The Challenges Faced by English Teachers in Iranian Schools and Their Training

Journal of Language and Translation

دوره 13، شماره 2، تیر 2023، صفحه 51-65   

نوع مقاله: Research Articles

شناسه دیجیتال (DOI): 10.30495/ttlt.2023.703264

نویسندگان

Farhad Kariminasab؛ Shaban Najafi Karimi^* ؛ Amir Marzban

Department of English, Qaemshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr, Iran

چکیده

The major objectives of this research were to develop an understanding of the challenges faced by English teachers in Iranian schools and their training. The research was carried out on a sample of 728 English teachers from junior and senior high school in 32 provinces of Iran. Self-reporting questionnaires were conducted as a survey method. The results of this study indicate that the biggest challenges faced by English teachers seems to be teaching mixed level classes, managing behavior discipline, choosing appropriate activities and materials, and relating to students. Around one-thirds of teachers had no pre-service training in teaching English prior to teach students; the problem is compounded by lack of support and in-service training, three-fourths of teachers didn’t have any in-service training. Approximately half of those surveyed did not have probationary periods; in addition, four-fifth of them had no support during their first of teaching. Overall, Many teachers felt not well prepared for teaching English. Overall, the evidences from this study recommend that current teachers’ training programs should be modified and outlines some recommendation to overcome these challenges.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Challenges؛ Trainings؛ English Teachers

