EFL Teacher Education Programs Research Articles

What EFL Student Teachers Think about their Professional Preparation: Evaluation of an English Language Teacher Education Programme in Spain

Given the importance of programme evaluation in the EFL teacher education, this research paper of exploratory-interpretive nature mainly focuses on both strengths and weaknesses identified through the analysis and/or critical evaluation of an EFL teacher education programme carried out in Spain. Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used in the study. The current TEFL programme has several strengths, but also certain significant shortcomings in light of the high percentage of undecided responses. The TEFL programme was evaluated positively by participant student teachers in general, in terms of pedagogic competence and promotion of reflection, although more input on English proficiency is actually needed and the amount of practice teaching should also be increased. Additionally, the findings of this study also offer some helpful suggestions and/or recommendations for improving the current EFL teacher education programme at least in the Spanish evaluation context.

Content Analysis of the Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the Curriculum of Yemeni EFL Teacher Education Programme

This study aims to analyse the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the current curriculum of the English teacher education programme (ETEP) at a Faculty of Education in a Yemeni University. PCK and teaching competencies take shape within the initial preparation of ETEP in which student teachers spenda long time receiving knowledge and understanding the teaching context before they practically experience teaching at schools. During their BA study, students are required to study 49 courses which can be categorised into four main components: skills, linguistics, literature and professional. This study analyses the content of the curriculum courses so as tovisualise the way student teachers translate what they have learned into pedagogical practices during their teaching practices. In this study, the curriculum content of ETEP is qualitatively analysed using the inductive approach. Categories emerged from the analysis demonstrate various aspects of student teachers’ PCK. The analysis reveals that the pedagogical skills courses are not enough to enhance and strengthen the student teachers’ PCK needed to be reflected in their teaching practices. The findings show that the curriculum lacks courses necessary to provide student teachers with basic knowledge and pedagogical principles which are of vital significance to demonstrate their understanding before they are practically engaged in the teaching experience.

Content Analysis of the Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the Curriculum of Yemeni EFL Teacher Education Programme

This study aims to analyse the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the current curriculum of the English teacher education programme (ETEP) at a Faculty of Education in a Yemeni University. PCK and teaching competencies take shape within the initial preparation of ETEP in which student teachers spenda long time receiving knowledge and understanding the teaching context before they practically experience teaching at schools. During their BA study, students are required to study 49 courses which can be categorised into four main components: skills, linguistics, literature and professional. This study analyses the content of the curriculum courses so as tovisualise the way student teachers translate what they have learned into pedagogical practices during their teaching practices. In this study, the curriculum content of ETEP is qualitatively analysed using the inductive approach. Categories emerged from the analysis demonstrate various aspects of student teachers’ PCK. The analysis reveals that the pedagogical skills courses are not enough to enhance and strengthen the student teachers’ PCK needed to be reflected in their teaching practices. The findings show that the curriculum lacks courses necessary to provide student teachers with basic knowledge and pedagogical principles which are of vital significance to demonstrate their understanding before they are practically engaged in the teaching experience.

EFL Teacher Education Programs in Iran: The Absence of Teachers’ Involvement

This study investigated the nature of EFL teacher education programs with respect to implementation, practicality, and approach to teacher learning. The data were collected through observation of two teacher education programs and interviews with 8 teacher trainers. The results attested to the transmission orientation of the programs. It was found that a pre-specified body of teaching knowledge is transferred from the trainers to the teachers. Teachers’ creativity, prior knowledge, and experience, the role of teaching context, and the population of learners are not considered in program development. The results of interviews with teacher trainers supported the results of the observations. It was found that even the trainers are not involved in the process of program development, as they are only transmitting the materials presented by textbook authors. The findings also indicated that what teachers considered beneficial for their development was different from what was incorporated in the programs. The existing gap between macro plans and teachers’ practices and preferences results from the centralized education system in Iran in which practicing teachers are not involved in the policy-making process. Implications for teacher education in general and EFL teacher education programs in particular are discussed.

