Disrupting Assumptions in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Swiss Pre-Service Primary School Education

Abstract

In many places, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) has been taught in much the same way for the past twenty years: Pre-service teachers learn to teach reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar and vocabulary through models such as content or task-based instruction. They learn about the local curriculum, the CEFR and the history of teaching methods and basic foundations of education and learning. Their basic education is solid and founded yet rarely do students learn to question the content they are provided with or the materials they are expected to work with in the public schools. It is for this reason that, as a small part of in-service teacher EFL training, a short, independent-study module has been created that helps pre-service students to look at their future practices in a different, more critical, and richer light that hopefully disrupts their thinking about how language should and can be taught.