English teacher trainees’ changing views concerning the effective language teacher

Abstract

This paper reports on the reflections of a group of fourth year EFL teacher trainees on the changes they and their peers have experienced concerning their views on what constitutes an effective language teacher. The data collection from semi-structured interviews supports previous findings according to which teachers’ beliefs are continuously formed throughout their years of teacher training. Results suggest a mixture of influencing factors, including earlier school experiences, content delivered in methodology classes, their own student experiences at the university, their school visits and classroom observations and their early teaching experiences. These first-hand experiences shape both their student selves and emerging teacher selves. Trainees seem to be critical towards the negative models they see, but they also start viewing the positive examples as possible models to follow.