Novice EFL Research Articles

Struggles Coping with Emotions in Professional Lives: First-Year Teaching Experiences of Indonesian EFL Novice Teachers

<p>Kesejahteraan emosional seorang guru pemula dapat dipengaruhi oleh kesulitan yang mereka hadapi dalam karir profesional mereka. Dapat dimengerti bahwa beberapa pendidik EFL tahun pertama mungkin merasa sulit untuk mengendalikan emosi negatif mereka ketika dihadapkan pada situasi yang menantang di dalam kelas. Meskipun dapat diterima untuk mengekspresikan beberapa perasaan secara terbuka, namun ada juga yang merasa tabu karena berbagai alasan. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menjawab dua pertanyaan: (1) perasaan apa yang biasanya dihadapi oleh pengajar tahun pertama di kelas? (2) Bagaimana cara pengajar bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing tahun pertama mengelola perasaan mereka saat bekerja? Para peneliti dalam penelitian kualitatif ini menggunakan wawancara semi-terstruktur untuk mendapatkan informasi rinci tentang pengalaman para partisipan dalam mengelola emosi mereka.</p>

THE ROLE OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING IN DEVELOPING EFL TEACHERS' CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT COMPETENCY FOR BETTER TEACHING PERFORMANCE

<p>Teachers’ role in improving the quality of the educational system is unquestionable. However, in order for teachers to fully and effectively play their role and help achieve the required educational objectives they have to be well-trained before their induction and the literature provides much evidence of this (Bozkuş, 2021). Hence, teacher pre-service training is a crucial stage in the early development of a teacher. The current study makes use of a mixed-method approach, including a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and observations to investigate the role of pre-service teacher training in developing EFL novice teacher classroom management competency. The participants were 43 Moroccan EFL novice middle school and high school teachers. The results showed that participants found classroom management challenging mainly due to the short and insufficient period of training in general and practicum in specific as well as the prioritization of theory over practice during training. Consequently, those novice teachers found themselves in a state of confusion about how to deal with such challenges which had an impact on their performance in the classroom. <strong></strong></p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0010/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Teaching Anxiety Levels and Coping Strategies of EFL Novice Teachers

Teaching anxiety is feeling powerless and experiencing tension in teaching. A high level of anxiety affects the quality of teaching performance and teachers’ teaching resilience. This study aims to describe teaching anxiety levels and coping strategies of EFL novice teachers in teaching four English skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). This study employed a descriptive quantitative design. The data were collected by using online surveys. Total sampling was employed, and ten novice teachers of Islamic schools in Sidrap regency, South Sulawesi, completed online questionnaires adapted from DASS 42 and the COPE scale. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings showed that EFL novice teachers experience severe anxiety in teaching productive skills (speaking 15.5 and writing 15.1) and moderate anxiety in teaching receptive skills (listening 13.8 and reading 14.8).EFL novice teachers used problem focused strategies more than emotion-focused strategies to combat their anxiety.Keywords: Teaching Anxiety; Coping Strategy; EFL Novice Teachers

Indonesian EFL Novice Teachers' Strategies in Conquering Online Learning Challenges

The researchers purposely conducted this qualitative study to determine the teaching strategies used by Indonesian EFL novice teachers in dealing with the online learning challenges they have adapted to during COVID-19 and how their strategy fulfilled the need for online learning. Using interviews and document analysis, the researchers presented strategies of five novice EFL teachers practised in Indonesia to adjust to the online learning challenges toward their teaching they experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data analysis is done by transcribing, analyzing, coding, describing, and concluding from teachers' guided written reflections and semi-structured interviews. The results were also analyzed under the conceptual model of five types of interactions by Wang et al. The findings revealed that the teachers employed several strategies to minimize technical problems, create efficient learning resources, and adapt to an ERT-based learning environment. Despite these beneficial strategies, they cannot fulfil the successful criteria of online learning. Therefore, there is a need for improvement. This study is limited to a small number of participants, which may need to adequately expose all of the strategies employed by other novice teachers during online classes. Additionally, this study did not further investigate learning achievement, which needs to be investigated for future research.

