Novice EFL Teachers Research Articles

Transitioning from Pre-service to Novice: A Study on Macau EFL Teachers’ Identity Change

While it has been well noted that novice EFL teachers are subject to identity change when transitioning from pre-service to novice stage, the nuanced process of such change remains underexplored. Based on data gathered from four novice EFL teachers in Macau, this paper examines such process using the constructs of imagined identities and the social representation theory. Findings from a qualitative interpretive analysis revealed four distinctive trajectories of identity shifts, i.e., renegotiation, evolution, establishment, and sustainment. These findings suggest that novice EFL teachers’ identity shift is not a linear transformation from imagined identities formed in the pre-service stage to practiced identities in the novice stage, but a dynamic process mediated by personal beliefs, prior learning experiences, teaching practice, and the institutional exam-oriented culture. These findings call for attention to the resilient power of imagined identities and the role of affiliating with imagined communities in novice teachers’ construction of practiced identities and to how novice EFL teachers’ identity transition can be better scaffolded.

The Challenges That Novice EFL Teachers Deals With and the Ways of Coping With Them

The first years of a teacher’s career, especially the first year, play a significant role in saving a course and their longevity within the educational field. In fact, this study analyzed the issue of first-year teachers by employing a grounded theory qualitative research analysis. Given the results of this qualitative study, it can be concluded that stress and lack of proper support were common sense among novice EFL teachers. Most of these teachers reported that they are unprepared to control the behaviour of their students. In case of asking questions by students, they are embarrassed in providing the answer. The results of some of the previous studies in review literature of this article showed that if novice EFL teachers observe the experience teachers’ classes not only it helps them to enhance their abilities and skills but also it helps them to reduce their stress and anxiety and cope with challenges in their first year of teaching. The results of this study may be useful for novice EFL teachers and those who are interested in qualitative studies.

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.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHING EXPERIENCE LEVEL AND THE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT ORIENTATIONS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Managing the classroom is one of the necessary skills for effective teaching. Teachers adopt individual classroom management styles while implementing their classroom activities. The current study aims to investigate the attitudes of novice and experienced EFL teachers toward different classroom management styles (interventionist, non-interventionist and interactionist) and how those attitudes evolve in relation to their teaching experiences. The sample consisted of 36 EFL teachers working at state schools Mersin, Turkey. Data were gathered from the voluntary participants by employing a questionnaire and the responses were analyzed statistically. Nonparametric test results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the attitudes of the novice and the experienced EFL teachers in terms of using interventionist styles. Teachers reported exerting control in classrooms irrespective of their experience level. Additionally, with respect to non-interventionist and interactionist classroom management styles, more experienced EFL teachers were found to be more flexible in their approach to classroom management and were more likely to provide space for student modification of the classroom setting. The more experienced EFL teachers were observed to allow students to become more involved and active in classroom interactions and dialogues empowering the students to create a common voice for the classroom procedures and routines. Novice EFL teachers in contrast with their more seasoned counterparts were more concerned with concretely following and implementing the lesson plan according to set procedures. These findings suggest that novice teachers might benefit from additional in-service training to deepen their knowledge, contextual flexibility, and practice of the different classroom management styles.

Exploring Novice Thai EFL Lecturers’ Perceptions of Intercultural Communication Competence

With the rapid changes of world population, people are likely to come into contact with others with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Accordingly, Thai graduates are often required to have intercultural communication skills. The skills are parts of professional communication skills that the students should be acquired so as to respond to employers’ demand. As such, institutions are placing more consideration on intercultural communication competence (ICC). This study, therefore, aims to: 1) investigate teachers’ perceptions of ICC; and 2) investigate how teachers integrated ICC into their classes/lessons. Six novice EFL teachers from Thai universities were interviewed. Then, the interview data was transcribed and grouped into themes. According to the findings, overall, the participants have various understanding of ICC. For the ICC’s integration, participants’ answers can be categorized into five main groups, which are: 1) intercultural attitudes, 2) knowledge, 3) skills of interpreting and relating, 4) skills of discovery and interaction, and 5) critical cultural awareness. This study shows the teachers’ perceptions of ICC and how they could integrate ICC in classes. The results also reveal that the teachers are willing to intercorporate activities regarding ICC into their teaching contexts. Pedagogical implications of this study are proposed. On the basis of these findings, the pedagogical implications and suggestions are included in this paper.

