EFL Student Teachers Research Articles

Investigation of EFL Student Teachers’ Emotional Responses to Affective Situations during Practicum

<p style="text-align:justify">This study investigates the emotional responses of EFL student teachers to various affective situations during practicum and their coping strategies to enhance positive emotions and reduce negative emotions. Seventy female EFL student teachers participated in this study. To collect quantitative and qualitative data, two instruments were used: an emotional reflective diary and semi-structured interviews. The results of the study revealed that the practicum is an emotionally positive experience. The frequency of occurrence of pleasant affective situations was more than that of unpleasant ones. In the decreasing order of frequency, the most frequent emotional responses were happy, angry, and stressed and the least frequent ones were lost, influential, and shamed. Furthermore, the results indicated that student teachers adopted many regulation strategies to manage their emotions. The study recommends that teacher education programmes increase the focus on teachers’ emotions and training student teachers to manage their emotions to build future professional identities.</p>

Effect of E-Portfolio-Based Reflection-Enhancing Tasks on Female Saudi Student Teachers’ Development of Reflective Practice With Respect to Lesson Planning and Teacher Research

This study was an attempt to develop student teachers’ level of reflection as a result of having a blended teaching practice course. More specifically, its aim was to develop their reflection and performance by having them engage in certain reflection-enhancing tasks in an online e-portfolio during the practicum. To achieve this goal, the study was conducted using 8 student teachers in a practicum course offered at Imam Mohammed ibn Saud Islamic University. This study addressed the research question: How does engaging EFL student teachers in e-portfolio-based reflection-enhancing tasks affect their level of reflection as it pertains to lesson planning and teacher research? El-Okda’s (2009) rubric for assessing reflection was used to evaluate the participants’ reflection-enhancing tasks using descriptive statistics. The findings of this study suggest that the participants understood and learned to reflect through participation in reflection-enhancing tasks with respect to lesson planning and teacher research. The recommendation that a reflection component with a framework of assessment should be incorporated into teaching methods courses and teacher preparation programs is presented.

English proficiency and learner individual differences: A study of pre-service EFL student-teachers

This study examines the relationship between individual factors such as age, learning opportunities, and motivation and English language proficiency of pre-service EFL student-teachers. A background questionnaire and an English proficiency test were given to 121 student-teachers. The results revealed that the majority of participants have a low English proficiency which is not likely to improve at the end of the teaching program and that third language learning as well as integrative motivation are strong predictors of language proficiency. Qualitatively, respondents described their reasons for having English language difficulties and for their integrative and instrumental motivation, which complemented the quantitative data. Suggestions for pedagogical practice that might improve the situation are given.

The Language Awareness of Finnish and German EFL Senior High School Learners and Student Teachers Regarding English Grammar and Its Teaching

The aim of this study is to examine and contrast the language awareness of Finnish and German EFL senior highschool students and student teachers regarding aspects of English grammar and its teaching. Data was collected fromFinland and Germany during the academic school years of 2015–16 and 2016–17. It consists of the responses to twosurvey questions of 1st year EFL senior high school students (n = 200 from Finland, n = 200 from Germany) andstudent teachers (n = 118 from Finland, n = 118 from Germany). The study utilizes both qualitative (content analysis)and quantitative (frequencies, percentages, cross tabulation [χ2-test]) research methods. The results show that thesubjects’ awareness of English grammar and its teaching was mainly based on intuitive, implicit knowledge. It wasdifficult for both senior high school learners and student teachers to build a cognitive understanding that wouldincrease their awareness of English grammar, and, as a result of this, its teaching, and respectively theirgrammar-related didactical competences.

