El impacto de las experiencias previas de aprendizaje de unasegunda lengua en la formación de profesores de idioma extranjero

An interest in teachers’ prior learning experiences dates back to 1975, when Lortie introduced the notion of ‘apprenticeship of observation’ to refer to teachers’ early school experiences. This notion emphasises the fact that, before their teacher training experiences, teachers spend thousands of hours in classrooms as students, during which time they internalise the teaching models and teacher behaviour they are exposed to. These early experiences mould teachers’ teaching philosophies and form their pre-training beliefs, which are said to be resistant to change (Holt- Reynolds, 1992; Johnson, 1994; Kagan, 1992; Pajares, 1992) and which are believed to filter the information teacher trainees are introduced to in teacher education courses (e.g., Hollingsworth, 1988 in Carter, 1990; Pennington, 1996; Richards, 1998; Tillema, 1994). Kennedy claims: “Teachers acquire seemingly indelible imprints from their own experiences as students and these imprints are tremendously difficult to shake” (Kennedy, 1990: 17, cited in Bailey et al., 1996). This article sets out to review, mainly within the field of second/foreign language teaching and grammar teaching in particular, the impact of teacher training courses (TTCs) on pre-training knowledge and belief development. In order to understand this impact, it is necessary first to discuss how prior language learning experiences (PLLEs) influence teachers’ teaching practices and conceptualisation of language teaching.