AN EXPLORATION ON HOW TEACHER TRAINING INSTITUTIONS IN MALAWI INTEGRATE THEORY AND PRACTICE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Abstract

An ideal language teacher education programme should equip student teachers with subject content matter and pedagogy on how to transmit that knowledge to learners. The challenge is on how to integrate this subject content knowledge with pedagogical knowledge. In this regard, this study was carried out to explore how teacher training institutions in Malawi integrate theory and practice for English language teachers. The study was a multiple case study which was guided by the Interpretivist paradigm of research. Data was generated using interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and document analysis from teacher educators, student teachers and curriculum documents. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. The study found out that all the three institutions in the study,through their curriculum, made an effort to provide student teachers with subject content matter and pedagogical knowledge which eventually translate into pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The study also found out that the various activities that teacher educators take their students through give them an opportunity to link theory with the actual process of teaching (practice). However, it is not clear from the study how the subject content is integrated in the practical activities. The study argues that while the various activities that the teacher educators take their students through provide a great opportunity for the educators to bring theoretical knowledge about how teaching should be done in practice, the theoretical knowledge about language that is taught in the content subjects is not used in the process of teaching student teachers how to teach