Perceptions of Turkish EFL Student Teachers Towards Learning Phrasal-prepositional Verbs Through Corpus-based Materials

The current study aims to explore the perceptions of 55 Turkish EFL student teachers towards using corpus-based materials in English phrasal-prepositional verb learning. It also explores gender-based differences and similarities towards using such materials in the learning of English phrasal-prepositional verbs. To do so, the study adopted a mixed method approach. The quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire, and the qualitative data were collected through focus-group interviews. The results of the questionnaire revealed that the learners had somewhat positive perceptions of using corpus-based materials in their phrasal-prepositional verb learning. The results of the interviews also showed that the learners enjoyed using corpus-based materials in their phrasal-prepositional verb learning, thereby supporting the questionnaire data. Gender differences that emerged from the study showed that the female learners had higher positive perceptions of using corpus-based materials than the male learners. This study provides further evidence that Turkish EFL learners feel that using corpora in language learning is an effective approach, and language teachers questioning whether to use corpora in language teaching can make use of such sources to help their students learn different aspects of vocabulary in English.

Novice EFL Teacher Perceptions on their Past Mentoring Experience

This qualitative case study examines the perceptions of three novice EFL teachers regarding their past mentoring experiences in school settings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit their overall views as well as obtain insight to specific aspects of this process according to the Five Factor Model on Mentoring (Hudson, 2007). Findings indicate that the personal attributes of mentors were perceived as being most relevant. However, based on the perception of the teachers, aspects such as school requirements and feedback are not widely considered by their mentors despite the fact that these elements impact the mentoring process. It is expected that by analyzing teacher perceptions, more knowledge will be gained about future EFL student teacher preparation so that programs will be able to better address the specific needs of mentees during their practicum period.

ENGLISH TEACHING VIDEOS EMPLOYED IN EFL STUDENTS TEACHER CLASSROOM: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON UTILIZING ENGLISH TEACHING VIDEO IN DEVELOPING TEACHING SKILLS

This study tries to investigate the use of English teaching video in EFL student teacher classroom. It was initiated by the importance of providing authentic classroom teaching activities to the students. Employing English teaching videos to improve students teaching skills is alternatively important to do in order to gain a good insight of how native English teachers teach in the classroom. Therefore, some English teaching videos accessed from CELTA link, which is a platform of teaching practice for TESOL teachers were showed in the classroom. The implementation of the video was conducted for one semester, during teaching and learning process in the course of TEFL. The data are gained from the interview conducted with the students asking their opinion about English teaching videos whether they can affect students teaching ability. The result therefore reveals that the students agreed that English teaching videos help them learn more about teaching skills, classroom managements, student-teacher interaction and teaching methodology. However, they also stated that there was a weakness of the video that it is sometimes hard to understand. They stated that native speaker teachers’ talks could be difficult to understand sometimes. Keywords: English teaching video, EFL classroom, teaching skill

Kurdish EFL Students Teachers’ Practicum Experience: Some Basic Challenges

Abstract—The present study highlights the main challenges faced by EFL student teachers (STs) of the Department of English - College of Basic Education - University of Sulaimani during their teaching practice. To investigate the challenges, a closed-ended questionnaire is designed which consists of 20 items focusing on a variety of relevant issues of practicum experience. The questionnaire is given to 50 EFL STs and the collected data is statistically analyzed. The study hypothesizes that EFL STs might have serious challenges in their teaching at basic schools, which could be related to the lack of motivation of basic school students, shortage of practicum period, supervisors’ evaluation, and lack of teaching technology. These challenges are proved true after the analysis of the data. Based on the conclusions of this current study, it is recommended that Kurdish EFL STs should be familiarized with different aspects of teaching profession. To this end, the university stakeholders should design a specialized program for ST practicum and create a strong link with basic school programs. The conclusions and recommendations could be taken into consideration by the STs, university teaching staff, and basic school principals to overcome the challenges and improve the practicum process. Thus, the study could have potentially significant implications for the senior administrators of the Department of English, College of Basic Education deanery, and the University of Sulaimani presidency for addressing the main challenges of practicum faced by EFL STs.

