"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

REACTION TO THE STAR NEWS ITEM ON "BLUEPRINT TO ENSURE

QUALITY TEACHERS". VIEWS IN LIGHT OF MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE
NOTION OF PROFESSIONALISM IN ELT.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Malaysia is a country made up from the integration of various ethnics and races. Each
ethnic is recognized by the diverse languages they speak. Since 31ST August 1957, Bahasa
Malaysia has known as the official national language and is generally practiced by all
Malaysians. However, the English language is the second language, used in many areas of the
professional, commercial, national, and social affairs fields. However, as English carries out
to be the world's lingua franca and the Malaysians youth are urged to compete in the global
arena, I will try to relate this issue by addressing the Malaysian Ministry of Education's
(MOE) vision for the teaching and learning of the English language.

2.0 THE ISSUES BEHIND THE BLUEPRINT TO ENSURE QUALITY TEACHERS

Throughout the years, the quality of English teachers always becomes the center of
discussion among the Malaysia Educational Ministry. According to my reading of the article
in The Star News with the Headlines "Blueprint to Ensure Quality Teachers" written by
Joseph Kaos Jr, about two-thirds of English Language teachers in Malaysia have been
categorized as "unfit" or "incapable" to teach the subject in schools. The Education Minister
II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said such teachers are among the causes of why Malaysian students
do not perform a good command of English. Therefore, based on the new education
blueprint, the government will make sure that only the excellent ones are chosen to be
teachers. It is believed that quality teaching is the most effective platform available to
transform English language education in the country and improve students' proficiency.
Therefore, the selection and training of the teachers need to be carefully monitored

3.0 THE EFFECTS OF ENGLISH TEACHERS' INCOMPETENCY TOWARDS ELT

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This statement leads me to the effects of incompetency of English Teacher towards

students' performance. As a teacher who have been experiencing in 3 years English Language
Teaching, I would like to say that it is undeniable that English teachers play a tremendous
role in their students' achievement in language acquisition. It is because some of my friends

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

have expressed concerns over the proficiency level of their children's English teachers
following a revelation that two-thirds of the teachers in the country are poorly competence to
teach the subject. A parent, known only as Madam Liza, said that her eighteen-year-old son
regularly complained about his English teacher making fundamental mistakes in the
classroom. "His teacher repeatedly pronounced the words wrongly. As an English Teacher, I
usually speak English with my son and directly correct his mistakes in speaking and
grammatical errors. However, when he mentioned about his teacher repetitive mistakes, I felt
really shocked. However, my son just keeps quiet in class and laughs about such incidents at
home," said my friend.

"My teacher could speak English very well. Despite that, when she entered the classroom, she
only distributed the worksheet to us without any explanation or further discussion. Every day
she will give us new handouts and worksheets. Her teaching styles for me had demotivated
me in learning English. Since then, I realized my English was better when I was in primary
school rather than in secondary school," said my colleague.

4.0 THE OPPORTUNITIES AND THE OBSTACLES OF ELT PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA.

In relation to the curriculum and teaching in line with the strengthening of the English
language, there were various initiatives held by the Ministry of Malaysia. The program was
made after the result released by the Ministry on Previously, in 2012 when I was doing my
School Program Orientation or known as ROS (Rancangan Orientasi Sekolah) at SMK
Agama Perempuan Kangar, some of my friends who are the English Language teachers in
that year were required to sit for the Cambridge Placement Test (CPT) online. Through this
480 hours course by CPT trainers in collaboration with Education Ministry, the candidates
are graded based on six bands to determine their proficiency levels. Band C1 or C2, are those
who are competent while B1 or B2 are for those who managed to pass. Those who are failed
in this online test will be receiving a Band A1 or A2 ranking while the band B teachers were
required to sit for the Aptis test managed by the British Council to ensure that they perform
better and attain a Band C to remain as English teachers. The Band B teachers who failed to
get a Band C in the Aptis test also would be given another opportunity to improve their
performance.