Vietnamese EFL Novice Teachers’ Pedagogical Decisions within a Mandated Communicative Language Curriculum

Vietnamese EFL Novice Teachers’ Pedagogical Decisions within a Mandated Communicative Language Curriculum

Coping with emotions in professional lives: Novice teachers’ voices in Indonesian secondary schools

Novice teachers often encountered some challenges in their professional work that might influence their emotions. It is quite reasonable that some EFL novice teachers may still struggle to manage their negative emotions to cope with classroom problems. Some emotions could be freely expressed positively, whereas other emotions were left unexpressed for some reasons. This study aimed to answer two research questions, namely: (1) what kinds of emotions do novice teachers frequently experience in teaching? (2) How do novice EFL teachers cope with their emotions in professional life? This study employed a qualitative method and carried out semi-structured interviews to gain in-depth data from the participants' perspectives in dealing with their emotions. The instruments employed were interview-guidelines questions and open-ended questions. The result of the present study revealed that, first, all novice teachers frequently experienced two main challenges in teaching, namely students’ misbehaviours and disrespectful behaviours. These challenges could influence teachers' emotions of anger, being overwhelmed, and worries. Second, the findings demonstrated that teachers employed three strategies, namely self-regulation, self-talk, and a problem-focused strategy to manage and handle their emotions in teaching. In addition, the present study suggested beneficial implications, limitations, and directions for further research. Keywords: Emotions, EFL Novice Teachers, and Strategies

EXPLORING CLASSROOM LANGUAGE IMPLEMENTED BY NOVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS

Using English as a classroom language is widely acknowledged as the most effective means to encourage students to get used to English. The more often they are exposed to English, the more proficient they will be. However, teachers' awareness of the role of classroom language as a means to maximize student proficiency remains vague. Studies reveal that EFL teachers tend to use their own language in the classroom rather than the target language, English. Furthermore, teachers are susceptible to code-switching, which is the use of two or more languages in a single sentence or phrase. Despite the growing attention of studies exploring classroom language used by EFL teachers, studies focusing on novice EFL teachers with less than five years of teaching experience are considered limited. Accordingly, this descriptive qualitative study aims to investigate the implementation of classroom language used by two EFL novice teachers based on Sallaberri's framework from the English Classrooms Handbook: Classroom Language (1995). The data were gathered through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The study's findings revealed that two EFL novice teachers use Bahasa Indonesia as their primary classroom language, including code-switching. Besides, using English as a classroom language became teachers’ dilemma since the students' proficiency levels and their experience in teaching are strongly affected their actions. Some recommendations and potential future practices and research are also discussed thoroughly.

Using peer observation as a learning tool for EFL novice teachers to foster their teaching readiness

This study aims at investigating EFL novice teachers’ awareness and consulting their attitudes concerning peer observation of teaching as a learning tool to foster their teaching readiness. The data for the study was collected through a questionnaire with a sample of 10 EFL novice teachers and an interview held with 5 EFL experienced teachers at Tlemcen University in Algeria. The findings showed that the majority of the participants know and use peer observation. They confirmed the benefits of peer observation as a tool to help them in improving themselves and their classroom practices. Nevertheless, they do not use it accurately. Therefore, it is recommended that the Algerian EFL novice teachers be trained in peer observation for its significance in their daily teaching and professional development.
 Keywords: EFL, learning tool, novice teachers, peer observation, teaching readiness;

Exploring EFL Novice Teacher’s Identity Construction: A Narrative Inquiry of Senior High School Teacher

This study used narrative inquiry to reveal the identity construction process performed by an Indonesian EFL novice teacher through her personal experiences in a senior high school context that is still rarely explored. The interview results revealed that the teacher developed Johnston's framework based on the following three aspects of the teacher's identity: teacher-student relationship, professionalism, and religious beliefs. The results showed that the novice teacher always prioritized academic assistance for students in teacher-student relationships. In terms of professionalism, she saw it as service-oriented. Thus, she always strived to be a better teacher to her students. She also instilled religious values in her English classes. She believed instilling positive values could help socially responsible individuals. It is suggested that future research would use a solid and clear framework regarding the novice teacher's identity construction to make the research process more organized and extend some informative inputs in narrative inquiry research.