Relationship between novice versus experienced EFL teacher’s Big Five personality traits and their ambiguity tolerance and risk taking

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible relationship between novice vs experienced EFLs teachers’ Big Five personality traits, ambiguity tolerance and risk taking. To this purpose, 30 teachers of TEFL courses were randomly selected, and three instruments of NEO Five-Factor Inventory, Ambiguity Tolerance Scale and Risk-taking Propensity Measure were employed to measure their Big Five personality traits, their ambiguity tolerance and risk taking, respectively.Design/methodology/approachThe study was a quantitative ex post facto study. The first phase of the study was to investigate the relationship among variables of the study. On the other hand, the second phase of the study examined the impact of experience of teachers on their risk taking and ambiguity tolerance.FindingsThe results showed that the more experienced the teachers are, the less risk they take and the more ambiguity tolerant they are. On the other hand, the less experienced the teachers are, the more risk they will take and the less they can tolerate ambiguity. The findings of this research can have useful implications for teacher training programs as well as teaching practices.Originality/valueThis study can add to the circle of knowledge and enhance theoretical assumptions of the field. Moreover, considering the Iranian context, a few studies have focused on the importance of uncovering relationship between five big personality traits and teachers’ personality factors. Therefore, this study is an attempt to investigate the relationship between the Big Five personality traits of teachers and their ambiguity tolerance and risk taking.

What Happened to Novice EFL Teachers Professional Learning in Pesantren Based Billingual Program? Evidence from an Islamic Boarding School in East Lombok Indonesia

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the practice of professional learning as experienced by novice English Foreign Language (EFL) Teachers especially those teaching at Islamic Boarding Schools or Pesantren which ran English and Arabic language program. Case study was employed by involving English Teachers and a School headmaster. This study revealed EFL teachers found it challenging to manage classroom. This is partly caused by the class size and their limited experiences and authority to manage class. They also suffered from intimidating lesson plans design. Moreover, they found it daunting to encourage students to learning English, resulting in teachers' stress. Further, barriers of novice EFL teachers' professional learning were associasted with their attitude toward continous learning needs and limited programs to improve teachers' competency. It also revealed that this pesantren and the school where this study was carried out have yet to set TPD programs for its teachers. In fact, novice EFL teachers were unlikely to get necessary supports from school and senior teachers despite the presence of informal supervision from senior teachers. ABSTRAKPenelitian ini mengkaji praktik pembelajaran profesional guru Bahasa Inggris pemula, khususnya yang mengajar di Pesantren yang menerapkan program bahasa Inggris dan Arab. Penelitian dengan desain studi kasus ini melibatkan Guru Bahasa Inggris dan kepala sekolah. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa guru-guru bahasa Inggris tersebut menghadapi tantangan untuk mengelola kelas. Hal ini disebabkan oleh besarnya jumlah siswa di dalam satu kelas serta minimnya pengalaman dan wewenang mereka mengelola kelas. Mereka juga merasa terbebani oleh penyusunan rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran. Mereka juga merasa kesulitan untuk memotivasi siswa belajar bahasa Inggris. Semua hal tersebut membuat guru-guru bahasa Inggris tersebut merasa tertekan. Hasil penelitian ini juga menunjukkan bahwa faktor yang menghambat pembelajaran guru bahasa Inggris pemula tersebut adalah sikap guru terhadap kebutuhan belajar secara berkesinambungan dan terbatasnya program peningkatan kompetensi guru. Pesantren dan sekolah tempat penelitian ini dilakukan ternyata menetapkan program pengembangan profesi untuk guru-gurunya. Selain itu, para guru bahasa Inggris pemula tersebut tidak juga mendapatkan dukungan yang diperlukan dari sekolah dan guru senior meskipun telah ada supervisi informal dari guru senior. How to Cite: Hadi, M. J., Rudiyanto, M., Anggraini, S. W. P., Lume. (2018). What Happened to Novice EFL Teachers Professional Learning in Pesantren Based Billingual Program? Evidence from an Islamic Boarding School in East Lombok Indonesia. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 5(2), 165-175. doi:10.15408/ijee.v5i2.10922

