Abstract

This thesis is based on interviews with seven Montreal based teachers who sojourned abroad and to teach English. The stories were collected based on a semistructured interview schedule. The study's objective was to (a) to examine the impact, if any, of their teaching abroad upon their professional and personal development and (b) to determine whether, upon their return to Quebec, Canada, they applied the lessons learnt to their teaching practice. All participants, whose age, educational background and length of work experience varied, described changes in their professional and personal development, similar to the examples identified by the research subjects in the literature review upon which this study was based. They are firmly convinced that their work abroad had a positive impact upon their teaching in Montreal and they were able to provide examples to support their claim. Furthermore, they maintained that direct teaching and living experience in other cultures and customs, especially for monolingual teachers, helped them appreciate the challenges that students from other cultural backgrounds face in their Montreal classrooms. Some teachers were inspired from their work abroad to pursue teaching on a full time basis. One teacher developed his own private business. Thus, in spite of the difficulties inherent to teaching abroad, the positive impact that such an experience can have on a teacher's ability to be self-critical and to evolve may provide benefits that go beyond simple personal growth, benefits that dramatically empower both the personal and professional development of many teachers