What EFL Student Teachers Think about their Professional Preparation: Evaluation of an English Language Teacher Education Programme in Spain (original) (raw)
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Pre-service teachers' perception on their EFL competence and professional requirements
Language Teaching Research Quarterly, 2019
Language teaching and teaching through language have undergone a standardization process all over Europe. In the Spanish context, a myriad of programs has emerged in the last ten years whose main aim is to guarantee a plurilingual education. That means implementing and consolidating European directives on the matter from the Council of Europe. Universities have joined this trend in their need for internationalization. This contribution analyses pre-service teachers’ perceptions on their English Foreign Language level and the professional requirements regarding language competence in the current context in which language is a key aspect in education at any level. In spite of the fact that most students (95.5%) consider that a language teacher should master the language (C1 CEFR level or at least B2), some of them (19.3%) acknowledge not having any language accreditation yet, and most are in between B1 and B2 (70%). Therefore, there is a lack of consistency between their real language level and their perception of what is needed in order to be a successful primary education language teacher. Unquestioningly, their desired level is above their real competence, that is the reason why they plan to continue their English studies once they finish their university degree.
International Journal of Instruction
Pre-service teacher education programs such as, TEFL, TESOL, and ELT are offered in some universities in Bangladesh. Meeting the criteria and based on their level, students tend to enroll in BA in TEFL or TESOL and MA in TESOL or ELT programs. These programs entail different courses that are claimed to enable enrollees with the repertoires required to be an expert language teachers. However, for unknown reason, the effectiveness of such teacher education programs has not been explored. The current study intended to reveal what student teachers think about their teacher education programs. Adopting the pre-service teacher education program evaluation model suggested by Peacock, the current study was conducted. Semi-structured interview with the selected participants was also undertaken. Conducting the descriptive statistics elicited the respondents' perceptions regarding the teacher education programs. Majority of the participants viewed the programs instrumental to develop their pedagogic and linguistics competence.
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2018
The study aims to explore English as a foreign language (EFL) pre-service teachers’ conceptualization of the features of an effective EFL teacher. Additionally, the study attempts to evaluate the role of EFL teacher education programs on EFL PTs’ perceptions of being an effective EFL teacher. The data were collected through concept maps from a group of EFL pre-service teachers attending the same teacher-education program, focus group interviews with 20 pre-service teachers selected randomly from the participant group, and the researcher’s notes taken throughout the research. All of the data sources were analyzed through content analysis. The results indicate that the most important among all features of being an effective teacher, the EFL PTs depict the profile of an effective EFL teacher as having the necessary language skills to be able to use English fluently and accurately. Additionally, the EFL PTs referred to the personality traits of effective EFL teachers as being patient, h...
EFL Teachers’ Professional Development: Towards a counterpart of the English Language Supremacy
GiST Education and Learning Research Journal
This article aims at contributing to the ongoing discussion about the English language Supremacy and its influence in the EFL field. The theoretical discussion presented is retrieved from the literature reviewed in the development of the authors’ master thesis, where it was possible to identify that there are ideological, economical, and sociopolitical aspects immersed in the decision to learn and use English, having as a result that EFL teachers’ educational decisions and practices have been affected. Thereupon, the main contribution of this reflection article is, then, to explore from a theoretical perspective, a resistance discourse that promotes professional development by understanding and reflecting upon the colonial ideas in which this foreign language teaching has been immersed over the years. Key words: English supremacy, colonial discourse, professional development, NES vs NNEST
In this article we present the results of a qualitative research study on the pedagogical factors that influence English teaching in four public schools of Medellín, Colombia. Twelve teachers were interviewed regarding three linguistic principles: communicative competence, native language effect, and inter-language. The data analysis led to the identification of various factors, such as teachers' linguistic ego, view of their teaching role, and attitude towards English, which shape English teaching and are tied to teachers' education. It was concluded that teachers' professional development must tap into these factors so teachers can effectively revise their beliefs and adjust their practices to ensure a high quality in their teaching. En este artículo se presentan los resultados de una investigación cualitativa acerca de los factores pedagógicos que influyen en la enseñanza del inglés en cuatro escuelas públicas de Medellín (Colombia). Doce maestros fueron entrevistados sobre tres principios lingüísticos: competencia comunicativa, efecto de la lengua nativa e interlenguaje. A partir del análisis se concluyó que factores como el ego lingüístico, la percepción del papel del docente y la actitud frente al inglés son determinantes en la enseñanza de esta lengua. Se concluye que dichos factores deben ser incorporados en los programas de desarrollo profesional para que los maestros puedan revisar sus creencias y ajustar sus prácticas efectivamente y así asegurar la calidad de su enseñanza. Palabras clave: desarrollo profesional docente, factores pedagógicos, principios lingüísticos.
