TESOL Teacher Education: A Novice-Service Approach.

This article examines two major challenges in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher education: the persistent gap between theoretical training and practical classroom application, and the abandonment of novice TESOL teachers during their early-career years. It highlights that many TESOL programs emphasize theory over practice, leaving graduates underprepared for real teaching contexts, while early-career teachers often lack ongoing support from their teacher education programs and schools. To address these issues, the article proposes a novice-service approach that extends TESOL teacher education beyond pre-service training into the first five years of teaching, fostering collaboration among teacher educators, schools, and novice teachers to enhance reflective practice and professional development. This approach aims to bridge the theory-practice divide and provide sustained mentorship, thereby improving teacher readiness, retention, and effectiveness in diverse educational settings.