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

5.0 THE CPT TEST AND ITS CHALLENGE TO ELT PROFESSIONAL.

In spite of the effort made by the Ministry to upgrade the teaching and learning of the
English Language in Malaysian schools, the way the 2012 CPT was conducted and the
release of its computed result also seemed to puzzle me. The syllabus was also not exposed to
candidates earlier. Besides, for the senior teachers who claimed themselves as not the
technology savvy, facing an online test, at the computer labs of designated schools had made
them into a haywire condition. The infuriating part was that the servers and the headphones in
some schools were not in working properly and that problems had withdrawn many teachers
from answering and completing the questions on time. Consequently, many senior teachers,
who are believed as having an excellent command of the English language, have only got
Band B. Some teachers who used to participate in the marking of SPM were also got a Band
B grade. However, the most shocking part is when the teachers who are placed into the
weaker group in the language have made it to Band C. My question is that how were the CPT
results computed. Without the presence the invigilators, how the integrity part was taking into
a consideration?

In my opinion, it is highly recommended for English teachers to continue their

professional development once they have been recruited. However, they should be exposed
beforehand to the platform that engaging them to the high quality of professional
development. Moreover, as stated in Shift 4 of the Blueprint, "Ongoing professional
development allows teachers to maintain and enhance their skill set, including staying up-to-
date with the latest development in pedagogy.

Indeed, teachers need to be prepared for the global changes that occurred around
them. As we know, change is the natural phenomenon and it keeps on taking place in the
society with the pace of time. The rapid change of time will definitely generate new
concepts, new materials, the new method, new instruction, and techniques. As a result, the
new pedagogy will emerge and develop.

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

6.0 THE RELATION OF COMPETENCYAND PROFESSIONALISM IN ELT.

In spite of having adequate materials and teaching aids such as new textbooks and
new syllabus, the continuous formal training, pedagogical knowledge, and skills that a
teacher has already acquired in the college before should be enhanced. In order to build the
professional development in ELT, the teacher's competencies and pedagogical skills should
be placed into a major highlight. There are a few solutions that can be done to fulfil the need
of ELT Professional. In my paper, I would like to share this matter in two categories: being a
technology savvy and attending special courses

6.1 TECHNOLOGY SAVVY

Recently, the awareness of students' need at listening and speaking skills has been increased.
Therefore, the Ministry has come out with the new instruction at the lower secondary levels
like FORM 1 and FORM 2 which focusing on improving these skills through the OPS-
English teaching and learning materials. Therefore, the use of ICT integrating face-to-face
model and technology-mediated instructional approaches have been broadened up to engage
with the learning adjusted to individual needs through the establishment of the virtual
learning environment. Thus, the English teachers are encouraged to prepare themselves in
learning the new technology and maximize the usage of ICT like LCD and the Internet to be
capable in fulfilling this new Education policy.

6.2 ATTENDING SPECIAL COURSES

As we know, teachers' training programs are necessary to upgrade teacher's performance,

skills and knowledge to be more effective. I still remember as a novice teacher, I was very
anxious about my teaching performance when I first entered my first class in Form 3.
Previously, I was only being given form 1 and form 2 classes which apparently not involving
such main and big examination such as PT3 and SPM. Learning alone from the scratch was
also a challenging part of some of the seniors also still trying themselves in understanding
and fitting their teaching style with the new format and instructional materials. However,
attending special training and courses like Marking Workshop, 21ST Century Classroom
Talk had seriously broadened up my horizon on the scopes of teaching. The positive
reinforcement was given and the sharing session with other teachers have increased my
confidence in teaching.

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

THE NOTIONS OF PROFESSIONALISM IN ELT IN TURKEY

Back to the discussion pertaining to the issues of professional development of English

subject teacher, I would like to brief an overview regarding the English Teacher development
in the comparison between Malaysia and Turkey.

1.0 TOWARDS ACHIEVING HIGH SELF-EFFICACY AMONG ELT

PROFESSIONAL ACROSS THE YEARS OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE IN
TURKEY AND MALAYSIA.