Future Teachers Discuss their Readiness to Teach EFL in Ecuador
Gist : education and learning research journal/GIST Education and Learning Research Journal, 2023
This work examines Ecuadorian teacher trainees' self-reported pedagogy. Data gathered in focus groups documents participant' pedagogy, what they stated they learned about teaching in diverse contexts, and the challenges they anticipate as they prepare to begin careers as English language teachers. A constant comparison method was used to determine and crossreference emergent themes in the data. Findings suggest a disconnect between the objectives of trainees' program of study and what the future teachers stated they need to know to be ready to implement in their practice.
2018
The extraordinary expansion of English as a global lingua franca led to continuous reconsideration of curricula of English language teaching throughout the world. Algeria, as its counterpart countries, was always trying to follow this 'English tide'. After adopting the communicative language teaching approach in the last quarter of the 20 th century, the Algerian educational system implemented the competency-based approach in 2003. In a parallel way, a novel approach, which is known in tertiary circles as the LMD system, was launched in the Algerian university. All these data imply that the goals of teaching English are going always different. This dynamic and complex nature of teaching English nowadays requires a continuous revision of the syllabi of teaching English either for preparing students to have full degrees in English, or for teaching English as a subject-matter in a broader curriculum. The present doctoral study derives its aims from the latter problematic situation since it tests whether the current EFL teacher training programmes are up-to-date to meet the goals behind the new reforms seen by the educational systems in Algeria. It is an attempt to define the student-teachers' needs in terms of knowledge and skills to be qualified EFL teachers. In order to obtain an on-site image about these inquiries, two questionnaires were administered on two different occasions to EFL studentteachers, and a focused group interview was employed to gather a number of EFL experts. The data collected through these instruments were analysed following a mixed-method approach that included both qualitative and quantitative procedures. The main findings revealed that despite the changes realised in the university-based EFL training curriculum, student-teachers still feel unconfident about their linguistic abilities. They also expressed their weakness in many EFL facets such as: Educational Psychology, Didactics and Assessment. At the level of the school-based internship held after novice teachers' recruitment, the trainees overtly showed their dissatisfaction with the components of the programme they IV went through, since it did not constitute teaching practice sessions. This investigation concludes with a number of recommendations that first call for the design of Master's curricula specifically designed to EFL teacher training, and that take into account the real requirements of the EFL Algerian context. Some new measures to enhance EFL teaching practices and to assure quality in training were also suggested. V
Investigating Spanish student teachers' beliefs about the good EFL teacher
Estudios De Linguistica Aplicada, 2012
The main purpose of this article is to investigate Spanish student teachers' pedagogical beliefs about what makes a good efl teacher with specific reference to several essential aspects of language teaching. The paper is organized as follows: an overview of the research literature on teachers' beliefs is first presented. Then it describes the sample of population surveyed and the research procedures employed. Next, the findings are reported and discussed. Finally, the conclusions make up the last section. The resulting data reveal that there seems to exist among most Spanish student teachers an overall consensus on the main qualities or characteristics of the 'good' efl teacher. Special emphasis is given to learning individuality and students' individual differences. Emotional aspects associated with language learning and teaching are particularly stressed. In this research article, student teachers' pedagogical beliefs and their implications for teaching efl in particular are examined.
Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 2022
This mixed-methods study explores the factors contributing to the language teachers’ effectiveness in the context of English as a foreign language. Through a systematic review of the literature, six main factors were extracted: assessment literacy, content and pedagogical content knowledge, experience, oral proficiency, personality type, and self-efficacy. In the first phase of the study, 13 experts in the field shared their attitudes towards these factors through a semi-structured interview. The data obtained from the interviews was analysed thematically to develop a questionnaire. Ninety-three language teachers participated in a pilot study to validate the newly developed questionnaire. The results were factor analysed. After the required modifications based on the factor analysis were introduced, a questionnaire with 19 items entitled “EFL Language Teachers’ Effectiveness” was developed.
Struggling for Change in Chilean EFL Teacher Education
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We here report on the processes of designing and trying to implement curriculum innovations in English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education in Chile. This curriculum innovation project involved academics from six universities where problems such as a divorce between training in English linguistics and education, lack of language achievement standards and students’ low scores in international exams were found to be common to all six EFL teacher education programs. All of this amidst a general opinion (shared by parents, teachers, politicians, etc.) that Chile is immersed in an educational crisis without any easy solution. In this context an urgent need arises for an innovative and very creative design to change the curricula at universities so that the country can raise the quality in foreign language education. The aim is for language education to have a real impact in the school communities. Having Critical Pedagogy as one of the main supporting models, this design we repo...