Jennifer Raymer
DARE Project: Second Language Teacher Education and Self-efficacy: How prepared are novice teachers to teach grammar?
Project Supervisor: Antonella Valeo
Project Description:
This project is concerned with language teacher education in the context of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) for adult learners. The focus of the project is on the ability of teachers to support grammatical development and accuracy in adult language learners and how language education prepares them for this dimension of their work. For adult learners, grammatical accuracy remains a core feature of communicative competence and pedagogical grammar is widely considered essential in TESOL programs. While teacher preparation and ESL teacher self-efficacy has been investigated more broadly, little is known about how novice teachers draw on teacher knowledge and skill gained in their teacher education to develop self-efficacy in relation to grammatical instruction, specifically. The goal of this study is to investigate how aspects of language teacher education programs and teacher candidate experiences contribute to self-efficacy as an assessment of preparedness for the classroom. The findings will help us understand how novice teachers engage with their teacher education experience and what specific factors mediate their engagement. The study will also inform language teacher education and professional development.The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) - Undergraduate enables our students to meaningfully engage in research projects supervised by LA&PS faculty members. Find out more about DARE.