A qualitative study on English teachers' training and use of instructional strategies in English for camping program

Abstract

Teachers' career stages are viewed as a progression that can be affected by personal and environmental factors. There are three main types of teachers’ career phases mentioned in Huberman (1993); Beginning, Middle and Ending. These stages reflect the teachers’ behaviour and views in their work life. For many of them, experience in career phases influences how they carry out school programmes and activities. English for Camping program (ECP) is one of the many types of English enrichment programs developed for primary students as part of their yearly camping program in public schools in Malaysia. Teaching ECP to a group of primary ESL students has made it impossible to be achieved because they are not mature enough to decide the specified needs yet. To make it possible, ESL teachers of different career stages need to be prepared to understand and create ECP activities, as well as be the medium to ensure the success of the ECP program. This qualitative study attempts to examine the three ESL teachers’ views of the train-the-trainer ECP program and their preferred instructional strategies used for the program through a one-to-one semi-structured interview. The study contextualizes the ECP under the umbrella of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) which situates the teachers as ‘initial learners’ of ESP since they needed to get orientated into understanding the language of English for Camping. Findings showed that the teachers were aware of the importance of professional development and that their instructional practices employed during the ECP training were closely related to their teaching experiences. Therefore, the ESL teachers’ professional development needs to be relevant to teachers’ teaching context which enables their active engagement in content and pedagogy.