A Proverb Learned is a Proverb Earned: Proverb Instruction in EFL Classrooms

This study aims to reveal the situation about proverb instruction in EFL classrooms by seeking future English teachers’ opinions. It is based on the argument that proverbs are an important part of cultural references, figurative, functional and formulaic language; thereby, they lend themselves well to enhancing communicative competence. This study investigates what EFL student-teachers think and feel about English proverb instruction, how they conceptualize proverbs, how they define their knowledge and use of English proverbs, and what they think about the extent to which their English teachers and coursebooks at high school taught English proverbs. In doing so, a questionnaire was designed and administered to freshman EFL student-teachers and semi-structured interviews were conducted with volunteers. The findings revealed that despite those student-teachers’ positive attitudes towards proverb instruction, they did not view their knowledge of English proverbs as well as the teaching of proverbs by their English teachers and coursebooks at high school sufficient enough. Furthermore, traditional definitions were reflected in the participants’ conceptualization of proverbs. The study has important implications for curriculum and syllabus design in which knowledge of phraseology in general and proverbs in particular should be incorporated as an important component of learners’ language competence.

Inverted Teaching for Improving the Teaching Performance of EFL Student Teachers at Jubail College of Education

The objective of the present study was investigating the effect of inverted teaching on EFL student teachers’ teaching performance. Fifty-four EFL student teachers studying the Lesson Planning course at Jubail College of Education, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University participated in the study. They were pretested in teaching performance, then inverted teaching was implemented, finally all participants were posttested in teaching performance. Statistical analysis showed a significant improvement in the teaching performance of the participants (t=7.6611, p<0.05) between the pre and post measurements in favor of the post measurement. Accordingly, the researchers concluded that inverted teaching is significantly effective in improving the teaching performance of EFL student teachers.

Using Cognitive Self-Regulated Strategy Based Program in Developing EFL Student Teachers’ Oral communicative competence

T his study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using cognitive self- regulated strategies basedprogram to develop EFL oral communicative competence skills for student teachers. Participants of thestudy were sixty student teachers from Benha university faculty of Education and they were divided into control group and experimental group. Instruments of the study were an oral communicative competenceskills checklist determine the necessary oral communication skills for the student teachers and a pre-post oral communicative competencetest to determine the level of the student teachers' oral communicative competenceskills. After measuring its validity and reliability, the pre-oral communication skills test was administrated on both groups. Results showed no statistically significant differences between the two groups. While teaching the control group with regular ways, the researcher administrated the proposed CSRS-based program on the experimental group.Finally, post-oral communication test was administered on both groups. Results showed that experimental group performed better in the post- oral communicative competence test after the treatment.This showed that the treatment program has an effective impact on improving EFL student teachersʹ oral communicative competence skills. According to all of that, it could be concluded that using CSRS to develop EFL oral communicative competence skills for EFL student teachers is very effective.

Iranian teacher education programmes: EFL student teachers perspectives on their future teaching abilities

This cross-sectional study employed a mixed method design to examine perspectives of EFL student teachers at Iranian teacher universities on their future teaching abilities in terms of California S...

From Utopia to Reality: Trans-Formation of Pedagogical Knowledge in English Language Teacher Education

In this article the author reports on a study of some English language student-teachers’ trans-formations of knowledge about language education. The question that guided the study was: How are English language student-teachers’ formative pedagogical and research experiences portrayed in a transformative and critical outlook for initial teacher education? Reflections, perceptions, and conceptions served as data and were collected by means of diaries, interviews, and degree projects or monographs. From the analysis of data, two main themes emerged: “Going Back and Forth from Utopia to Reality” and “EFL Student-Teachers as Novice Critical Researchers”. A conclusion was that the participants’ trans-formations mediated by pedagogical and research agendas represented alternatives with high levels of sensitivity towards socially associated issues in language education.

