Investigating the Use of L1 in L2 Classrooms: An Action Research Project in Teaching Practicum (Published)
Introducing Action Research concept to student teachers and involving them into a process of conducting a selected action research project during their teaching practicum experience is one of my priorities when teaching Practicum 2 Course in order to help student teachers comprehend the complexities of the world of profession and offer opportunities to increase effective pedagogical practices. To achieve this objective, I selected an issue that was nominated by 12 student teachers as causing a problem on their practice and their pupils’ learning. The selected issue is about the use of L1 in L2 classroom. To investigate the issue, I designed three research instruments which distributed by student teachers to collect data from a sample of 20 EFL teachers and 320 pupils from 12 classrooms in 6 public intermediate schools in Almadinah city, KSA. I analised the data and shared the findings of the project with student teachers who made future decisions regarding their L2 teaching practices and reflected upon how action research developed their recognition of the investigate issue.
Keywords: Action Research, L1 use in L2 classroom, Practicum
The Influence of the Practicum Course on EFL Student Teachers (Published)
The purpose of this study is to identify through the practicum course the desirable characteristics of the effective student teacher who is going to teach English as a foreign language as perceived by English language teacher trainer (the researcher), fellow student teachers, and the practicum supervisor. It involved a total of 103 female student teachers divided to 48 student teachers in fall semester and 55 in spring semester. Data was collected through observation and filling out a questionnaire, class log, evaluation performance and interviews. Although these student teachers taught at least twenty hours a week on average and often took on additional responsibilities which shows a giving rise to anxiety among some participants, it has led to greater self-awareness and increased confidence in participants’ own ability and expertise, and an endorsement of their teaching style and practice. Furthermore, the challenges that these teachers faced were teaching methods, high-stakes testing, their language proficiency and ways to motivate their students to learn English.
Keywords: Practicum, mediation between practice and theory, peer- observation, student teacher