The evaluation of non-native speaking English language trainee teachers’ practice: unfolding university supervisors’ and host teachers’ perspectives on judging performance

This project explores differences in, and similarities
between, university supervisors’ and host teachers’
perspectives of trainees’ practical teaching practice
performance. Specifically, the project investigates
the ways in which university supervisors and host
teachers take into account evaluative judgements
of non-native English speaking teacher trainees’
(NNESTTs) teaching practice (TP) performance.
The context is a vocational Masters in TESOL at
a UK university where trainees carry out a teaching
practice in Hungarian primary or secondary schools.
Specifically, the study examines the perceptions that
the supervisors and host teachers have when judging
the performance of four overseas TESOL trainees,
who are NNESTTs from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan
and Bangladesh. Findings show firstly that host
teachers take a ‘soft’ approach compared with the
‘hard’ approach of university supervisors, secondly,
that host teachers and supervisors seem to prioritise
different variables when evaluating TP performance
and thirdly, that both groups of participants see the
benefit of working together to create reliable
judgements of NNESTTs’ performance.