PRE-SERVICE EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF TEACHING COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT OVER THE TESOL COURSE

Abstract

The English teaching practice is an essential part of a TESOL methodology course as it can offer TESOL students or pre-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers valuable experience in actual teaching environments. Additionally, TESOL methodology courses play a crucial role in providing pre-service EFL teachers with excellent chances to master their professional knowledge to become competent language teachers in the future. In this regard, pre-service teachers’ improvement in knowledge, attitudes, and professional skills in teaching English is of vital importance to their teaching career since they assist pre-service EFL teachers in displaying teaching abilities. This study aimed at examining pre-service teachers’ perception of their teaching competency development after taking 45 periods of the English teaching course, which is a compulsory course in the MA program. 121 pre-service EFL teachers, whose majors are TESOL methodology, answered the self-assessment questionnaire survey in this study. The SPSS software was utilized for data analysis. The findings disclosed that pre-service EFL teachers believed that their teaching competencies were developed after learning the teaching practice course. Specifically, they improved their knowledge and teaching skills so as to attract students to their lessons. Pedagogical implications are suggested for policymakers and teacher trainers to enhance pre-service EFL teachers’ teaching competencies based on the preliminary results of the current study.