Bilingual beginning Mandarin teachers' classroom English in Sydney schools : linguistic implications for teacher education

Little empirical research on bilingual beginning teachers has been conducted to examine their actual linguistic performance in the classrooms in Australia and other English-speaking countries. This study investigates the bilingual beginning Mandarin teachers' use of English in Mandarin classes in Australian primary and secondary schools, focusing on how effectively they were able to use English to create a positive classroom atmosphere. The participants in this research were members of the ROSETE Program (Research-Oriented School-Engaged Teacher Education Program) who had completed a one-year teaching experience/practicum in Australia. Millrood's (ELT J, 58(1):28-37, 2004) Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques have been modified and employed as the analytical framework for the data. The evidence reveals that these bilingual teachers exhibited competent English use in establishing a rapport with students, leading the learner, anchoring success and weaknesses in pacing with the learner, calibrating, and disciplining the students. The findings of the study suggest that as novice teachers, the participants need to develop an important teaching skill, i.e., adapting to students' individual differences; as bilingual teachers, they need to improve their pragmatic competence in classroom English, i.e., associating the use of instructional language with particular contexts.