A Study of Pre-Service English Teachers’ Teaching Efficacy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers' teaching efficacy. The subjects were 38 preservice English teachers from a university. Since the present study aims to examine pre-service English teachers’ teaching efficacy, all participants were seniors and completed their practicum at the time of data collection. In this study, Language Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument developed by Liaw (2004) was adopted as being more appropriate to Korean context. Language teaching efficacy consisted of four areas: instructional strategic efficacy, language teaching efficacy, student engagement efficacy, and personal and environmental influence efficacy. Results of the present study indicated that most pre-service English teachers had moderate self-efficacy beliefs in the dimensions of instructional strategy, language teaching, student engagement, and personal and environmental influence. The participants responded that they felt more confident in instructional strategy than in the other dimensions. It was found that the participants felt least confident in motivating students, teaching high-level speaking and writing classes. In addition, the pre-service English teachers were inclined to use more of structural and linguistic oriented activities than of communicative activities. The findings of the present study will provide useful information to develop coursework to enhance pre-service English teachers' teaching efficacy.