Factors Influencing Malaysian Preschool Teachers’ Use of the English Language as a Medium of Instruction

Abstract

This study investigated Malaysian preschool teachers’ self-efficacy and attitudes toward the use of the English language as a medium of instruction (EMI) and proposed a model of how different variables were related to their use of English in the classrooms. In order to obtain a broad picture of the nature and scope of preschool teachers’ use of EMI, a survey study was undertaken. The research instrument was a questionnaire that was distributed to randomly-selected preschool teachers throughout Malaysia. The process of modeling was based on the empirical data and a theoretical model that was constructed on the basis of the two theoretical aspects, that is self-efficacy and attitudes-behavior relation. The theoretical model served as a bridge between the abstractions from theory and the development of the model. The model suggested that strong self-efficacy influenced preschool teachers’ use of English to teach. In addition, the model also indicated that those preschool teachers with positive attitudes also felt self-efficacious in using English to teach and negative attitudes had the opposite effect. Those preschool teachers who had a positive attitude that teaching using English would be useful for the children perceived that they had greater ability toward handling classroom management issues. In addition, they believed too, that they were confident to use appropriate assessment tasks in the classroom when English was used as the medium of instruction. It would appear that self-efficacy and attitudes were mutually related to preschool teachers’ use of English to teach.

Building EFL Learners’ Confidence and Belief System through Collaborative Learning: The Power of Topics of Interest

“…In any classroom context, English Language Learners (ELL) are perceived to bring their beliefs, attitudes, self-efficacy and other related factors along with their cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies to gain satisfactory performance both in the process and in their achievement in language learning. The enormous development of technology and communication has dramatically changed communities, globalization, and the educational system (Goh & Luen Loy, 2021;Hanafiah et al, 2022;Murdoch et al, 2021). This challenges the competence of English teachers in such a context to develop more strategic pedagogical nuance that suits their students learning demands and thus become the current art of knowledge elaborated more in this study.…”

Preschool Teachers’ Issues and Beliefs in English Language Teaching: A Systematic Review (2012-2022)

“…The fifth issue identified is preschool teachers' perception of ELT, with seven articles asserting this subject (Chu, 2014;Goh & Luen Loy, 2021;Huang et al, 2019;Mede, 2017;Wang & Hou, 2021;Qin & Md Nor, 2018;Zucker et al, 2021). Preschool teachers should realise that their perceptions can positively or negatively shape their expectations of preschool children's English learning (Goh & Luen Loy, 2021;Zucker et al, 2021). There is a perception among preschool teachers that English should be taught in the teacher's mother tongue (Huang et al, 2019).…”