Professional development for EFL high-school teachers: a case study in the Mekong delta

The study aimed to investigate EFL high-school teachers’ expectations and previous training experiences on seven areas of knowledge for their professional development includi[r]

TEACHERS: A CASE STUDY IN THE MEKONG DELTA

Le Xuan Mai1 Nguyen Thi Minh Trang2 Abstract

Professional development is considered as an essential element in improving teachers’ competencies which, in turns, enhance students’ learning outcomes In order to provide useful input for the design of more effective and productive professional training programs, this small-scale study was conducted to investigate EFL high school teachers’ expectations for and experiences of their professional development Sixty-seven EFL high-school teachers in Soc Trang province in the Mekong Delta were recruited for this descriptive study; they provided information via questionnaire and some of them participated in semi-structured interviews The study aimed to investigate EFL high-school teachers’ expectations and previous training experiences on seven areas of knowledge for their professional development including (1) teacher’s language proficiency, (2) language teaching methodology, (3) lesson planning, (4) conducting a lesson, (5) assessment of language learning, (6) resources, and (7) technology for language teaching The findings from this study assist to inform training program developers and administrators in designing appropriate professional training programs and suggest related research areas in the future

Keywords: Professional development; professional training program(s); EFL teachers; the Mekong Delta

1 Introduction

Education systems around the world have changed in the new millennium, which leads to many educational reforms from many societies One of the key components in most of these reforms is the teacher professional development (Villegas-Reimers, 2003) Professional development (PD) includes career-building activities implemented by in-service teachers once their period of teacher education is over (Shawer, 2010; Richards & Ferrell, 2011) PD always takes an important role in language teaching if a teacher still finds this career rewarding Richards and Farrell (2005) stated that teachers need to have continual opportunities for professional growth in order to keep their knowledge and skills updated It is the fact that language teaching profession encounters challenges of continuous changes

in terms of educational paradigms, curriculum trends, national tests, assessment, student needs or technology Moreover, teachers’ knowledge about language teaching and learning is not completely provided at pre-service level; that is, this kind of knowledge is in an insufficient state and needs keeping current with the developments in the field Therefore, applying PD is the best way to bridge the gap between what teachers have already had concerning professional knowledge and what they need to update

Vietnam has recently been in deep involvement of the globalization and internationalization since it became a member of trade organizations such as Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) (Nguyen & Burns, 2017) To be successful in integrating with outside world, it is essential for Vietnamese human sources to achieve English language competence Therefore, teaching English has been promoted in Vietnam for over the past few years English has been considered as a compulsory foreign language subject which has been taught from primary to tertiary institutions in Vietnam (Decision 1400/QĐ-TTg, 2008) Especially, English is one of the core subjects that students have to take in the National high school graduation examination

However, for many years, the results of English in the annual national graduation examination have indicated low level of English proficiency from high school students in Vietnam and particularly in Soc Trang, one of provinces in Mekong Delta Specifically, according to the statistics of Soc Trang Department of Education and Training, only 21.1% and 18.77% of high school students in Soc Trang province got average scores in English in the national graduation examination in the school years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 respectively It has been criticized that the ineffectiveness of foreign language teachers is one of the factors causing students’ poor outcomes in English (Çelik, Bayraktar-Çepni & İlyas, 2013).According to the statistics of Soc Trang Department of Education and Training, until 2018, 33.33% of EFL high school teachers in Soc Trang are still under qualified They fail to achieve the required level for their teaching – level (C1) Therefore, improving the quality of English language teaching should be emphasized with the attention of providing a wide range of opportunities for in-service teachers to participate in PD activities The implementation of PD is likely to be a beneficial way for teachers to maintain high quality of teaching (Mahmoudi & Özkan, 2015)

(Zein, 2016) Therefore, the researchers decided to conduct a study titled “Professional Development for EFL High-school Teachers: A Case Study in the Mekong Delta”.Since the research available on this topic is limited, the current study has been done in order to make some significant contributions to planning effective PD programs

This research aims at the followings Firstly, the authors would like to investigate EFL high school teachers’ expectations of PD Secondly, the study aims to explore EFL high school teachers’ experiences of PD The current study attempted to seek the answers to the following questions:

