Effects of fieldwork experience on empowering prospective foreign language teachers

Teacher educators may have different views on what constitutes knowledge base for teacher education. Most of them, however, would agree that field experiences are indispensable for shaping and maintaining high-quality teachers. Unlike teacher training courses in the UK and US, fieldwork components are not always an option in Taiwan. This study, therefore, investigated the effects of a language teacher training course that integrated fieldwork components with traditional lectures. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 13 participants. Results indicate that field-based components help prospective foreign language teachers to become reflective of their weaknesses and strengths and enhance their teacher efficacy. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.