ENHANCING STUDENTS’ LISTENING PROFICIENCY THROUGH THE INSTRUCTION OF (META)-COGNITIVE LISTENING STRATEGY

A b stract Metacognitive listening strategy instruction is fruitful to enhance students’ autonomy by planning and deciding what the best strategy in mastering listening skills is. Meanwhile, the cognitive strategy instruction facilitates students to find out the solution to their listening problems. The study aimed to find out the effectiveness of (Meta)-cognitive listening strategy (M-CLS) instruction by administering the integrated listening strategy instruction between metacognitive and cognitive strategies on students’ listening proficiency. The participants were 38 EFL students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Semarang that consist of 20 for the experimental group and 18 for the control one. The M-CLS instruction that utilized the three stages including planning, monitoring, and evaluating stage was administered in experimental group for ten meetings. The quasi-experimental design was conducted to investigate quantitative data. The data were gathered by using a listening proficiency test adopted from TOEFL listening section. The descriptive statistics, Generalized Linear Model, and Paired Sample t-test reveal that the students in the experimental group achieve a higher score of listening proficiency with a significant achievement than those in the control group. Keywords: (Meta)-Cognitive Listening Strategy (M-CLS), Listening Proficiency, Experimental Design, TOEFL, EFL Student Teachers

Reflective Practice Experience of an EFL Student Teacher during Practicum

This qualitative single case study focuses on the reflective practice experience of a university student teacher while doing her practicum at a secondary school in an EFL teaching context in Yemen. It addresses the steps and strategies followed by the student teacher to examine her teaching practice for professional development. The data were mainly collected from interviews with the student teacher and her supervisors during practicum. The results revealed that the student teacher made some attempts to examine her teaching practice, especially parts she faced difficulty in. Also, the findings showed a limited guidance from the supervisors to encourage the student teacher to reflect on her teaching practice. Based on the findings, it is suggested that EFL student teachers should be first trained to systematically reflect on their teaching practice during their preparation stage and then encouraged and engaged in reflective practice during practicum to enhance their reflective practice experience.

EFL Student Teachers’ Lesson Planning Processes: A Grounded Theory Study

Lesson planning employs both pedagogical and content knowledge. The processes are complex and student teachers, undergoing practicum, struggle to plan. However, studies that explain processes drawn from a qualitative inquiry to explain the practice are rare. The purpose of this study is to generate a theory to explain Thai EFL student teachers’ lesson planning by adopting the grounded theory. The research questions include 1) How do the Thai EFL student teachers design their lesson plans? 2) How do the student teachers implement the lesson plans? and 3) What action do the student teachers take after implementing the lesson plans? The research instruments are semi-structured interviews as well as observations of 22 student teachers majoring in Teaching English. The data is analyzed by means of coding to identify emerging categories and generate a substantive theory. A constant comparative analysis of the data generates a grounded theory of EFL student teachers’ lesson planning, illustrating cyclical processes of four stages. The first stage is pre-planning, where personnel and institutions have an influence by giving information necessary for planning. The second stage is planning, showing both linear and non-linear processes. The third stage is implementing plans, observed by school and university supervisors. Student teachers agree, partly disagree or entirely disagree with feedback and use or do not use the feedback to improve subsequent plans. Finally, the last stage is reflecting/evaluating, showing modes of communication and a reflective process for both problems and success.

Using problem-based learning in a micro-teaching course to develop EFL student teachers’ reflective thinking and attitudes towards the course

