Professional Development through Mentoring: Novice ESL Teachers' Identity Formation and Professional Practice(Routledge Research in Teacher Education)

In their book, Othman and Senom provide a unique insight into the challenges faced by novice English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and establish how mentoring can provide effective support for new teachers’ professional development. The book demonstrates the theoretical background for viewing mentoring as a process crucial to novice teachers’ development, particularly to the teachers’ ability to succeed and grow in a specific workplace environment. Using case studies from a Malaysian context, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of how mentoring can serve as a strategy to facilitate the transition of novice ESL teachers from a teacher education programme to life in real classrooms. Through its case studies, the book will examine both theoretical and practical issues for mentors, teacher educators, policymakers, and administrators when mentoring new ESL teachers. This book will be valuable to researchers who are particularly interested in exploring novice teachers’ identity development, and experienced teachers to help guide new teachers through the socialization process in their schools.

Juliana Othman, Ph.D. is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. She was previously Head of Department, Language and Literacy Education and a former deputy director at the Centre for Community and Industry Relations at the University of Malaya. She is also a Fulbright scholar (USA, 2006). She has published widely on the topic of second language teaching and learning, second language teacher education and professional development, school-based assessment and content-based instruction.

Fatiha Senom, Ph.D. is a senior lecturer at the Department of Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. She has published on the issues surrounding the professional development of novice and pre-service ESL teachers. Her research interests include second language teacher education and professional development, teaching English for young learners and qualitative research. She is also an editor for the journal Issues in Education.

'This book tells stories of teacher learning that all language professionals can benefit from. The experience of novice teachers in Malaysia reflects practice in many contexts, and teachers, mentors, teacher educators and researchers will gain fresh perspectives and novel insights from these accounts of mentored learning.' - Dr Richard Kiely, University of Southampton, UK