Investigating the relationship between the reflective practices and the possible language teacher selves of EFL instructors at a Turkish state university

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there was a statistically significant relationship between EFL instructors’ reflective practices and their possible language teacher selves. This correlational quantitative study was conducted with 94 EFL instructors working at a school of foreign languages at a state university in Turkey. The data were collected via an online survey, which was designed to investigate EFL instructors’ engagement in reflective practice, and their perceived levels of possible language teacher selves. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results of the analyses revealed that EFL instructors sometimes engaged in reflective practice, and they had a high level of ideal language teacher self. The results also revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between EFL instructors’ overall reflective practice and their possible language teacher selves. Practical, cognitive, learner-related, and meta-cognitive types of reflective practice were found to have a statistically significant relationship with at least one type of possible language teacher selves.