Novice EFL Teachers Research Articles

Exploring emotional experiences of Chinese university novice EFL teachers: An ecological perspective

Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's ecological system, the present study employs a qualitative longitudinal approach to delve into the emotional experiences and ecological factors that contribute to these emotions in eight novice EFL teachers from four Chinese public universities. Based on data collected from semi-structured interviews and case documents, this study identifies four types of emotional experiences—fear, anger, sadness, and joy—in their first school year. The findings revealed that their emotional experiences were shaped by college students, teachers' teaching competence, EFL teaching-related activities in the microsystem, interpersonal relationships in the mesosystem, novice teacher education and development systems in the exosystem, traditional cultural values and English curriculum reforms in the macrosystem, and changes in the emotional experiences over time in the chronosystem. The implications for novice EFL teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, and policymakers are proposed.

Novice EFL Teachers’ Belief and Emotional Regulation in Response to Students’ Misbehaviors in the Classrooms

This research report shares the findings that emerged from a qualitative study in which the main objective was to discover whether or not novice EFL teachers regulate their negative emotions during their initial teaching practice and, if so, how they do this. Semi-structured interviews, recorded classroom observations, collected the data, stimulated recall interviews, and wrote journals for reflections and explanations of why they expressed and regulated their emotions in those incidents. The participants were three novice teachers who have been teaching English at the same university for about five years. Data collection of student-teacher interaction was carried out during their teaching. The research findings reveal that teachers often experience negative emotions triggered by students' conduct in the classroom, such as discipline issues, lack of engagement, and incorrect responses. Teachers successfully used techniques to redirect their attention and reassess the situation to counteract annoyance and disappointment. Ultimately, these strategies replaced negative emotions with a new outlook through substitute teaching activities. These observations provide EFL teachers with insightful advice on dealing with negative emotions effectively, resulting in a more positive classroom atmosphere where English is taught.

In-service Novice EFL Teachers’ Perception on Self-Initiated Professional Development: A Narrative Inquiry

Top-down teacher professional development in Indonesia prevents teachers from choosing and determining programs or activities that suit their interests, goals, and needs; however, some activities can assist teachers in developing it, known as self-initiated professional development (SiPD). SiPD demonstrates that people who take the initiative learn more and better than those who are passively taught with or without the assistance of others. This research investigated novice EFL teachers’ perceptions and the types of SiPD they engaged in. This study employed a narrative inquiry approach using semi-structured interviews as data collection. The study involved three EFL teachers selected through purposive sampling. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the collected data. The findings of this study are that novice EFL teachers regard and comprehend self-initiated professional development positively as responsible professionals seeking to acquire new skills, knowledge, and pedagogy to better prepare for their profession’s obstacles and improve their student’s performance and achievement. They became proactive learners, taking control of their education and taking the initiative to develop their teaching abilities. Furthermore, self-initiated professional development ensured that EFL teachers were current on the newest teaching trends, techniques, and resources.

EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of the Use of Science Fiction to Teach Reading & Writing

EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of the Use of Science Fiction to Teach Reading & Writing

Exploring Pedagogical Adaptation Challenges Faced by Novice EFL Teachers in Higher Education: A Study from Hubei Province, China

Exploring Pedagogical Adaptation Challenges Faced by Novice EFL Teachers in Higher Education: A Study from Hubei Province, China

Understanding novice Chinese EFL teachers’ beliefs and practice in using English as a medium of instruction

This study explores the beliefs and practices of six novice Chinese EFL teachers in international secondary schools using English as the medium of instruction (EMI). Participants, having overseas educational experiences and an average IELTS score above 6.4, provided insights through semi-structured interviews conducted via WeChat. The findings reveal the complexity and diversity of their beliefs about the role of English and EMI in teaching, shaped by their personal and professional experiences. Challenges faced include large class sizes, limited professional expertise, and varying English proficiency levels among students, which significantly impact their teaching efficacy. The study highlights the need for linguistic support and subject matter expertise to foster EFL teachers’ professional development and enhance EMI teaching efficacy. Implications for pedagogical practices suggest the necessity of supportive measures for novice EFL teachers to navigate the complexities of EMI environments effectively.

“Teaching Unplugged”: An Approach For Designing An EFL Teacher Education at Disadvantaged Schools

Inspired by the approach of “Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching” developed by Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury, this theoretical research introduces and offers a conceptual design of teacher training intended to be relevant to novice Indonesian EFL teachers, especially those working at schools located in the most remote and disadvantaged areas of Indonesia. The training is designed based on the theoretical framework of the approach and critical reviews of several related empirical studies. This article, therefore, focuses on exploring the applications of the approach by examining some other research including the most recent ones about the approach, and investigating its relevance to the context of English education at the most disadvantaged schools in Indonesia. The practical stages and syllabus are also presented in the article so that both teachers as participants and teacher educators can easily follow and understand how the materials can be implemented in their teaching contexts. Considering the theoretical-based materials and well-planned activities that the training offers, novice EFL teachers, after completing the program, are expected to be able to improve their both language and pedagogical skills that are needed in their school contexts and in line with the recent curriculum, the Merdeka curriculum.

TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE CHALLENGES AMONG BEGINNER ENGLISH TEACHERS AT SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN JORDAN

This study investigates the difficulties faced by novice English teachers in Jordanian secondary schools, focusing on the impact of errors made by new teachers on the academic performance of (EFL ) students. The research used interviews and observation to gather data, with purposive sampling strategies employed. The results showed that novice EFL teachers needed to focus more on lesson overviews, presenting topics in a logical order, explaining major and minor points clearly, providing explanations for complex or challenging topics, and providing definitions of terms and concepts. The primary language challenges faced by novice teachers were pronunciation, listening comprehension, and grammar. 40% of teachers did not connect lessons together, and 45% needed to deliver lesson themes in a logical order. Only 30% of inexperienced teachers focused on emphasizing the lesson's essential elements, while 60% needed to. 65% of new teachers needed to clearly articulate important and small ideas, while 30% needed more attention on offering definitions of terms, concepts, and principles. 60% of new teachers needed to provide clear examples to illustrate lessons and put steps into practice while solving homework difficulties. The study suggests that the native tongue of EFL beginning teachers, irregularities in sound, diverse grammar forms, tenses, and vocabulary size account for most of these challenges. Socio-psycho variables, such as attitude, anxiety, and self-confidence, also impact these teachers. To address these challenges, it is crucial to set uniform standards for all schools and conduct further research on the root causes of these challenges.

“Finding happiness in daily work”: an ecological study on the emotions of novice EFL teachers in rural primary schools in China

While research on teacher emotions has grown in the past decades, little is known about rural teachers’ and novice teachers’ emotions. Based on ecological theory, this study selected two novice EFL teachers as the research objects. The goal was to explore their emotional experiences and the factors that influenced them over 3 years while teaching in rural primary schools. The research data was collected primarily through semi-structured interviews, teaching diaries, and narrative frameworks. Three-step coding and topic analysis were used to analyze the collected data. The data analysis revealed that the two novice teachers generated 62 emotions while interacting with various ecosystems. In Microsystems, teacher-student interaction has a strong influence on participants’ emotions. Two participants experienced 19 positive emotions and 9 negative emotions during their interactions with the students. In addition, novice teachers may experience negative emotions if they are burdened with too many non-teaching tasks. In this study, two participants were able to effectively manage their negative emotions. The general emotional trend was positive, which motivated them to stay and continue teaching in the rural area. The results of this study have implications for the professional development of rural teachers and novice teachers.

REFLECTIVE TEACHING AMONG INDONESIAN NOVICE EFL TEACHERS: HINDRANCES TO THE PRACTICE

Research and studies on teachers’ reflective practice have increased over the decades. However, the factors contributing to the low levels and application of reflective practice among Indonesian novice EFL teachers have been very little explored. This study aims to explore the hindrances faced by novice EFL teachers to their practice of reflective teaching. This qualitative study used a survey method and an online questionnaire adopted and developed from the IETRTQ or Inhibitors to EFL Teachers’ Reflective Teaching Questionnaire as the research instrument. The questionnaire was then administered to 30 Indonesian novice EFL teachers as the samples of this study. After collecting the data, simple descriptive statistics such as mean and frequency analysis were employed to provide a more qualitative analysis regarding the result. The findings of this study show that the lack of novice EFL teachers’ reflective practices is due to some hindrances to their practice. The hindrances include a lack of knowledge factors, emotional and affective factors, and institutional factors. Further, it is expected that novice teachers, EFL study programs, EFL policy makers and trainers, teaching institutions, and future researchers can work cooperatively to contribute to the implementation of reflective practice of teaching.

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.

Cognition-in-interaction: A Discursive Psychological Perspective of Novice Language Teacher Cognition

Teacher cognition has been an important agenda of language teacher education in recent decades, and it has advanced the field’s understanding of L2 teachers’ work. Thus far, language teacher cognition has been understood from different epistemological perspectives and researched with different methodological approaches. Given that teacher cognition is social and situational, more research is needed from an emic perspective to understand how teachers develop and renew their cognitions in their professional context. This paper adopts a discursive psychological perspective on teacher cognition, investigating novice teacher cognition using applied conversation analysis. As part of a more extensive study, the study offers an in-depth analysis of novice Chinese EFL teachers’ thinking, knowing, understanding, conceptualising, and stance-taking regarding language teaching. The teachers were recruited through a combination of convenience and snowball sampling strategies. The dataset includes 330 minutes of classroom teaching, 217 minutes of interviews, and 605 minutes of video-based guided reflection on teaching. The data revealed the key theme in teachers’ understanding of 1) focusing on linguistic knowledge, 2) establishing teacher authority, and 3) developing practical pedagogical knowledge. The findings reveal teachers’ moment-by-moment cognition-in-interaction and multiple roles in facilitating learning. Substantial implications are put forward for teacher learning and teacher education.