Exploring the Effect of Self-reflection through Awareness Raising on Novice and Experienced Iranian EFL Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs Enactment

Exploring the Effect of Self-reflection through Awareness Raising on Novice and Experienced Iranian EFL Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs Enactment

Exploring the Effect of Self-reflection through Awareness Raising on Novice and Experienced Iranian EFL Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs Enactment

As the second phase of a larger-scale study, the present study attempted to explore the effect of self-reflection through an awareness raising technique on novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers’ pedagogical beliefs enactment. To this end, a personal practical theorizing process was employed both as a method to make teachers’ practical beliefs explicit and as a consciousness-raising technique to increase teachers’ awareness of their beliefs, thereby stimulating the teachers to convert their beliefs into actual classroom practice. In the first phase of the study, the pedagogical beliefs and practices of the participants were examined and discrepancies were found in novice teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices. Within the domain of the qualitative research, a multi-case study design was utilized, employing eight novice and experienced teachers who were selected based on purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using a constant comparative method around common themes and categories, which were identified as distinctive features of teachers’ personal practical theories; these same categories were then compared with teachers’ practices. The results showed that, except for teachers’ content knowledge, the pedagogical beliefs of novice and experienced teachers were represented differently in their practices. However, after the theorizing technique, the teachers’ practices became more in line with their pedagogical beliefs. With respect to teachers’ professional development, the novice teachers who were initially concerned with maintaining order went through self-assessment and reflection, adopted new identities as real teachers, and entered into a state of maturity.

Justifying code switching through the lens of teacher identities: novice EFL teachers’ perceptions

Although considerable amount of research has been carried out regarding the relationship between identity and language, to date, there has been relatively little attention paid to the role of code switching on teachers’ identity positionings. In an attempt to fill this gap in the literature, this research investigates how novice English as a foreign language teachers position their identities while justifying the code switching instances that occur during the classroom interactions. This exploratory study adopted a case study approach and three novice English teachers were invited to participate in the research. Their classes were observed, video-recorded and they were asked to participate in stimulated-recall sessions. The results of the present study revealed positionings of multiple identities including but not limited to non-native and language learner identities. Results also indicated that novice teachers’ code switching practices showed interplay of personal, institutional and contextual factors.

Exploring Novice EFL Teachers’ Classroom Assessment Literacy Development: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

This three-year longitudinal study examines the development of four Chinese novice EFL teachers’ classroom assessment literacy, which refers to teachers’ knowledge of and abilities to conduct classroom assessment and is reflected in their planned and improvised assessment practices. The dataset includes 26 classroom observations, 48 interviews, and 171 participants’ journal entries. Data analysis following the paradigmatic analytic procedures reveals three developmental stages for novice teachers’ classroom assessment literacy: the first stage features the acquisition of practical techniques for planned classroom assessment; the second stage allows novice teachers to gain a growing awareness to connect planned classroom assessment to teaching objectives, but the usefulness of assessment results in teaching adjustments was only confined to an improved plan of a future teaching situation; in the third stage, novice teachers are more inclined to conduct improvised formative assessment in teaching which shows immediate assessment-driven teaching improvements in response to dynamic classroom interactions.