1 What are EFL high school teachers’ expectations of PD?

2 To what extent the PD activities satisfy EFL high school teachers’ expectations? The findings of the study are hoped to bring a great number of benefits for not only EFL high school teachers but also related stakeholders For example, the teachers participating in the study have a chance to express their expectations for PD as well as evaluate PD activities which they have experienced In addition to the teachers’ benefits, school administrators and the Department of Education and Training in Soc Trang will gain a profound understanding of EFL high school teachers’ expectations of professional development to support the teaching staff in joining professional growth activities Last but not least, the management board of the National Foreign Language 2020 Project can plan effective professional development programs which fit high school EFL teachers’ expectations, particularly in a remote area like Soc Trang

2 Literature review

2.1 Professional Development (PD): Definitions and Types

A number of definitions have been proposed with regard to the term of professional development (PD) such as Birman and colleagues (2000), Shawer (2010), Johnson and Golombek (2011), and Richards and Ferrell (2011) and many others In general, PD is understood as a life-long learning process including activities through which in-service teachers can improve professional skills and knowledge during their career to raise the quality of students’ learning

2.2 Vietnam’s English Teacher Competency Framework

Vietnam’s English Teacher Competency Framework (ETCF), approved in December 2012 by the Ministry of Education and Training, is a standardized tool for teacher development which helps to raise the quality of English teaching and learning in Vietnam The ETCF provides a detail of the competencies, knowledge, skills, values and processes to make well-equipped teachers for English teaching in Vietnam in the early 21st century It is not only a guide for teachers to self-study for continuous PD during their career, but also a tool for teacher trainers to evaluate teachers’ needs and identify specific areas for the content of training programs and teacher development (Ministry of Education and Training, 2013)

ETCF is based on five domains including knowledge of subject, knowledge of teaching,

knowledge of learners, professional attitudes and values, and practice and context of language teaching

In each domain, there are different competencies Among numerous competencies in the ETCF, the current study mainly focuses on specific competencies involving teacher’s language

proficiency and pedagogical content knowledge including language teaching methodology,

lesson planning, conducting a lesson, assessment of language learning, using resources, and applying technology in language instruction when investigating EFL teachers’ expectations and experiences of PD activities

3 Research Methodology

The research was designed as a descriptive qualitative and quantitative study in which the data were collected through questionnaires and interviews The combination of these methods was employed to validate the data and provide more detail information about EFL high school teachers’ expectations and experiences of PD activities

The total number of participants in the study included 67 teachers of English at some high schools in Soc Trang, a remote province in the Mekong Delta The details of the participants based on gender, degree and age are presented in Table below

Table 1: The number of teacher participants based on gender, degree and age

Number Gender Degree Age

Male Female BA MA 20-29 30-39 40-49 >50

67 16 51 65 12 30 23

The information about the teacher participants based on their teaching areas and years of teaching experience is presented in Table below

Table 2: The number of teacher participants based on teaching areas and years of teaching experience

Number Teaching areas Years of teaching experience City Town Rural areas <5years 5-10years >10years

67 26 20 21 13 18 36

chosen to attend the interview that investigated their explanations and interpretations to confirm and get more insightful information from the questionnaire about their expectations and experiences of PD

In this study, a questionnaire was designed with forty items adapted from Competency

Framework for English Language Teachers: User’s Guide, some of which have been rephrased

and simplified for easy comprehension and to be fit to the current research; at the same time, some new items were also added to achieve the purposes of the study The questionnaire consists of three main sections: (1) participants’ background information, (2) 20 five-point Likert scale items on EFL high school teachers’ expectations of PD, and (3) another 20 five-point Likert scale items on EFL high school teachers’ experiences of PD, particularly the extent of satisfaction of PD activities The results of the scale test show that the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire satisfied the statistical reliability (α=.935) Therefore, the questionnaire is reliable for data analyses

For the interview, it included three main questions related to teachers’ expectations of PD activities; their experiences of PD activities, and their suggestions to PD activities To assure the validity of the collected data, the interview questions were translated into Vietnamese so that the participants could understand deeply and hence express their ideas easily However, to assure the reliability, English responses were confirmed by the interviewees to check whether they had the same meaning as their Vietnamese answers

The quantitative data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS software version 20.0 For qualitative analysis, basing on the transcripts and the notes of each interview session, the researchers made a protocol to familiarize and code the data from all respondents’ answers in specific themes

