Competence, preparation, and relaxation: Contributing factors to EFL student teachers' self-efficacy and teaching performance in microteaching training

Abstract

Microteaching is called “micro” teaching because it involves teaching a short lesson to a small group of people in a simulated classroom setting, with the goal of improving specific teaching skills or behaviors. Microteaching training represents a significant approach for enhancing the teaching competencies of student teachers. However, there is a scarcity of studies that examine the factors contributing to the self-efficacy and teaching performance of student teachers, both of which are central concerns in microteaching training programs. This study addresses this gap by synthesizing five contributing factors from existing literature, collecting survey responses from 272 English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) student teachers, and employing structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the relationships between these factors. The four hypotheses that were rejected yielded unexpected results, indicating negative relationships between participants' teaching experience and EFL speaking competence with their lesson-delivery competence, as well as a negative relationship between lesson-delivery competence and self-efficacy. Interestingly, public speaking anxiety was found to have no statistically significant impact on EFL student teachers' self-efficacy. This study establishes a theoretical framework that can assist decision-makers in enhancing facilitators and overcoming barriers in microteaching training programs. This framework can also be adapted for use in other academic studies.