Abstract：Abstract: Teachers’ classroom discourse, as representations of their knowledge and beliefs, provides useful access to their practical knowledge. This study investigated an EFL teacher’s practical knowledge through the lens of his classroom narratives. Sociolinguistic narrative analysis was used to approach the classroom narratives, complemented by a thematic analysis of the related interview data. The data analysis shows a frequent use of narratives in this teacher’s classroom talk, which were classified as five categories: hypothetical narratives, personal narratives, narratives about others, shared narratives and cultural narratives, revealing the teacher’s rich practical knowledge. These classroom narratives were further analyzed from the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of students, knowledge of self and knowledge of contexts categories to detect the characteristics of the teacher’s practical knowledge. The findings of this study suggest that classroom narrative analysis is an important means to reveal teachers’ practical knowledge.
Key words: practical knowledge; classroom narrative; narrative analysis; EFL teacher