مراجع

Allen, Scott J. 2007. Adult Learning Theory and Leadership Development. Kravis Leadership Institute, Claremont McKenna College, Vol. 7, Spring 2007, pp.26-37.
Berry, B. (2004). Recruiting and retaining “highly qualified teachers” for hard-to-staff schools. NASSP Bulletin 88(638), 5-27. Retrieved from https:// doi. Org /10.1177/019263650408863802.
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher Cognition in Lan-guage Teaching: a review of research on what language teachers think, know, be-lieve and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81-109. Retrieved from https:/ /doi. Org /10. 11 77/ 019263650408863802.
Bourne, J. (1996). English for Speakers of Other Languages in N. Mercer, J. Swann, & B. Mayor (Eds.), Learning English (pp. 189-225). London: Routledge/Milton Keynes: Open University.
Brewster, J., & Ellis, G., with Girard, D. (2002). The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Harlow: Penguin.
British Council. (2013). Our organization. Retrieved from www. British coun-cil. org.
Bubb, S, (2007). Successful induction for new teachers. A guide for NQTs & induction tutors, co-ordinators and mentors Lon-don: Paul Chapman, chapter 7,81-92.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press.
Cameron, L. (2003). Challenge for ELT from the expansion of teaching children. ELT Journal, 57(2), 105-112.
Clair, N. 1995. “Mainstream Classroom Teachers and ESL Students.” TESOL Quarterly 29 (1): 189–196. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2307/3587817
Conroy, M., Sutherland, K., Snyder, A., & Marsh, S. (2008). Classwide Interven-tions. Teaching Exceptional Children, 40, 24-30.
Crookes, G (2003) A Practicum in TESOL: Professional Development through Teaching Practice. Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press.
De Vaus, D. (2002). Surveys in Social Re-search. London: Routledge. Retrieved from https:// doi. Org /10. 432 4/9780203501054.
Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research Methods in Ap-plied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press.
Dörnyei, Z. (2009). Questionnaires in Second Language Research: Construction, Ad-ministration, and Processing. 2nd Edition (2nd ed.). New York: Lawrence Erl-baum. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203864739.
Durlak, J. A., R. P. Weissberg, A. B. Dymnicki, R. D. Taylor, andK. B. Schellinger. 2011. “The Impact of En-hancing Students Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-analysis of School-based Universal Interventions.” Child Development 82 (1): 405–432. Re-trieved from HTTPS: https://doi:10.1111/j.1467-86 24. 20 10 .01 564.x.
Ellis, G., & Knagg, J. (2012). Global Issues in Primary ELT. Paper presented at the 46th annual conference of the Interna-tional Association of Teachers of Eng-lish as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), Glasgow, UK.
Emery, H. (2012). A Global Study of Prima-ry English Teachers’ Qualifications, Training and Career Development. British Council ELT Research Papers, 12(08).
Eraut, M. (1994). Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence. London: Falmer Press. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203486016.
Garton, S., Copland, F., & Burns A. (2011). In-vestigating global practices in Teaching English to Young Learners. British Coun-cil ELT Research Papers 11(01). Re-trieved from https:/ /www. Researchgate.net/publication/265350596.
Copland, F., & Garton, S. (2014). Key themes and future directions in teaching English to young learners: introduction to the Special Issue. ELT Journal, 68(3), 223-230. Retrieved from https://doi:10.1093/elt/ccu030.
Journal of language and translation, Volume 13, Number 2, 2023 63
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally re-sponsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106-116. Retrieved from https:// doi. org/ 10.1177/0022487102053002003.
George, C. )2009(. “Marginalization or Col-laboration: First Year ESL Teachers and the Middle School Context.” Middle Grades Research Journal 4 (1): 25–52.
Gray, J. (2010a). The Construction of English. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hall, G. (2011). Exploring English Language Teaching. London: Routledge. Re-trieved from https:// doi. org/ 10. 4324/9780203827840
Hamre, B., Pianta, R. )2001(. Early Teacher-Child Relationships and the Trajectory of Children’s School Outcomes through Eighth Grade. In Child Development, 72 (2): 625 – 638.
Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Lan-guage Teaching. Harlow: Pearson Longman.
Head, K., & Taylor, P. (1997). Readings in Teacher Development. Oxford: Heine-mann.
Ho, W. K. (2003). English language teaching in Asia today: An overview. In W. K. Ho & R. Y. L. Wong (Eds.), English language teaching in east Asia today: Changing policies and practices (pp. 1–32). Singapore: Eastern Universities Press. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1080/ 021 8879020220203.
Hughes, A. (2001). The Teaching of Language to Young Learners: Linking Understand-ing and Principles with Practice. In M. Raya, J. P. Faber, W. Gewehr and A. J. Peck (Eds.) Effective Foreign Language Teaching at the Primary Level (pp. 17-24). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Johnson, K., Kim, M., Ya-Fang, L., Nava, A., Perkins, D., Smith, A.M., Soler-Canela, O. and Lu, W. (2008). A step forward: investigating expertise in materials evaluation. ELT Journal, 62 (2), 157-163.
Kennedy, C. (Ed.). (1989). Language Planning and English Language Teaching. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Li, D. (1998). “It’s always more difficult than you plan and imagine”: Teachers’ per-ceived difficulties in introducing the communicative approach in South Ko-rea. TESOL Quarterly, 32, 677–703. doi:10.2307/3588000.
Lindstromberg, S. (2004). Language Activities for Teenagers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, X., & Meyer, J. P. (2005). Teachers’ per-ceptions of their jobs: A multi-level analysis of the teacher follow-up survey for 1994-5. Teachers College Record, 107(5), 985-1003.
McLaughlin, B. 1992. Myths and Misconcep-tions about Second Language Learning: What Every Teacher Needs to Unlearn. Educational Practice Report No. 5. Washington, DC: National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Se-cond Language Learning Education, 23.
