Oral feedback on pre-service teachers' English language lesson plans: a Macau case study

Teacher educators ensure the professional development of pre-service teachers through mentoring aimed at raising awareness of practice elements that need improvement. This mentoring, often provided through oral feedback sessions, is necessary for teacher educators to assess whether pre-service teachers’ professional knowledge (e.g. pedagogical content knowledge) has been enhanced through teacher education programs. This case study examined the foci of oral feedback provided by a teacher educator on four mainland Chinese pre-service English teachers’ lesson plans—a curriculum design and materials development for English teachers’ course assignment. Transcripts of oral feedback sessions with the four pre-service teachers were subjected to qualitative and quantitative content analyses. Results showed that the teacher educator provided feedback-on-task, process, self-regulation, and self. In response to the elements of the lesson plans, the teacher educator mostly focussed his feedback on lesson plan objectives, goals, and procedures. Teacher educators may consider combining written and oral feedback and increase the amount of feedback on process. As English language teachers require a special combination of content and pedagogy that is gradually constructed through teacher education curricula, the Curriculum and Instruction master’s program in which the pre-service teachers were enrolled could be enhanced by providing additional English language education courses.