چکیده:
This paper reports on a mixed-methods study that utilized questionnaires, open-ended questions, and texts to evaluate the English teacher training courses held in Iranian private language institutes. Data were gathered from 60 teacher applicants applying for and 94 teacher trainees who took these courses in three private language institutes. Descriptive statistics and content analysis techniques were employed to analyze the data. The findings indicate that while teacher applicants need training most in teaching language skills and components, general teaching skills, and classroom management, they need no training in using classroom resources, language learning and language testing theories. Furthermore, they expected the course to follow a specific syllabus and set of objectives, give them opportunities for teaching practice, observation of experienced teachers' classes, and the confidence and ability to manage classes and organize interesting language learning activities. Finally, it was found that although Iranian teacher training courses enjoy good planning, they suffer from a number of limitations at implementations and evaluation stages. Iranian teacher training course were revealed to focus on received versus experiential knowledge of the trainees, to offer scant opportunity for teaching practice and classroom observation, and little training with regard to classroom management skills.
خلاصه ماشینی:
This paper reports on a mixed-methods study that utilized questionnaires with open-ended and Likert-scale items and available documents to evaluate the English Teacher Training Course (ETTC) held in an Iranian private language institute.
Regrettably, in spite of the critical importance of evaluating teacher training courses (Payne, 1994; Peacock, 2009; Rea-Dickins & Germaine, 1993), there is a dearth of research in the area of teacher training in general (Day, 1991; Weir & Roberts, 1994) and in Iranian private language institutes in particular (Abaszadeh, 2012; Abasifar & Fotovatnia, 2015; Sadeghi & Richards, 2015) investigating the content of these courses, comparing them with international courses, or evaluating them to see if they reach their objectives.
Given the paucity of research in this area, and the vital role of initial teacher training in Iranian language institutes, this study aims to examine the teacher applicants' real needs and expectations from these courses, and to evaluate them from the employed English teachers' perspectives.
The final version of the questionnaire included 45 items belonging to these areas: course content, course implementation, course trainer, teaching language skills and components, classroom management skills, course planning, course evaluation, motivating the participants, error correction, and impact on teachers' attitudes and teaching knowledge.
This can be considered one of the most serious drawbacks of the training courses since Sadeghi and Richards (2015) who conducted their study in the same context concluded that designing interesting activities, managing classes and encouraging the learners were among the most challenging problems for Iranian language institutes' English teachers.