NOVICE EFL TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY INTO MICRO-LEVEL DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Educational researchers have made great strides in theorizing teacher professional development, though attention is still concentrated on isolated mental processes. This study therefore reports on a narrative inquiry aiming to find out micro-level development process that occurs in two novice EFL teachers and also to reveal the features of teacher’s change that appear to facilitate English language teaching and learning. A variety of data collection techniques including; narrative frame, field notes, semi-structured interview and stimulated recall interview are used to make teachers’ behavioral, attitudinal and intellectual component of micro-level development explicit. Two overarching themes that emerge in this narrative inquiry are; the route to be a good English teacher and rediscovering the passion to teach. The important key finding of this study is that the early year of teaching is sensitively crucial to EFL teachers’ micro-level development, which is characterized by a positive shift from constructive experiences and aspiration of better English language learning process to internalization of empathy, attentive and responsive manner. Another key finding of this study is that all the novice EFL teachers who spoke positively about implementing changes in their classroom practices, embraced most of the process of micro level development that occurred, based on intuition, without clear theoretical underpinning of pedagogy, and merely classroom-bound focus. However, this study contributes to the current knowledge in relation to the crucial role of three distinct patterns of PD; discontent, aspiration and without intention

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: INDONESIAN NOVICE EFL TEACHERS’ TENSIONS AND NEEDED SUPPORTS DURING PANDEMIC

The abrupt changes in the situation and policy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic might dwindle novice teachers’ well-being and add more pressure to their minds that are already clouded with uncertainty. If left untouched, it is more than likely that they would quit teaching entirely. Nevertheless, while challenges, struggles, and tensions experienced by novice EFL teachers have long been studied and well-documented, the novice EFL teachers’ tensions experienced during the pandemic and the supports they need have not been examined. By analyzing guided reflections and interviewing five Indonesian novice EFL teachers, the present research is to answer two questions: 1) What kinds of tensions are experienced by Indonesian novice EFL teachers during the time of the pandemic? 2) What kind of supports do they need to stay in the teaching profession? The result shows that novice teachers experience tensions related to pedagogical-technical, a sense of belonging to the teaching profession, and culture-relationship, which are caused by the abrupt shift to online learning and excessive workload. To mitigate and ease these tensions, needed supports from the government and policymakers, school and school leaders, or colleagues are also discussed.

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.

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

A Comparative Study of Managing Learning Opportunity in EFL Classroom

Learning opportunity plays a vital role in EFL classroom learning. Drawing on conversation analysis and comparison methods, focusing on correction activities in an experienced EFL teacher’s classroom and a novice EFL teacher’s classroom in China, this study aims to explore the differences in their practices of turn allocation for increasing learning opportunities. The study finds that the experienced teacher designs more rich turn allocation, that is, to add more turn allocation practices, to involve more students to participate in the classroom interaction, to lengthen the period for students’ involvement. In these ways, she creates more learning opportunities for students compared with novice EFL teacher. Although the result is pertinent, it might deepen understanding of high-quality EFL classroom interaction and promote EFL teachers to discover, create or maintain more learning opportunities for students.

"Closer to the Light, Smaller the Shadow Became" --- a Critical Autoethnography of a Novice EFL Teacher's Professional Identity Construction at Private Universities in China

"Closer to the Light, Smaller the Shadow Became" --- a Critical Autoethnography of a Novice EFL Teacher's Professional Identity Construction at Private Universities in China

Identity Tensions Experienced by Iranian Novice EFL Teachers

Early-career language teachers, who are struggling with transitory stages of identity development from students to teachers, can experience a collection of negative emotions known as identity tensions. This exploratory mixed-methods study helps novice teachers to identify their tensions, especially identity tensions, and be more familiar with and manage various types of them. To this end, first an interview has been conducted with 16 teachers and, afterward, a developed questionnaire to 150 participants has been administrated. Thematic analysis and between-groups analysis of t-tests and ANOVAs were used for the qualitative and quantitative phases of the study respectively. The study found that gender was not associated with identity tensions, but that age, years of experience, and educational background were positively associated with identity tensions.

DEALING WITH CRITICAL INCIDENTS: EXPERIENCES OF TURKISH NOVICE EFL TEACHERS

Moments causing teachers to stop and think about their teaching are called critical incidents and reflecting on them can be a way of gaining insights into their practices and contexts. However, critical incidents are underexplored in the Turkish EFL context. Thus, this qualitative case study aimed to understand the types of critical incidents encountered by six Turkish novice EFL teachers who all graduated from the same English language teaching program, their ways of dealing with these, and how this affected them. Data obtained from reflective journals and a focus group interview were analysed thematically. The results revealed critical incidents related to multiple sources, mainly due to students’ behaviors. Moreover, teachers' strategies varied from addressing the student to acting as the authority. These critical incidents affect novice teachers in various ways, such as questioning their language teacher education and teaching competence, which were discussed in this study along with implications and directions for future studies.