Abstract:

Teachers always face the challenge of finding new techniques and methods for gaining better results. The staff of the English language department of the Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTV) also seeks new ways to make their work more successful. The task for them is especially difficult as they teach students with different levels of the English language knowledge, from Elementary to Upper-Intermediate. The main aim of the English language course taught at KBTU is to tailor the language program to the students’ current academic and future professional needs. In this case a team-teaching method appears to be a better way for developing language skills as know-how authorship is shared by every member of the team. This permits to stream student groups according to the language proficiency level and their future professional field thus involving instructors of a particular specialization.

Under the team-teaching we mean realization of the same working program by joint efforts of a group of teachers that compile a syllabus, teaching and examination materials, evaluation rubrics, and use joint methods of teaching. Classes can be conducted either by one teacher in a class, two teachers assisting each other in one class, or by rotation of a group of teachers. We have practiced all the three types for a single discipline. The article presents the results of the teachers’ experience and the research which investigates positive and negative impacts of team teaching. The study includes the following main stages: collecting data, compiling syllabi, questioning students and instructors, conducting comparative analysis of the effect of different types of team teaching, and developing recommendations for students and instructors.

Team teaching proves to allow sharing experience and knowledge of instructors; it brings more democracy into teacher-student relations, challenges teachers to use new techniques, methods, ideas, and materials. As for students, team-teaching gives them an opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills from different instructors with particular specialization, to feel free from being dependent from one instructor and to be treated more attentively as individuals.

Keywords:

Team teaching, the English language, University students, research.