Abstract
The present study aimed at understanding the nature and potential dynamism of five pre-service EFL teachers’ self-concepts in the domain of English as a foreign language (EFL). To this end, the effects of pre-service teachers’ experiences gained alongside the practicum on their EFL self-concept development were also discussed. Data were generated in a case study research paradigm using journal entries and in-depth interviews. The major themes derived from the analysis of the data were indicative of pre-service teachers’ self-beliefs which profoundly affected their EFL self-concept development. These included the passion for English, the use of L1 and L2 in language teaching, and the critical experiences that the pre-service teachers had during the practicum. It was shown how the practicing teachers’ EFL self-beliefs can at once be dynamic and also stable, depending on the type of beliefs investigated. The study concludes by suggesting the need to help EFL pre-service teachers to form positive but realistic self-concepts within the framework of EFL teacher training.
Highlights
Recent educational trends worldwide have long witnessed the widespread recognition of student-centered education which has dominated the Turkish education system over the past few decades
The core English as a foreign language (EFL) self-concepts reported by all pre-service teachers in the data were English as the subject matter and English language teaching as the educational process
The findings of the current study confirm Mercer’s (2011) presupposition that EFL self-concepts are part of a complicated network of interrelated self-beliefs, depending on a range of factors and motivations within the individual in the particular setting. This multifaceted and dynamic nature of self-concepts was reflected in the voices of EFL pre-service teachers during the practicum in which they reported fluctuations on their EFL self-beliefs
Summary
Recent educational trends worldwide have long witnessed the widespread recognition of student-centered education which has dominated the Turkish education system over the past few decades. In student-centered education, as the name suggests, learners are by nature placed at the very center of education where educational goals, to a large extent, come to be geared to meeting the individual learning needs of students This growing interest in individual has been reflected in a wealth of publications which mainly draw on the learner variables like students’ attitudes and motivation, language anxiety, learning styles, and perceptions of individual learners (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993). Of these learner variables, self-related beliefs have received considerable research interest in recent decades.
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