Changing beliefs on English: study abroad for teacher development

Abstract Many teachers of English aspire to study in anglophone countries, especially at postgraduate level, as a means to support their own professional development. While the overt interest lies in acquiring cutting-edge theories in ELT to improve their classroom practices, a sojourn abroad is also valued as a cultural and linguistic immersion in the English language. Within the vibrant research scene of study abroad, comparatively little is known about the effect of studying abroad on older participants. This study addresses mature teachers as students abroad and focuses on the challenges and changes to their existing professional beliefs triggered by their foreign academic sojourn. The participants are four Japanese teachers of English who attended MA programmes in the UK. The analysis of a corpus of 2046 minutes of in-depth interviews, conducted over a period of 20 months, revealed how some core professional beliefs on English were reformulated, and triggered teacher development.