In Turkey, the English language has been considered as a Foreign Language

(EFL).Despite that, pertaining to the use of English as a language of international
communication, the increasing of English language requirement in university and schools, the
expectation and need English teachers are highly demanding. Therefore, in order to construct
the positive outcome from the demand, the English teachers need to be well-prepared with a
set of positive belief in teaching which usually affected their interest and self-confidence.
Furthermore, Horwitz (1996) states that language learning is never complete and all foreign
language teachers are advanced learners of the language they are teaching although they are
placed in the high levels of language proficiency.

According to Gabilon (2005) among various fields like cognitive psychology,

educational psychology, and social psychology, beliefs or Self-Efficacy are viewed as a
significant construct to be considered in relation to their following impact on people's
behavior. The major reason is that beliefs can influence language learners' motivation to
learn, their expectations about learning, their perceptions about what is easy or difficult, and
the strategies they choose in learning (Johnson, 1992; Richards & Lockhart, 1996).

However, according to Horwitz, (1996), states that anxiety or concern can be an

obstacle to the foreign language production, improvement, and achievement. Moreover,
supposing that these EFL teachers are non-native speakers of English like Turkish and
Malaysian teachers, it is obviously considered that they may encounter even more serious
anxiety in terms of teaching by using the English language in the classroom. The EFL
teachers may also experience problems related with such affective factors as confidence,
motivation, self-esteem, and risk-taking ability, which ends up with losing a great interest and
confidence towards language teaching (Gebhard, 1990; Young, 1991).

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

Therefore, based on the study entitled Pre- and In-service EFL Teachers' Sense of Efficacy
and Teaching Concerns by Demet Yayl and Fulden Eisler , I would like to discuss the
correlation between EFL Teacher's self-Efficacy and their foreign languages concerns in the
classroom. This study also first investigates the impact of teacher self-efficacy towards
teaching concerns among Pre- and In -Service EFL Teachers and then explores the factors of
teaching concerns among EFL Teachers in their teaching.

2.0 THE DEFINITION OF TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY AND TEACHING

CONCERNS

2.1 Teacher Self-Efficacy

Teacher Self-Efficacy can be referred as teachers' beliefs in their capability to organize and
continue courses of action needed for accomplishing a specific task in a particular context. It
may be seen as a simple issue but it has a powerful influence not only to the teacher but
towards students' development. Several studies also highlighted that factors such as self-
perceptions of teaching competence and personal characteristics, receiving emotional and
pedagogical support from fellow pre-service teachers as well as the preparation program
contribute to their teaching efficacy (Poulou, Tscannen-Moran, Hoy, & Woolfolk, 2007)

2.2 EFL Teaching concerns

Fuller's (1969) model of concerns has identified three major areas of concern as
important constructs in teacher education: concerns about self, concerns about the teaching
task, and concerns about the impact that teaching has on students' learning. According to
Fuller (1969) the view that as pre-service teachers move through their training is highly
supported, their concerns move from self to task, then finally to impact concerns. The first
stage is self-concern. For instance, some new teachers tend to be favoured by their
surroundings like students, colleagues, and the school's administrators in a positive way.
When they prone to think about being liked or disliked frequently, the teachers become more
anxious about the task of teaching; bringing many teaching materials, having many students
and lastly, lead to the confusions about the priorities of actions and the teaching system.
However, when they have settled down on the self-concern and task-concern, the teachers
become worried about the impact that teaching brings to student learning. Transferring from
the start to the next stage is measured by the completion of the previous stage(s).

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

3.0 THE RELATIONS BETWEEN PRE- AND IN-SERVICE EFL TEACHERS'

SENSE OF EFFICACY AND TEACHING CONCERNS

The result from the study in Turkey has showed that if teachers believed their efficacy
was weak, they tended to have more concerns about teaching

The results from the findings also revealed that the in-service EFL teachers were more
having more self-efficacious rather than their pre-service EFL counterparts' in student
involvement, instructional strategies, and classroom management. It is believed that the
lacked teaching practice among pre-service teachers compared to the in-service teachers' is
the main cause why the in-service teachers attained more self-efficacious in their teaching.