Using E-Interviews in Research on Second Language Teacher Education

Interviewing is a well-known method of qualitative data collection in applied linguistics research. It is widely used in diverse contexts and for a variety of purposes. Recently, the potential of e-mail interviewing, or e-interviews, has been discovered e.g. James 2007, Bamptom, Cowton and Downs 2013. Consequently, it may be considered as an alternative to traditional face-to-face interviews. The purpose of the paper is to discuss some characteristics of the e-interview as a research tool in the realm of second language teacher education. For this purpose, the article draws on a study conducted among novice EFL teachers which integrated two important aspects of L2 teacher education, namely teacher beliefs and teacher reflection. The primary goal of the research was to encourage a group of teachers to reflect on and investigate their beliefs and experiences concerning autonomy in language teaching. Exploration and analysis of one’s personal theories, in turn, are seen as indispensable elements of teachers’ professional development. The study results are used to point out some benefits as well as limitations of e-mail interviewing in terms of gathering qualitative data. Most importantly, it was observed that using e-mail to carry out the interviews provided a considerable opportunity to draw on and develop teachers’ reflective thinking skills.

‘This game is not easy to play’: a narrative inquiry into a novice EFL teacher educator’s research and publishing experiences

Drawing on the approach of narrative inquiry, this study looks into how a novice language teacher educator constructed and reconstructed his professional identities through his research and publishing practice in the higher education context in Hong Kong. The findings of the study show that the participant constantly tried to defend and develop his identity as a ‘language teacher educator-researcher’, which was subjected to various contextual obstacles including the institutional policy, the ‘publish-or-perish’ culture and the potential bias against practice-oriented research and peripheral research contexts. This study contributes to our understanding of the challenges and complexities involved in novice teacher educators’ identity construction. The study also offers some practical implications for both language teacher education and higher education on how to help teacher educators construct a solid and strong researcher identity to support their professional practice and development.

How Novice EFL Teachers Regulate Their Negative Emotions

This research report shares the findings that emerged from a qualitative study in which the main objective was to discover whether or not novice English as a foreign language teachers regulate their negative emotions during their initial teaching practice, and if so, how they do this. The data were collected by semi-structured interviews and observations, and analyzed by microanalysis and constant comparative analysis. The participants were five novice teachers who study English at the same university, and who were giving classes as part of their internship. The results from this research revealed that these particular novice English as a foreign language teachers use different emotional strategies to regulate their negative emotions.

Teachers’ Self- and Collective Efficacy: The Case of Novice English Language Teachers

This paper studies the relationship between EFL teachers’ self-efficacy and collective efficacy among 55 novice EFL teachers from Milad Language Institute in Tehran, Iran. The participants were asked to complete the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy, 2001), and the short version of Collective Teachers’ Efficacy Instrument (CTEI) (Goddard and Goddard, 2001). Data analysis revealed that there is a significant relationship between the teachers’ self-efficacy and their collective efficacy. To investigate which components of self-efficacy might have more predictive power in predicting teachers' collective efficacy, regression analysis was run. The first subscale of self-efficacy, i.e., self-efficacy for students' engagement, was found to be a good predictor of teachers' self-efficacy. The paper presents possible differences in the sources of collective efficacy and teacher self-efficacy and the interaction between teachers’ self-efficacy and collective efficacy. The conclusions and implications of the research are discussed with reference to Bandura's (1977) social cognitive theory and the earlier findings.

The development of teacher autonomy in collaborative lesson preparation: A multiple-case study of EFL teachers in China

Abstract This paper reports on a 3-year case study of four novice EFL teachers in China that examined the impact of collaborative lesson preparation on the development of their teacher autonomy, and the joint impact of collaboration and autonomy on their professional development. Data analysis of 48 individual interviews, 47 journal entries, and 26 classroom observation sessions has revealed: (1) the collaboration takes two forms: the product-oriented collaboration dedicated to producing a complete, ready-to-use set of teaching resources as a visible product, and the problem-based collaboration featuring discussions on certain teaching issues, which does not provide concrete help in physical forms but inspires insights and facilitates exchange of teaching experience; and (2) the two types of collaborative lesson preparation have different impacts on the development of novice teachers’ autonomy which is mediated by the level of teacher anxiety provoked by the circumstances of collaboration. Suggestions based on the findings are proposed as to joining collaboration and autonomy for synergy to promote teacher development.