4 Findings and discussion

4.1 EFL high school teachers’ expectations of PD

The results revealed that all teachers highly expected to improve technology for teaching (M = 4.29), lesson planning (M = 4.28), resource adaptation and selection (M = 4.28), language teaching methodology (M = 4.23), conducting a lesson (M = 4.18), English language proficiency (M = 4.10), and assessment of language learning (M = 4.04) The results from the questionnaire also revealed that teachers working from to 10 years had a significantly higher level of expectations of PD than teachers working for more than 10 years In addition, teachers working in the countryside had much more expectations of PD than teachers working in city

expectations relating to technology were presented by individual teachers Some teachers hoped to be trained in planning electronic lessons, while some other teachers desired to know how to design online courses to teach English Besides, another teacher focused on strengthening knowledge of using smart boards effectively in teaching English

Additionally, teachers ranked lesson planning, and resource adaptation and selection as the second needed areas for PD In terms of lesson planning, all teachers in the interview found it essential to get more knowledge of planning lessons blending different contents in English and integrating various English skills With regard to resource adaptation and selection, the results from the interview demonstrated that all of the teachers frequently adjusted and simplified tasks and activities which did not fit students’ level Teachers had different ideas relating to their expectations including a need for being trained in adapting new textbook, a desire for learning to adapt tasks in textbook followed with a clear teaching demonstration, and a demand for knowing more materials and resources with valuable exercises for student in grade twelve to practice for the national graduation examination

Moreover, language teaching methodology was teachers’ third expected aspect for PD The interview showed that most of the teachers hoped to master various kinds of methods for teaching English skills Especially, they wanted to know more methods to boost students’ ability to communicate in English Some teachers desired to know new methods for teaching new textbooks In fact, each teacher followed a particular method in their teaching practice Some teachers applied PPP in teaching English, while some other teachers did not know the name of the methods they were applying in their current teaching Instead, they just explained the ways they conducted the lessons in the classroom

Furthermore, conducting a lesson ranked fourth in the degree of teachers’ expectation for PD The results from the interview indicated that some teachers expected to be trained in conducting a lesson, while other teachers showed their refusal Especially, one teacher wanted to learn how to conduct effective warm-up activities with more interesting games for each lesson in the new textbook In contrast, other teachers found it unnecessary to participate in training courses about conducting a lesson because they were confident in organizing all teaching steps, and they could learn from observing their colleagues’ teaching

In addition, English language proficiency was the fifth aspect that teachers expected to improve Basically, most teachers in the interview found it important to upgrade English competency regularly Particularly, whether they had achieved level C1 or not, most teachers desired to improve English skills proficiency

trained in using two tools of assessment although they had never heard about the terms of formative assessment and summative assessment.Probably, high school teachers had no expectation of enhancing assessment in language learning because they were familiar with and had no difficulty in using some kinds of formal tests to evaluate student’s learning

In brief, in terms of teachers’ expectations of PD, quantitative results showed that EFL high school teachers had a high level of expectations of PD, particularly teachers expected to develop technology for teaching most and assessment of language learning least Generally, the current study is different from previous studies regarding the most important area of knowledge that teachers expect to strengthen For example, the present study indicated that teachers expected to improve technology for teaching most However, in Igawa’s (2008) study, the most important aspect that the teachers expected for PD was teaching methods, which was in line with the finding of Özdemir (2013) as well

4.2 The extent of the PD activities satisfy EFL high school teachers’ expectations

The results from the questionnaire indicated that PD activities had highly satisfied EFL high school teachers’ expectations Out of seven aspects of knowledge for PD, teachers felt more satisfied with technology for language teaching (M = 3.91) than with other areas including resources (M = 3.79), language teaching methodology (M = 3.77), lesson planning (M = 3.72), teacher’s language proficiency (M = 3.72), assessment of language learning (M = 3.72), and conducting a lesson (M = 3.64) In addition, the results also revealed that PD activities had not actually satisfied EFL high school teachers’ expectations of knowing how to create a supportive, meaningful learning environment

On the other hand, the results from the interviews revealed teachers’ dissatisfaction of PD activities which they had ever taken part in Firstly, some teachers complained that the training programs focused much on theory rather than practice Therefore, after joining workshops or training courses, they were confused with lots of content and could not apply them into teaching practices.Secondly, some other teachers expressed their discontentment with the fact that workshops were organized at the time of school year, when they had to take many charges relating to teaching work Thirdly, another teacher criticized that workshops and training courses were not opened frequently to teachers Additionally, workshops usually happened for a short period of time, just about one day, which prevented teachers from acquiring all the contents of the training programs Finally, one teacher revealed her dissatisfaction with large number of participants in a workshop, which made teachers have difficulty in sharing their ideas and teaching experiences together

