate studies curriculum developers to consider ways of addressing students’ different interpretations.

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