China has been a popular work site for Western TESOL teachers in recent years. As more and more public educational institutions in China have had foreign teachers joining their English teaching departments, doubts emerge from practice concerning whether it is adaptive for China’s English teaching and learning environment. In this paper, I investigated four cases of Western TESOL teachers working in a public middle school and a public university in Beijing. Over a three-year period, interviews were conducted with the Western teachers and their native Chinese on-site coordinators by the end of every academic year. From both perspectives, I summarized the challenging facts for Western TESOL teachers working in EFL classrooms in China. Lastly, I made suggestions accordingly to facilitate Western TESOL teachers to adapt and apply their specialty in teaching smoothly.

Zili Zhang. Practical Issues with Western TESOL Teachers in China’s Public Education System: From the Critical Lens of In-Service Teachers. International Journal of New Developments in Education (2024), Vol. 6, Issue 8: 243-251. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJNDE.2024.060838.

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