Teaching practice in UK ELT Master's programmes

Abstract

Despite the fact that UK ELT Master’s programmes are numerous, diverse and financially important, very little research has been conducted on whether they deliver teaching practice (TP) or micro-teaching (MT) and on what students’ expectations of these modules are. The present paper addresses this gap by examining how many ELT-related Master’s programmes in the UK offer TP/MT modules and by investigating students’ expectations of these modules. Drawing on data from document analysis, we show that only 34 out of the 141 UK ELT-related Master’s programmes offer a TP module and 12 offer an MT module. Data from pre-/post-study questionnaires and focus groups indicate that students consider practical teaching experience an important part of their programmes and report that they would like more course time to be spent on it. Based on these findings, we recommend that UK ELT Master’s programmes should provide students with ways to gain such practical experience.