| The problematic outcomes of English as Foreign Language (EFL) teaching have long been a scholarly criticism on the ineffectiveness of pre-service EFL teacher preparation curriculum in China due to the unbalanced curriculum structure that emphasizes too much on subject matter (Hu, 2005, Zhou, 2009) while neglecting pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986). However, little empirical research has been conducted in the past 30 years to look into EFL teachers' professional preparation through the lens of in-service EFL teachers. Situated in the theory of mediated action (Wertsch, 1998), professional teacher knowledge base (Shulman, 1986), and social cognitive theory of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1995), this quantitative study addressed the research question of what the self-perceived overall evaluations are of K-12 EFL teachers in a northeastern city in China with regard to their own professional preparation, and how they rate their readiness for effective EFL teaching in the areas of curriculum belief (orientation), language acquisition belief, and teacher efficacy belief. Five independent variables of school level, experience level, interactions between school and experience level, university attended, and degree level have been included to form 5 sub questions. Data was collected through survey questionnaires, and processed with SPSS. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as ANOVAs were utilized during data analysis. The results of this study indicate that Chinese EFL teachers generally value the six curriculum orientations with academic rational curriculum orientation, behavior curriculum orientation, and cognitive process curriculum orientation identified as the most active variables at school level and university attended. Contrary to the expectations, Chinese EFL teachers scored significantly different in language acquisition with a tendency of the higher the school level, experience level, and degree level, the lower the sociocultural awareness for L2 teaching and learning. No significant differences were identified among different institution graduates, indicating a time invariant structure of EFL teacher preparation curriculum across these institutions. EFL teachers overall perceived a high efficacy in instruction, classroom management, and student engagement although several significant differences were identified among some factors. However, the high sense of efficacy could be problematic when examining it together with curriculum and language acquisition beliefs.;The findings offer implications for both pre-service EFL teacher education and in-service teacher development programs in curriculum design, evaluation, and reconstruction.;Keywords: EFL, teacher education, professional readiness, curriculum orientation, language acquisition, teacher efficacy. |