Midgley, C., Feldlaufer, H., Eccles, J. S. 1989. Student- Teacher Relations and Atti-tudes toward Mathematics before and after the Transition to Junior High School. In Child Development, 60 (4): 981 – 992.
Miller, R., & Chait, R. (2008). Teacher turno-ver, tenure policies, and the distribution of teacher quality: Can high-poverty schools catch a break? Washington, DC: Center for American Progress.
Moon, J. (2000). Children Learning English. Oxford: MacMillan.
Navarro, A. M. 2008. “Building Schema for English Language Learners.” Education Resources Information Center. http:// www. eric. ed. gov/ ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/ servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED514335
Numrich, C. (1996). On becoming a language teacher: Insights from Diary Studies. TESOL Quarterly, 30(1), 131-153. DOI: 10.2307/3587610.
O’Brien, J. 2011. “The System is Broken and It’s Failing these Kids: High School Social Studies Teachers’ Atti-tudes towards Training for ELLs.” The Journal of Social Studies Research 35 (1): 22–38.
64 The Challenges Faced by English Teachers in Iranian Schools …
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2005). Teachers matter: Attracting, developing, and re-taining effective teachers. Paris: OECD.
Ortiz, A. A., C. Y. Wilkinson, P. Robertson-Courtney, and M. I. Kushner. 2006. “Considerations in Implementing Inter-vention Assistance Teams to Support English Language Learners.” Remedial and Special Education 27 (1): 53–63.
Pedersen, F., & Kronborg, L. (2014). Chal-lenging Secondary Teachers to Exam-ine Beliefs and Pedagogy when Teach-ing Highly Able Students in Mixed-Ability Health Education Classes. Australasian Journal of Gifted
Pianta, R., Stuhlman, M. 2004. Teacher-Child Relationship and Children’s Success in the First Years of School. In School Psychology Review, 33 (3): 444 – 458.
Pinter, A-M. (2006). Teaching Young Lan-guage Learners. Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press.
Reeves, J. R. 2006. “Secondary Teacher Atti-tudes toward Including English-language Learners in Mainstream Class-rooms.” The Journal of Educational Re-search 99 (3): 131–142.
Rupert, A., & Woodcock, S. (2010). Success and near misses Pre-service teachers’ use, confidence, and success in vari-ous classroom management strategies. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(6), 1261-1268.
Richards, J, and Nunan, D (eds) (1990) Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum develop-ment in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J., & Farrell, T. (2005). Professional Development for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J., & Pennington, M. (1998). The first year of teaching. In J. Richards (Ed.), Be-yond Training (pp 173-190). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rixon, S. (1992). English and Other Languages for younger children: practice and theory in a rapidly changing world. Language Teaching, 25(2), 73-93. DOI:10.1017/S026144480000673X.
Rixon, S. (2000). Worldwide Survey of Prima-ry ELT. London: British Council.
Roorda, D., H. M. Y. Koomen, J. L. Spilt, and
F. J. Oort. 2011. “The Influence of Af-fective Teacher-student Relationships on Students’ School Engagement and Achievement: A Meta-analytic Ap-proach.” Review of Educational Re-search 81 (4): 493–529. doi:10.3102/0034654311421793.
Scrivener, J (2013) Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching (3rd edn). London: Macmil-lan.
Senior, R. (2006). The Experience of Lan-guage Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Short, D. J., and S. Fitzsimmons. 2007. “Dou-ble the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Lan-guage Learners.” Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Alliance for Excellent Education. www. all4ed. org/ files/ Double Work .pdf.
Simonsen, B., Fairbanks, S., Briesch, A., Myers, D., & Sugai, G. (2008). Evi-dence-based practices in classroom management: Considerations for re-search to practice. Education and Treatment of Children, 31, 351-380.
Smith, T.M., & Ingersoll, R.M. (2004, Fall). What are the effects of induction and mentoring on beginning teacher turno-ver? American Educational Research Journal, 41(3), 681-714.
Tsui, A. (2003). Understanding Expertise in Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-versity Press.
Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press.
Valentic, D. (2005). ELT in multi-level clas-ses. Hupe Newsletter, 23.
Veenman, S. (1984). Perceived problems of Beginning Teachers. Review of Educa-tional Research, 54(2), 143-178. Re-
Journal of language and translation, Volume 13, Number 2, 2023 65
trieved from http:// rer. sagepub. com/content/54/2/143. DOI: 10. 31 02 /00346543054002143.
Walker, H. M., & Walker, J. E. (1991). Cop-ing with noncompliance in the class-room: A positive approach for teachers. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Washer, B. A. (2000). The effectiveness of Missouri’s new vocational teacher in-stitute. Unpublished doctoral disserta-tion, University of Missouri, Colum-bia.
Wedgwood, R. (2007). Education and poverty reduction in Tanzania. International Journal of Educational Development, 27, 383–396. doi: 10. 10 16/ j. ij edudev. 2006.10. 005.
Westling, D. (2010). Teachers and Challeng-ing Behavior: Knowledge, Views, and Practices. Remedial & Special Educa-tion, 31, 48-63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0741932508327466.
Yalın, H. İ. (2003). Öğretim teknolojisi ve materyal geliştirme, Ankara: Nobel Yayın Dağıtım
Biodata
Farhad Kariminasab is a Ph.D. student of TEFL at Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr Branch. His passion for teaching continues in those years he has taught at Islamic Azad Uni-versity, Farhangian University, and Ministry of Education of Iran. His main areas of interest in-clude teacher education and teaching methods.
Email: [e-mail]
Shaban Najafi Karimi is an assistant professor of TEFL at Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr Branch. His research interests include language skills, discourse analysis, materials development, and teacher education. He has been teaching English at Iranian universities for 24 years and has published in both Iranian and International journals.
Email: [e-mail]