ABSTRACT
Increasingly over the past few decades, English has played the role of lingua franca, as an international language and as an indispensable tool for gaining academic degrees. Kullman pointed out that "the most widely promoted model in English language teacher education and development is that of 'reflective practice'". To become an effective practitioner, Richards and Farrell have suggested that "a key to long-term professional development is the ability to be able to reflect consciously and systematically on teaching experience". Due to the nature of reflective practice, teachers who engage in it mostly focus on how to improve their teaching practice to achieve the best teaching and learning outcomes. An early study conducted in Taiwan by Liou, in the context of a pre-service teacher education programme for high school English teachers, suggested that reflective practice and action research are necessary to assist both pre-service and in-service teachers in a new workplace.
