Malaysian School English Language Teachers’ Perceptions on Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Studies on school teachers’ perceptions toward teaching and learning have shown inconsistent results which call for further research in the area. This study was an attempt to investigate the perceptions of teachers towards Teaching and Learning of the English Language. A Likert scale questionnaire with 33 items was developed by the researchers. A randomly selected group of Malaysian School English language teachers (n = 165) responded to the questionnaire. The descriptive statistics results indicated that the Malaysian School English Language Teachers’ perceptions of teaching are mainly positive; such as having higher intrinsic interest in adopting teaching as profession, decreased tendency in perceiving Teaching as a stressful profession, understanding the significance of listening and speaking skills (commonly neglected skills), awareness of the advantages of having literature in the English classroom, showing interest in the knowledge about high frequency words and lexiles, and showing interest in knowing and understanding students’ interests and problems. However, teachers’ perceptions regarding the education system, resource adequacy, class size and in the teaching of the writing skill are negative in the analysis. The findings further indicate the teachers’ technology illiteracy and although they acknowledge the supportive role of books in teaching language skills they seem not to be positive on the use of textbooks in the English classroom. The results have interesting implications for policy makers and researchers.