CHALLENGES IN ASSESSING CHARACTER EDUCATION IN ELT: IMPLICATIONS FROM A CASE STUDY IN A CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

In this article I examine some challenges of assessing character education in the context of Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN). Major sources of character education in Indonesia (e.g., Kurikulum 2013) seem to be religious values. However, there are two salient problems. First, in religiously inspired character education, there are concerns about religious values imposition. Second, it is oftentimes vague what types of, and how, character education can be evaluated in English language teaching and learning settings. In the context of an EFL teacher education program in a Christian university that I studied, one Christian student showed her religious dogmatism in classroom interactions or elsewhere in which peers having different religious views were present. Students’ communicative competence in expressing religious values can be assessed by examining their growing self-reflexivity (which problematizes dogmatism), among others, in their discourse. Character education assessment rubrics are developed from the cases reported here, in light of: (1) the Indonesian government’s guidelines for assessing character education; (2) critical ELT; and (3) Celce-Murcia’s (2007) model of communicative competence.

EMPOWERING NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING TEACHERS THROUGH CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach that aims to develop students’ critical thinking, political and socialawareness, and self esteem through dialogue learning and reflection. Related to the teaching of EFL, this pedagogy holds the potential to empower non native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) when incorporated into English teacher education programs. It can help aspiring NNESTs to grow awareness of the political and sociocultural implications of EFL teaching, to foster their critical thinking on any concepts or ideas regarding their profession, and more importantly, to recognize their strengths as NNESTs. Despite the potential, the role of critical pedagogy in improving EFL teacher education program in Indonesia has not been sufficiently discussed. This article attempts to contribute to the discussionby looking at a number of ways critical pedagogy can be incorporated in the programs, the rationale for doing so, and the challenges that might come on the way.

Research Engagement in the EFL Pre-Service Practicum

Abstract The study aims to add to our understanding of pre-service teachers’ perceptions and experiences of research engagement during the school practicum. Specifically speaking, the following research question was addressed: What are Turkish pre-service EFL student teachers’ perceptions of the extent to which research engagement in the school practicum is beneficial for their professional development? Twenty-Four EFL student teachers (22 female, 2 male) participated in the study. They all took the practicum course together with the teacher research course during the 8th semester of their four-year undergrad education. Data came from an open-ended questionnaire, student teachers’ written reflections, conclusion sections of the research projects and semi-structured interviews with some of the participants after graduation. The findings indicated that participants benefited from research engagement during their practice teaching experience in questioning and reframing their understandings of teaching. However, they had some difficulties in research engagement during the school practicum. These findings have some crucial implications for the school practicum component of EFL teacher education programs. There is a common agreement that the pre-service teacher education programs are ideally responsible for laying the foundation for “contextualized” and “personalized” (Freeman & Johnson,1998) learning opportunities and preparing novices “to learn in and from their practice”(Feiman-Nemser, 2005). To this end, teacher candidates need support in using their own teaching practice as well as that of others (Kane and Francis, 2013) as a site of inquiry to examine and or reframe their understandings of teaching and students. (Ball and Cohen, 1999; Cochran and Smith and Lytle, 2009; Norman and Feiman-Nemser, 2005; Parr and Timperley 2010, Trent 2012). However, it is generally accepted that opportunities for such a process are not efficiently created by pre-service teacher education programs (Freeman&Johnson 1998, Feiman- Nemser 2009; Kane and Francis, 2013)

Private and Public EFL Teachers' Level of Burnout and its Relationship with their Emotional Intelligence: A Comparative Study

The study aimed to investigate EFL teachers’ level of burnout and its relationship with their emotional intelligence in both Iranian Public Schools (IPS) and Private Language Institutes (PLI) contexts. To this end, quantitative method of gathering data was used. 100 EFL teachers teaching at IPS and PLI contexts participated in this study. They were asked to complete Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey and Revised Emotional Intelligence Scale. Data were analyzed using Correlation, Multiple Regression, and T-tests. The results of the study indicated a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout among EFL teachers teaching at both IPS and PLI contexts. However, the results of multiple regression analyses indicated different patterns of relationships among the subscales of the two questionnaires for IPS and PLI teachers. The result of the T-tests also showed that the level of burnout among IPS teachers was higher than that of PLI teachers. The overall results of the study were discussed and the theoretical implications for further studies and the practical recommendations for EFL teacher education programs were made.

