EFL student-teachers’ teaching competency self-development during English language teaching methodology courses: How much does their agency account for?

EFL student-teachers’ teaching competency self-development during English language teaching methodology courses: How much does their agency account for?

Tran Quoc Thao* tq.thao@hutech.edu.vn HUTECH University Vietnam
Tran Kim Hong tk.hong@hutech.edu.vn HUTECH University Vietnam
Summary: 
English as a foreign language (EFL) student-teachers’ teaching competency (TC) development can be affected by different factors, one of which is student-teacher agency which can play a decisive role in shaping their TC self-development. This mixed methods study aims at scrutinising how EFL student-teachers enacted their agency to facilitate their TC selfdevelopment during English language teaching (ELT) methodology courses at a higher education institution context in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A cohort of 118 student-teachers majoring in ELT methodology got involved in answering the closed-ended questionnaires, and 15 student-teachers in semi-structured interviews. The data analysis was based on the direct approach in which the quantitative data were processed by the SPSS in terms of descriptive statistics, and the qualitative data were analysed using the content analysis approach. The findings revealed that EFL student-teacher agency played a pivotal role in their TC self-development. Student-teachers allocated much of their effort to self-leveraging their ELT knowledge and positive attitudes towards ELT more than their ELT skills and English language skills. Such preliminary findings can shed light on the further research on the role of student-teacher agency in TC self-development in tandem with other factors of teacher trainer and learning environment.
Keywords: 
Agency; English language teaching; mixed methods design; student-teacher; teaching competency.
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