A Comparative Study Of EFL Novice In-Service And Pre-service Teachers' Language Proficiency And Self-efficacy

Language teaching is different from other subject teaching as language is both the medium and content of instruction.Successful language teachers are naturally required a high level of language proficiency.However,high proficiency in a target language alone cannot make one an effective language teacher.Teachers'belief in their teaching effectiveness,i.e.self-efficacy,has a powerful influence on their motivation to act as a good teacher,their effort invested in teaching and persistence in face of difficulties(Bandura,1997)Self-efficacy has been explored in the field of education for decades,while unfortunately in the TESOL(Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)field,the studies of its relationship with EFL(English as a Foreign Language)teachers'language proficiency are scantMotivated by the impact of English language proficiency on EFL teachers'self-efficacy belief,this study intends to examine the relationship of these two variables Given that self-efficacy belief is established and malleable during the early years of teaching(Bandura,1997),the initial career stage is crucial for teachers'self-efficacy development.This study therefore focuses on the novice in-service and pre-service teachers to compare their sense of efficacy in relation to their English language proficiency.Specifically,the objectives are:1)explore the two groups of teachers'language proficiency and their self-efficacy belief in their English teaching practice;2)respectively investigate the relationship between language proficiency and self-efficacy of the two groups of teachers;3)compare these two elements between the two groups of teachersTo achieve these objectives,both the quantitative and qualitative methods are employed.The quantitative data are the main data source to provide a general picture of the research problem while qualitative data are incorporated to contextualize and triangulate the quantitative results.Quantitative data were collected in the form of survey questionnaires,while qualitative data consist of classroom observation and interviews.A total of 95 public school EFL teachers responded to the survey(60 in-service,35 pre-service).Interviews were conducted with 2 in-service novice teachers and 2 pre-service teachers,and their English classes were observedIt is found that both two groups of teachers'language proficiency and self-efficacy are at a medium level.Pre-service teachers outperform their in-service counterparts in both of their language proficiency and self-efficacy,while significant differences are only found in some of the language skills and efficacy dimensions.The correlation statistics of both two groups of teachers generally demonstrate a significantly positive relationship between language proficiency and self-efficacy.However,the correlations are not particularly strong;in fact,most of the statistically significant correlations are at mid-rangeThe findings of this study could provide theoretical and practical implications for pre-service teachers'education and in-service EFL teachers'professional development in the context of Chinese public school English education.