Professor Lawrence Zhang
full Professor of Linguistics-in-Education (Applied Linguistics/TESOL), University of Auckland, New Zealand and Associate Dean (AD) International Partnerships for the Faculty of Education and Social Work
About
Lawrence Zhang is a Full Professor of Linguistics-in-Education (Applied Linguistics/TESOL), University of Auckland, New Zealand and Associate Dean (AD) International Partnerships for the Faculty of Education and Social Work. His research programme spans cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural and developmental factors in reading/ biliteracy development, critical reading awareness in language education, metacognition, self-regulated learning (SRL) and reading development in L1 and L2 contexts, bilingual/biliteracy acquisition and bilingual/biliteracy education in primary and secondary schools, and learning and teaching English as a second/foreign language at university settings, the effects of self-regulated reading and writing instruction on bilingual/biliteracy development, positive psychology in learning and teaching, and teacher identity and cognition in language teacher education.
Taking Stock of Emotions for Teachers’ Continuous Professional Development
Lawrence Jun Zhang (張軍), University of Auckland, New Zealand
Teacher self-efficacy, perceived school climate, and psychological wellbeing at work, might predict teaching enjoyment, which in turn helps teachers professional development. In order to explore such possibility, we invited 355 teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) to respond to four online questionnaires. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to check the scales’ construct validity and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test associations among the variables. Our results showed that teacher self-efficacy, perceived school-climate, and psychological wellbeing were direct predictors of foreign language teaching-enjoyment (FLTE). Teacher self-efficacy affected FLTE indirectly, as induced by psychological well-being. School climate also indirectly influenced FLTE, as mediated by teacher self-efficacy and psychological wellbeing, with school climate a direct predictor of teacher self-efficacy and psychological wellbeing. Teacher self-efficacy directly affected psychological wellbeing. These findings offer us sufficient evidence that supports our position that teachers’ emotions are key to their success in continuous professional development.
Lawrence Jun Zhang (張軍), PhD, is a past Post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Education, Oxford University, UK. He is now Professor of Applied Linguistics/TESOL and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, New Zealand. His major interests are in learner metacognition, the psychology of language learning and teaching, and teacher education, with particular reference to EFL reading/writing and ESP/EAP. He has published extensively along these lines in leading international journals, including Applied Linguistics, Assessing Writing, Journal of Second Language Writing, Modern Language Journal, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, System, TESOL Quarterly, among others. He was the sole recipient of the “Distinguished Research in TESOL Award” in 2011 for his article, “A dynamic metacognitive systems perspective on Chinese university EFL readers”, published in TESOL Quarterly, 44(2). He is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief of System, serving on the editorial boards of seven international journals. In 2016 he was honoured with the recognition by the TESOL International Association (USA) with the award of “50@50”, which acknowledged “50 Outstanding Leaders” around the globe in the profession of TESOL at TESOL’s 50th anniversary celebration in Baltimore, Maryland. In November 2016, he is co-editor-in-chief for System since 2016. In the Elsevier-Stanford Rankings 2022 and 2023, he was listed in the top 2% of Scientists in the World in the disciplinary areas of Linguistics/Applied Linguistics. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1025-1746
Website: https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/lj-zhang