How are we preparing future English teachers?: A study of the curricular variations among selected efl undergraduate programs

Abstract

In order to improve the pre-service formation in Ecuador, the government created an education standardized curriculum to be used for all Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) offering education undergraduate programs. Unfortunately, when designing this curriculum, curriculum developers did not consider the particularities of all different pre-service programs existing in the country, for instance, English language teaching and focused more on primary education. This lack of consideration for different education undergraduate programs resulted in difficulties in adopting the standardized curriculum in other specializations. This research presents the different variations existing among the English language teaching curricula which resulted from the attempts to adopt the standardized curriculum in English language teaching pre-service formation; as well as the challenges and difficulties that curriculum developers faced during this process. Using a mixed-methods research methodology, results showed that curriculum variations revolve around the total number of practicum hours, low percentage of the use of English as a means of instruction, scarce common academic subjects despite the existence of common profession[1]al competencies, and differences in the total number of instruction hours.