EXPLORING BEGINNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS OF TEACHING READINESS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR SCHOOLS IN PUNJAB

Abstract

The study aims to explore beginning English language teachers’ beliefs about their readiness for teaching in the public sector schools in Punjab. The change from the educational institution to the classroom proves to be unsettling for the beginners and the feeling of being prepared well for the profession does not seem to be present when they attempt to advance their teaching practices in new environments. The study employs quantitative approach to gain the individualized perceptions of beginner teachers’ readiness for teaching through a self-reported survey questionnaire. 30 beginning English language teachers whose experience ranged from 1-4 years were taken as sample using purposive sampling technique. The findings reveal that majority of the beginning language teachers were not in readiness with regard to applying techniques for teaching different language skills such as speaking, listening, writing and reading. They also lacked expertise in planning lesson for differentiated learner style, lesson delivery and using appropriate assessment tools to assess learners performance. The study concludes that the initial training programs should enable beginner English language teachers to acquire these skills and apply new teaching methodologies in the real classroom environment. The results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to conduct a study in a different context in order to extend the scope of results. This paper fulfils an identified need to study how the beginner teachers can prepare themselves for the challenges in their initial teaching years.