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

4.0 PERSONAL INTERVIEW TO THE ENGLISH TEACHERS AT MY SCHOOL

To discover the teaching concerns among English Teachers, I have also conducted my own
interview with six English teachers at my school. The result is being categorized into four
themes based recurring statements shared which are the expectation, fear of mistakes and
negative evaluation and lack of experience. The further explanation can be seen as followed:

Fear of mistakes and negative

Expectation
A female teacher who
studied oversea with 2 years
experiences: I could notice
that I was really anxious when
I was observed by my
supervisor. Sometime ,their
expectations towards me are
too high and very demanding
A female teacher with 20
years of experience: As an
experienced teacher,
expectation from the students
also becomes anxiety source
to me. The drastic change of
the formats and curriculum
content somehow burdening
me and require certain amout
of time and ongoing training
to be understood.
evaluation
A female teacher with 16
A female teacher with 10
years of experience: During
my experience I notice that, I
will feel anxious when I feel
uncertain about the words I
pronounced, I am afraid if I
couldn't answer the questions
from my students properly
and they will judge me.
A female teacher with 3
years of experience: I am
afraid of giving incorrect facts
or meaning when my students
asked me about the
information and words that I
am not familiar with.
Lack of experience
years experience: I was
feeling anxious when
suddenly assigned to teach
advanced students instead of
low proficiency students,
honestly I never had enough
experience in teaching
advanced students.
A female teacher with 28
years of experience: Novice
teacher in English Education
probably will experience more
in speaking anxiety as they
probably didnt have
adequate training and get
used with the language
frequently

Figure 1: The sources of anxiety among Perlis ESL teachers based on the interview
conducted.

Based on figure 1, it has clearly seen that one of the sources from the finding of this
qualitative study has shown similarity with the study conducted among 8 EFL international
postgraduate students of a Malaysian university by Zhiping and Paramasivam's, (2013) stated
that fear of negative evaluation and communication apprehension caused anxiety.

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

5.0 CONCLUSION

Despite difficulties in teaching a foreign language, it is important for the EFL teachers
to improve their competency and knowledge in the targeted language. As mentioned by
Horwitz (1996), acquiring language is an unending process which is never complete.
Although all foreign language teachers are regarded as higher achievers in language but the
process of language learning must be persistently done. In addition, the Pre-service and In-
Service EFL teachers are encouraged to cooperate and participate in special workshop or
courses which allowing them to overcome their teaching concerns. The effort must be
constantly carried out, otherwise, it is impossible to lead students towards the betterment of
their language and proficiency.

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"Becoming an ELT Professional: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities"

REFERENCES

Fuller, F. F. (1969). Concerns of Teachers: A Developmental Conceptualization.

American Educational Research Journal, 6(2), 207-226.
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Gabillon, Z. (2005). L2 learners beliefs: An overview. Journal of Language and
Learning, 3(2), 233-260.

Gebhard, J. G. (1990). Interaction in a teaching practicum. In J. C. Richards & D.

Nunan (Eds.). Second language teacher education (pp. 118-131). New
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Horwitz, E. K. (1996). Even teachers get the blues: recognizing and alleviating
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Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom
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Joekaosjr@thestar.com.my, J. K. (2013, June 22). Blueprint to ensure quality

teachers - Nation. Retrieved April 08, 2017, from
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quality-teachers/

Kojima, E. (2007). Factors associated with second language anxiety from different
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Languages of Turkey. (2017, April 07). Retrieved April 07, 2017, from
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Malaysia education blueprint, 2013-2025: preschool to post-secondary education.

(2013). Putrajaya, Malaysia: Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia.

Tschannen-Moran, M., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. E. (2007). The differential antecedents

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Yayl, D., & Ekizler, F. (n.d.). Pre- and In-service EFL Teachers' Sense of Efficacy
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Zhiping, D., & Paramasivam, S. (2013). Anxiety of speaking English in class among
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