The effects of a professional development program on English as a foreign language teachers’ efficacy and classroom practice

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is twofold: (1) to investigate the relationship between the efficacy of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) and their self-reported practice of communicative language teaching (CLT) and (2) to examine the impact of an in-service teacher education program on teachers’ efficacy and self-reported and actual practice of CLT. Data came from a Teachers’ Background Questionnaire, English Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Chacon, 2005), Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT; Spada & Fronlich, 1995), and € the questionnaire version of COLT. Fifty Turkish EFL teachers working in eight schools responded to the questionnaires, and 20 of them were observed. The findings indicate that after the in-service education program, the teachers not only improved their practice of CLT but also became more efficacious. The findings highlight the importance of awareness-raising activities for professional development programs as well as the need for multiple instruments to analyse the extent to which teachers’ self-reported beliefs and practices concur with their observed teaching practice.