Peer Observation in Facilitating Teacher Professional Development: A Study of EFL Novice and Experienced Teachers Perceptions

Novice and Experienced English Teachers are inevitably confronted with a must to be a qualified and professional teacher. This is particularly relevant in Indonesia, where English teachers are graduates of English Education departments has challenged to teach not only English language, but also culture and should have preparation for their duties as English teachers. Peer observation has the potential to facilitate teachers to develop their teacher professional development, particularly those who teach EFL in navigating challenging elements of their teaching practice. For this reason, this qualitative study explored 10 participants’ perceptions of peer observation as an aid to professional growth. Data were garnered from questionnaires and in-depth interview. The findings of the study suggest that the participants’ understanding of peer observation as an opportunity for them to learn each other to improve their teaching quality and construct their professional identity. Then, the participants also talk about their experiences in doing peer observation, which Experienced Teachers (ET) are more confidence than Novice Teachers (NT). Further, both ET and NT need peer observation to negotiate issues and solve problems. Finally, peer observation enabled the participants to reflect on themselves and their respective weaknesses in teaching English for professional development as both novice and experienced teachers.

Exploring Upper Primary School Novice EFL Teachers Application of Pedagogical Content Knowledge during Speaking Lessons: The Case of East Shawa Zone, Ethiopia

There have been contentions on the significance between content and pedagogical knowledge among language scholars. The introduction of PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) seems to merge the disparity. PCK is a special amalgam between content and pedagogy, which is unique to teachers and especially to experienced teachers. However, teacher training institutions place different emphasis on content and pedagogy. As a result, novice teachers encounter various challenges in their professional career in applying appropriate PCK in the classrooms. This study was aimed at exploring EFL novice teachers’ implementation of PCK in upper primary schools during speaking lessons. The results show that upper primary school EFL novice teachers had gaps in Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) and PCK to teach EFL speaking skills though they believe that they are equally important to teach speaking skills which they consider as one of the most difficult areas for them to teach. Hence, teacher training colleges need to provide trainees with strong content and pedagogical backgrounds.

Professional identity construction of EFL teachers as autonomous learners

Teacher Professional Development (TPD) is exponential for English teachers to the success of teaching and learning process in the classroom. Teachers with professional identity are deemed to have good quality in teaching. As stipulated by Rodgers & Scott (2008) teachers with professional identity are deemed to have good quality in teaching. The efforts to do this can be accomplished through such ways as participating in conferences, seminars, workshops, and non-degree training, or even pursuing their further studies to master’ s degree and doctorate program. Also, they can conduct research and publish articles. This article is intended to provide evidence how novice, mid-career, and senior EFL teachers construct their identity professionally and autonomously. To arrive at the purpose of the study, an explorative survey was carried out to 129 EFL teachers throughout the Province of East Java via online questionnaire with 37 close-ended items. The findings revealed that (1) EFL teachers, be they junior, mid-career or senior ones involved in the present study, have tried to professionalize themselves via a number of corridors from self-directed ones to the ones imposed by other professional development providers; (2) teachers perceive their professional status and areas in diverse ways, and (3) they have various professional and pedagogical knowledge and skills related to becoming professional EFL teachers. In conclusion, EFL novice, mid-career or senior teachers have manifested their professional identity with a number of corridors as professional autonomous learners.