An Investigation of Teaching Anxiety among Novice and Experienced Iranian EFL Teachers Across Gender

The present study was an attempt to investigate teacher anxiety among practicing EFL teachers in the Iranian context. In particular, this study tried to identify different sources of anxiety among male and female teachers across novice and experienced EFL instructors. Using a self-report questionnaire, adapted from Ferguson (2012), the researcher collected data from 114 EFL teachers working in universities, high schools and language centers. The analysis of data revealed that about 57.65% of teachers had the feelings of anxiety in one way or another. Furthermore, of five main categories, Interpersonal Relations had the highest impact whereas Employment Structure seemed to have the lowest effect on anxiety. Other categories, Language Proficiency and Knowledge, Facilities and Resources and Other Factors, exercised moderate effects on teacher anxiety. The study also found that of 48 items as the sources of anxiety, most of the localized items were of great influence on teaching anxiety. In addition, there was a weak and negative relationship between years of experience and the amount of tension experienced by teachers. However, no meaningful correlation was found between gender and occupational anxiety.

Evaluating Classroom Assessment Techniques of Novice Saudi EFL Teachers

This study examined the validity of the process of student achievement test development in English as a foreign language in the Saudi context and its impact on test performance. Subjects of the study included 50 novice male middle school teachers of English as a foreign language teaching in twelve middle public schools in Qassim region. Data were gathered using task-based self-assessment of classroom assessment knowledge and skills, thinking aloud protocol, and assessment training needs questionnaire. Besides, 150 language quizzes and assessment activities were analyzed in terms of a language test evaluation scale. Results revealed that training in EFL learner assessment at the graduate level appeared to be inadequate to meet the needs of novice EFL teachers who seem to acquire most of their knowledge of testing and assessment through the on-the-job experience, not through preservice education at the university level. In addition, the study found that teachers- made tests do not meet the standards of student achievement test development. Furthermore, analysis of novice EFL teachers’ assessment needs reveals that novice middle school EFL teachers need to develop their knowledge and skills of a wide range of EFL learner assessment. The study suggests that novice Saudi EFL teachers should start the process of changing their current assessment practices or seeking ways that would aid in the development of improved assessment techniques. In addition, further research is recommended designing and experimenting in-service training programs in the area of learners’ assessment with in-service EFL teachers at various educational levels .

An Exploration of Interpersonal Functions in Iranian Advanced EFL Classrooms

The research explores an aspect of teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction in Iranian EFL classroom discourse. Based on the assumption that classroom interaction is inherently a dialogue among teacher and learners, this study looks in detail at key aspects of the ways in which Iranian EFL teachers and learners interact with each other, bring their interactants into the context, and involve them in the construction of the discourse and the arguments in order to contribute to the interactiveness and persuasiveness of the oral discussion in the classroom. To do so, Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources – Stance and Engagement– are looked at in a corpus totally 14,249 words produced orally by Iranian EFL teachers and female learners at advanced proficiency level in 15 sessions. The oral discussions were transcribed and analyzed using frequency frameworks and formulas. The results reveal that the teachers and learners use stance and engagement markers one about every four words and that both use the devices for fairly similar purposes. The findings, however, show noticeable quantitative differences: the teacher use Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources more frequently than the learners. The teachers, also, use engagement markers considerably more frequently than stance markers; whereas EFL learners use both use stance markers and engagement markers almost equally. The quantitative differences seem to be related to the teachers’ expertise in English language as well as the teachers’ awareness of metadiscourse. The pedagogical implications of the study for novice EFL teachers, learners and material developers are outlined.

Teacher learning in the workplace: A study of the relationship between a novice EFL teacher’s classroom practices and cognition development

This article reports on an in-depth case study of a novice middle school EFL teacher’s cognition development during the process of learning to teach in the workplace. Data was collected mainly through classroom observations and interviews. Results indicate that the teacher exhibited a considerable amount of change in her classroom practices, which could be attributed to a number of interconnected factors, including teacher experience, reflection on practice and the teaching context. In relation to the behavioral adjustments, the teacher’s cognition has also changed in varying degrees. It is concluded that the development of teacher cognition is the result of the cyclical interaction between the teacher’s knowledge and belief system and her classroom practices. This study helps understand the nature and the process of teacher cognition development in the real workplace.