ملخص البحثکان الهدف من الدراسة هو تحدید تأثیر استخدام التعلم القائم على حل المشکلات فی دورة التدریس المصغرة على تطویر التفکیر والتفکیر الانعکاسی لمعلمی طلاب اللغة الإنجلیزیة کلغة أجنبیة. تکونت عینة الدراسة من ستین معلما من طلاب اللغة الإنجلیزیة کلغة أجنبیة فی مجموعتین ، ثلاثین لکل مجموعة. أعقب تصمیم البحث شبه التجریبی بإحدى المجموعتین کمجموعة تجریبیة والأخرى کمجموعة تحکم. تم تصمیم اختبار التفکیر التأملی ومقیاس الموقف من قبل الباحث واستخدمت لجمع البیانات. أوضحت نتائج الدراسة فروق ذات دلالة إحصائیة عند مستوى (0.05) بین متوسطات درجات المجموعتین التجریبیة والضابطة فی التفکیر الانعکاسی بعد الاختبار لصالح المجموعة التجریبیة. ومع ذلک ، لم یتم العثور على فرق ذی دلالة إحصائیة فیما یتعلق بمواقف أساتذة الطلاب حیث کان لکل من المجموعتین التجریبیة والضابطة مواقف إیجابیة تجاه الدورة. نوقشت النتائج فی ضوء الأدبیات السابقة التی تسلط الضوء على الدور الوسیط للتفکیر الانعکاسی فی سد الفجوة بین النظریة والتطبیق فی برامج تعلیم المعلمین EFL. Abstract: The aim of the study was to identify the effect of using problem-based learning in a Micro-teaching course on developing EFL student teachers ‘reflective thinking and attitudes towards the course. The sample of the study consisted of sixty EFL student teachers in two groups, thirty for each group. The quasi- experimental research design was followed with one of the two groups as an experimental group and the other as a control one. A reflective thinking test and an attitude scale were designed by the researcher and used to collect data. The findings of the study revealed a statistically-significant difference at the level of (0.05) between means of scores of the experimental and control groups in the reflective thinking post-test in favor of the experimental group. However, no statistically significant difference was found in relation to the student teachers ‘attitudes as both the experimental and control groups had positive attitudes towards the course. The findings were discussed in light of the previous literature highlighting a mediating role of reflective thinking in bridging the gap between theory and practice in EFL teacher education programs.

Remote tutoring of pre-service EFL teachers using iPads

With the availability of portable and relatively inexpensive audiovideo recording devices in the form of iPads and other mobile technologies in combination with increasing bandwidth, the remote observation and training of pre-service EFL student teachers without the physical presence of a tutor in the classroom is now a viable proposition. This paper reports on a novel initiative to provide remote feedback to a group of primary EFL pre-service teachers on teaching practice placement in Africa from a tutor based in Sweden via iPad minis and the training institution’s Moodle virtual learning environment. The feedback was assessed in relation to the Cambridge English Teaching Framework. Results suggest that the combination of recorded audiovideo material during the pre-service teachers’ teaching practice and Moodle feedback from the remote tutor can provide a valuable basis for tutorial support, formative assessment, and reflection for student EFL teachers on teaching practice.

Teacher shadowing as an empowering technique for EFL student teacher practical knowledge development: insights from three-week shadowing programmes

ABSTRACTThis study reports on shadowing’s potential as an observational and preparatory tool for learning, drawing on data obtained from a group of EFL student teachers who undertook a practicum. EFL student teachers’ perceptions of the shadowing technique and how shadowing contributes to practical knowledge, are focused on. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and reflective reports after a shadowing experience of three weeks. Student teachers were found to have positive perceptions towards the shadowing technique, and a considerable development in their practical knowledge was also observed. The study recommends integration of shadowing into EFL practicum courses as a more rigorous approach.

Digital Literacy With EFL Student Teachers: Exploring Indonesian Student Teachers’ Initial Perception About Integrating Digital Technologies Into a Teaching Unit

Research found that many student teachers are active users of digital technologies yet they are reluctant to make use of digital technologies for literacy teaching purposes. Efforts to prepare student teachers for technology integration are pressingly needed. Also needed is data that informs us about student teachers’ participation (engagement) with digital technologies and how they might utilize those technologies for literacy teaching. The article reports on a classroom research project that explored Indonesian student teachers’ initial perception about the use of digital technologies for EFL teaching. For one semester, the first author taught a course to a group of student teachers at a state Islamic university in Jakarta in which they learned conceptual and practical knowledge about digital technologies in teaching and learning. The student teachers were tasked to explore digital technologies available and had to integrate those technologies into teaching units contained in a junior high English textbook. Popular digital technologies selected included Facebook, blogs, Skype, and WhatsApp. Each offers unique potential to facilitate and enhance language learning. Student reflections provided insight into their considerations for their digital technology selections.