The mystery behind how EFL novice teachers should behave to manage their classroom enviroment effectively and empatheticly

Abstract E very EFL classroom can possibly become entrenched in the dynamics of the teachers, vulnerable students, and classroom climate. Qualities such as empathy can be forgotten by teachers as stereotypes, prejudices, and preconceptions emerge. Therefore, the development of empathetic strategies and positive attitudes towards language learning among students can be improved by teachers with empathic abilities in the classroom, where the classroom climate plays an important role. Enhancing the strategies related to empathy development among novice teachers may help to create better conditions for care and higher academic expectations. In addition, empathy is a necessary skill for teachers to effectively manage their classrooms. Research supports empathy’s importance in English language teaching as it promotes positive outcomes in the classroom both intellectually and emotioally . It also foments a culturally sensitive class environment. As teaching with empathy can enhance teacher effectiveness, this review paper introduces some necceaary empathy related guidelines for novice teachers to apply so that they can develop their effectiveness in teaching. The results are discussed in the light of guidelines for beginner teachers.

Teaching Experience and Views of Pronunciation Formative Assessment

The current study aimed at investigating the differences between novice and expert Arab EFL teachers in their views of providing pronunciation corrective feedback to their students. Four teachers were recruited for the study. Two novice teachers and two experienced teachers. Both groups of teachers were interviewed about their views of providing pronunciation corrective feedback. Interview data analysis revealed the existence of six major differences between novice and experienced teachers in their views of pronunciation corrective feedback. These differences included timing, frequency, considering students’ proficiency level, considering the skill being taught, focus on form and/or meaning, and the range of pronunciation corrective feedback techniques used. Further suggestions included incorporating a pronunciation corrective feedback component in teacher development as well as professional training programs.

Collaborative Inquiries into Teaching English Practical Skills via a Critical Friends Group

From a sociocultural perspective, professional learning sites for teachers need to go beyond the boundaries of one-off training course to the situation-specific learning activities and on-going dialogues or collaboration among teachers within their community. Critical friends groups are one of the collaborative learning forms, which involve a small group of teachers within a shared teaching context and friendship to interact and develop professionally. However, limited empirical evidence was found about the learning process of those who are in their first years of teaching, known as novice teachers. This case study was carried out to investigate how five EFL novice teachers at a university in Vietnam made professional inquiries collaboratively in a critical friends group (CFG) in order to learn to teach English language skills. It aims at exploring the five teachers’ attitudes towards and constraints of their CFG experience. The data were collected through non-participant observations of discussions on a Messenger chat room of the CFG for three months and semi-structured interviews with the five teachers. The results reveal that the five novice teachers highly valued their collaborative learning opportunities with their critical friends in their process of learning to teach English language skills at a tertiary level while a number of hindrances were noticed in their learning within the CFG. Based on the findings of the research, it is recommended that CFGs or other collaborative forms of professional learning need to be encouraged among teachers, particularly those starting their teaching career.

Between Practice and Perception: Formative Assessment Used by EFL Novice Teachers and Students’ Responses toward the Implementation in Offline Classroom Mode

Abstract. This study aims to 1) investigate the ways of EFL novice secondary school teachers conducted Formative Assessment (FA) in offline classroom mode 2) investigate its implementation based on the five key strategies of FA 3) reveal students’ responses toward teachers’ implementation of FA in the classroom. The participants of this study were five EFL novice teachers and five students of several secondary schools in East Java, Indonesia. This study employed qualitative research and semi-structured interview to collect the data. Results showed that teachers use various ways to conduct the FA in the classroom, such as giving quizzes, observing the students’ attitudes, asking the students to make learning diary, and asking them to do self-assessment. It is also noted that the teachers employed the five keys strategies of FA, even though there is still a limitation found in the first strategy. Furthermore, students perceive the teachers’ implementation of FA both in positive and negative ways. Students also found that there are benefits of FA that they can grasp such as the awareness of their capability, as well as the sense of achievement that maybe helpful to grow their sense of responsibility to their learning experience.Keywords: EFL Classroom; EFL Novice Teachers; Formative Assessment; Students’ Perception

Relationship between Reflective Teaching and Teacher Autonomy among Iranian EFL Experienced and Novice Teachers

The present study was an attempt to examine the relationship between reflective teaching and teacher autonomy among Iranian EFL experienced and novice teachers. The study was conducted with a sample of 100 EFL teachers that were selected by convenience sampling from language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. In order to neutralize the role of gender, as an intervening variable, an equal number of male and female participants were invited to take part in the study. Out of participants, 50 of them were experienced and 50 were novice teachers (those teachers who had fewer than five years and more than five years of teaching experience were considered novice and experienced participants). The participants were requested to fill out two questionnaires measuring reflective teaching and teacher autonomy. The descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data. The findings showed that there was a strong positive relationship between the experienced teachers' reflective teaching and their teacher autonomy and there was a moderate positive relationship between the novice teachers' reflective teaching and their teacher autonomy. The results of the present study will be useful for EFL teachers to have effective teaching. Obviously, reflective teaching would help teachers to foster their independence.