In brief, with respect to teachers’ experiences of PD activities, statistics results showed that EFL high school teachers’ level of satisfaction of PD activities is high Specifically, out of seven aspects of knowledge for PD, teachers felt more satisfied with technology for language teaching than with other areas including resources, language teaching methodology, lesson planning, teacher’s language proficiency, assessment of language learning, and conducting a lesson In other words, PD activities had satisfied EFL high school teachers in terms of technology for teaching most and conducting a lesson least With regard to the area of conducting a lesson, PD activities had not really helped teachers know how to create a supportive, meaningful learning environment

Remarkably, the result of the present study was consistent with that of Roux and Valladares (2014), and Agbayahoun (2016) which revealed that training courses and teacher development workshops had a high impact on teachers’ teaching Similarly, the result was also harmony with the findings from Mahmoudi and Özkan (2015), which indicated that teachers benefited from PD activities in improving their teaching The findings were also supportive to the findings of Al Asmari (2016) which revealed that after attending continuing PD, the teachers found beneficial in changing their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs

In contrast, the findings of the current study were different from those of Çelik, Bayraktar-Çepni and İlyas (2013) which indicated that the teachers found no considerable impact on their practice from PD activities in which they had experienced Additionally, the study was inconsistent with Agbayahoun’s (2016) study which found that workshops commonly held in schools neither changed teacher practices nor increased student learning Besides, the findings were not parallel with those of Alshumaimeri and Almohaisen (2017), which stated that teachers were not satisfied with the current PD activities since they did not help the teachers stay updated with the modern teaching techniques

5 Conclusion

language teaching methodology, conducting a lesson, English language proficiency, and assessment of language learning, which rank respectively from the highest to the lowest level of expectation Additionally, PD activities which EFL high school teachers have ever participated in highly satisfy their expectations in terms of improvement of technology for language teaching, resources adaptation and selection, language teaching methodology, lesson planning, language proficiency, assessment of language learning, and conducting a lesson Particularly, they are satisfied with technology for language teaching most, and conducting a lesson least

Based on the results of the study, the following recommendations are drawn to help school administrators, the Department of Education and Training in Soc Trang, as well as the management board of the National Foreign Language 2020 Project plan effective PD programs for EFL high school teachers in Soc Trang province Firstly, PD programs should help EFL high school teachers improve numerous areas of knowledge including technology for teaching, lesson planning, resource adaptation and selection, language teaching methodology, conducting a lesson, English language proficiency, and assessment of language learning Notably, training courses or workshops should lay an emphasis on helping teachers develop the area of technology for teaching.Specifically, teachers should be trained in designing electronic lessons, online courses, and how to use smartboards effectively In terms of lesson planning, training courses should help teachers know how to plan lessons integrating different skills and various contents in English In addition, teachers should be raised awareness of selecting various teaching materials rather than using only textbook in teaching English Besides, teachers should be trained in adapting textbook, especially new English textbook to facilitate their upcoming teaching With regard to language teaching

methodology, training courses and workshops should provide teachers with knowledge of

various kinds of methods to boost students’ ability to communicate in English In reality, most high school teachers’ knowledge of language instruction approach is limited, so they should be introduced both theories and practice related to numerous teaching methodologies Regarding conducting a lesson, teachers should be trained in conducting warm-up activities with a variety of interesting games Significantly, PD programs should help high school teachers know how to create a supportive and meaningful learning environment Concerning English proficiency, training courses should provide opportunities for teachers to improve four English skills With respect to assessment of language, PD programs should help teachers understand clearly two kinds of assessment tools including formative assessment and summative assessment Especially, high school teachers should have chance to increase knowledge of formative assessment tool

Moreover, training courses and workshops should be held every summer Every time in the school year is not appropriate with teachers because they are busy with many kinds of schooling duties Besides, the organization of PD programs should be around Soc Trang province to help teachers save time and money for transportation Additionally, skillful lecturers from well-known universities should be invited to be trainers in training courses and workshops Experienced teachers of English from high schools can also become trainers in PD programs

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