Teaching Materials and the Knowledge Base of EFL Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper investigates the structure and practices of EFL teacher education at a teacher education college in the Republic of Benin, a French speaking West African country. It examines a group of EFL teacher educators’ meaning of teacher preparation, the knowledge base of EFL teacher education at that college, the types of input content and materials that are involved in teacher knowledge acquisition. Qualitative data collection operations including interviews, classroom observations, and existing documents from the research site are involved in the study. The findings from the observation data reveal a limited implementation of the curriculum goals by the participant EFL teacher educators. They also indicate tensions between their classroom practices and both the curriculum orientations and course objectives. The information from the interview data highlights the discrepancies between the meaning that they make of EFL teacher preparation and their pedagogical practices.