Constructing Professional Identity: Investigating Stress Factors and Resilience Experienced by EFL Novice Teachers

Several studies show that EFL novice teachers often feel stress as they encounter shock from the rapid shift of a student to a teacher. Stress experienced by EFL novice teachers occurs because of internal or external factors. Stress which cannot be regulated will result in teacher burnout that can lead them to leave the profession. This qualitative study intended to investigate EFL novice teachers’ stress factors and coping strategies which influence their professional identity construction. The data was obtained by conducting an in-depth interview with three EFL novice teachers. The findings showed that EFL novice teachers experienced stress because of three factors, namely, personal, interpersonal, and organization factors. Despite feeling stress, EFL novice teachers demonstrated their abilities to cope with the circumstances. The participants elaborated how they cope with the situations as well as how stress factors influenced their identity as teachers. This study provides some suggestions for future researchers and EFL novice teachers.

Roles of Feedback to English Writing Improvement: Thai EFL Novice Writers in Higher Education

Writing has been the most difficult skill among EFL students for several decades. It inevitably promotes writing feedback and approaches to English writing classroom to minimize students’ errors in their writing draft revision. Hereby, the current study aimed at investigating perceptions towards the three writing features: vocabulary, grammar, and content, and examining the differences of the three assessments including teacher feedback, peer feedback, and self-correction. In addition, the teacher feedback preference as implicit and explicit feedback was determined as well. Participants were 32 first-year undergraduate students majoring in English for International Communication at Rajamangala University of Technology, Lanna Tak, Thailand. The current study employed a mixed-method research approach. Questionnaires and open-ended questions were utilized as research tools. Participants were assigned three genres of writing paragraphs. It took 15 consecutive weeks in providing three different feedback to purposive samples. For every assignment, their peers corrected their first drafts and then they rechecked and edited their output by their own decision. Afterward, the teacher provided both implicit and explicit feedback on the revision process. The data obtained were quantitatively analyzed for mean, standard deviation, and a paired sample t-test which have been deployed to the differences among the three feedback. Correspondingly, all written responses were thematically grouped and transcribed into frequency and percentage. The findings indicated that students mostly expected the teacher to edit their misused words, grammatical errors, and ideas on their drafts. As for the three feedback, most beginning writers particularly believed that teacher feedback, which was followed by self-correction and peer feedback, was much necessary for writing improvement and teachers should edit their redrafts explicitly in an EFL writing classroom.

Struggles and Strategies in Constructing Professional Identity: The First-Year Teaching Experiences of Indonesian EFL Novice Teachers

Several studies have recorded the increasing number of teachers who left the profession in the first year of teaching in recent years. The main cause is the difficulties over the first year of teaching and the unsatisfactory construction and growth of professional identity. This qualitative study attempted to reveal the struggles faced during their first year of teaching by EFL novice teachers working in Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia and how they coped with those struggles regarding their development of professional identity. The struggles are split into internal and external struggles based on the result. The internal struggles are linked to how teachers controlled their emotions self-efficacy, and ability to teach, their jobs and their personal opinions. The external challenges related to the management of the classroom, the abilities, and attitudes of the students, the lack of resources and facilities in the school, the relationships with their colleagues and their salaries. This research is intended to provide more insight into the realities of teachers working in an underdeveloped province like East Nusa Tenggara, in particular how they establish their professional identity in a lack of facilities and learning resources.Keywords: East Nusa Tenggara; Novice Teachers; Professional Identity; Struggles and Strategies