Developing an ELT Context-Specific Teacher Efficacy Instrument

Abstract

Teacher efficacy is a topic of significance in mainstream education and various instruments have been developed to measure this construct. The available instruments however, are general both in terms of their subject matter and context. To compensate for this generality, the present study aims to develop a new teacher efficacy instrument whose items are specific to ELT classes. To this end, based on a thorough analysis of the existing literature and the researchers’ conceptualization of typical ELT classes, a tentative theoretical model of ELT teacher efficacy was developed. This phase was followed by a series of classroom observations plus interviews with students, teachers, and experts. The model was then crosschecked against the results of the observations and interviews, and evolved into a scenario-based, Likert-scale ELT teacher efficacy instrument (ELTEI). The newly developed instrument was validated through administering it to 206 English language teachers, leading to some modifications in the model. The study hopefully can lead to a more meaningful interpretation of teacher efficacy in terms of context, language skills, students’ age and proficiency, as well as teachers’ perception in L2 settings.

Efficacious EFL Teachers’ Goals and Strategies for Emotion Management: The Role of Culture in Focus

“…First, the efficacious teachers were selected through administrating the ELTEI (Akbari & Tavassoli, 2014) to 200 English teachers in South Khorasan province. The respondents to the instrument were 131 females (65.5%) and 69 males (34.5 %) with the age range of 26 to 47 and the average age of 34.5 (SD=5.8).…”

“…A second part of the data was generated through diary journals completed by 12 of the efficacious English teachers. In both methods, efficacious teachers were those who obtained the top 20% score on ELT teacher efficacy instrument (ELTEI) (Akbari & Tavassoli, 2014) and who consented to participate in the study. The interviewed teachers were mainly males (69.5%, N=16) and 21 were M.A holders or PhD.…”

“…The efficacious teachers participating in this study were selected through administrating the ELT teacher efficacy instrument (ELTEI) (Akbari & Tavassoli, 2014) to 200 English teachers in South Khorasan province in Iran. The selection of the instrument was informed by the fact that teacher efficacy is a subject and context specific construct (Tschannen-Moran, Hoy, & Hoy, 1998).…”

Language Teachers’ Self-efficacy Beliefs: A Review of the Literature (2005-2016)

“…Researchers clearly conceptualise the task of teaching or facilitating the development of speaking in different ways. Akbari and Tavassoli (2014) distinguish between teaching and correcting errors in speaking, while Cooke (2013, p. 56) includes an item: "Provide activities that support meaningful communication in French". This last item has a clear agent-means component (provide communicative activities), which other items listed in the paragraph above lack.…”

Reflective Teaching And Self-Efficacy Beliefs: Exploring Relationships In The Context Of Teaching EFL In Iran

“…However, due to the limitations with which we were faced in our data collection, we could not follow this recommendation, which might have affected construct validation of TEBS-Self. Studies within the area of English language teaching may benefit more from using instruments which are specific to this area, like the ELT Context-Specific Teacher Efficacy Instrument (Akbari & Tavassoli, 2014), which was developed after we collected our data. As with TEBS-Self in this study, though, the validity of these recently developed instruments should be further examined.…”