Critical Discourse Analysis of Teachers’ Written Diaries Genre: The Critical Thinking Impact on Cognition in Focus

Reflective practice is becoming a dominant aspect of EFL teacher education programs worldwide. Learners who think reflectively become aware of and control their learning by actively accessing what they know, what they need to know and how they bridge that gap. This study aimed at exploring the experience of a small group of Iranian EFL novice teachers during their participation in a process of self-reflection and considers its effect on their cognition. Due to the recognition of the role teaching experience can play in information processing and thus internal structure of EFL teachers’ writing genre, the study also tried to illuminate the moderating effect of teachers’ and learners’ experiences. In so doing, the study analyzed the teachers’ written diaries, as a means of reflective practice, on their instruction after watching the recorded film which was delivered to them at the end of each session. The critical discourse analysis of the data revealed that there were variations in teachers’ belief from the beginning of the research to the end. As to the genre-based analysis of the teachers’ diaries, the results of the study point to the high level of relevance between rhetorical features of teachers’ writing genre with their experience with as time passes; that is; results unveiled an ascending trend of complicacy in the move structures of teachers’ diaries and learners’ writing in finale sessions.

Profiling Formative Assessment Culture in EFL Teacher Education Programs in the Middle East

Although there is general agreement that there is a difference between assessment of learning (summative assessment), and assessment for learning (formative assessment), and that both forms of assessment have valuable roles to play, comparatively little attention is given to the latter in foreign language teacher education programs (FLTEPs) in the Middle East. The inclusion of formative assessment in foreign language teacher education curricula is meant to improve student teachers’ learning and that is why it generally counts towards the final grades. However, little formative classroom assessment, as compared to summative, is currently provided and as a result, student teachers are unable to benefit from the positive effect this would have on their learning. There is in practice a gulf between the decision-takers’ requirements that formative classroom assessment should be used and instructors’ distrust in this form of assessment. This research paper assumes that this view is unconsciously inherent in FLTEPs, which is the major channel for training and recruiting teachers of foreign languages at pre-university levels in many Arab states. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a snapshot of the implicit/explicit formative classroom assessment culture in FLTEPs in the Middle East.

Knowledge base and EFL teacher education programs: a Colombian perspective

In the 21st century, Colombian pre-service EFL Teacher Education Programs (TEPs) should study what constitutes the core knowledge base for language teachers to be effective in their profession. These programs must refrain from simply conceptualizing knowledge base as the acquisition of the basic skills required for teaching, the competency of educators in their subject matter area, and the use of pedagogical skills. Instead, they should strive to reflect on what Colombian language teachers need to know about teaching and learning, and study how their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes inform their practices. A starting point to do so is to interpret the variety of proposals that have been generated through the years in the field. This paperoffers a review of what teacher knowledge base is, presents an overview of how Colombian EFL TEPs are working on teacher knowledge,and suggests some strategies to envision a more complete framework of reference for teacher formation in Colombia.

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Critical Thinking Ability and their Professional Success

In the face of too much incoming information and too many people trying to convince us in today’s world, the ability to think critically gains an ever greater saliency as a prime goal of student and teacher education. The present study aimed at substantiating the relationship between EFL teachers’ critical thinking ability and their student-evaluated professional success. To this end, measures of the critical thinking ability of 67 Iranian EFL teachers were obtained using the Farsi version of Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, Form A (WGCTA-FA) (Watson & Glaser, 1980) (Faravani, 2006). In addition, their professional success was estimated by their students through the Successful Iranian EFL Teacher Questionnaire (SIETQ) (Pishghadam & Moafian, 2009). The Pearson product-moment correlation analysis indicated a statistically significant relationship between the two sets of measures (r = 0.7, p ? 0.05). More specifically, the multiple regression analysis demonstrated that three of the five aspects of critical thinking as defined by Watson and Glaser (1980), namely ‘drawing inferences’, ‘interpreting evidence’ and ‘evaluating arguments’, are significantly positively correlated with SIET scores. Implications relate to the need to accommodate ‘critical thinking’ as an essential aspect of EFL teacher education and teacher evaluation programs, and to readdress the concept of EFL/ESL teacher effectiveness with an eye to teachers’ critical thinking ability.

Tracking changes in pre-service EFL teacher beliefs in Greece: A longitudinal study

This article reports on a longitudinal study that aims to investigate pre-service EFL teacher beliefs about learning and teaching in Greece. The study attempts to track possible changes in those beliefs during a 3-year teacher education program and explores the impact of teaching practice, in particular, on student teachers’ beliefs. The results indicate that while there is a gradual and sometimes significant development in student teachers’ beliefs during the program, student teachers’ engagement in the teaching practice seems to have a low impact on the development of their beliefs. Those findings are interpreted with reference to the structure and context of the specific teacher education program and can be useful for the design and development of EFL teacher education programs.