Preservice Elementary School Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs Towards Teaching English

The main purpose of this study is to examine the levels of efficacy beliefs that preservice elementary school teachers have regarding teaching English as a foreign language. Teacher efficacy belief is a teacher’s judgment of his or her capability to organize and execute the courses of action to teach successfully a specific subject in a given context. Data were collected through two questionnaires measuring teacher efficacy and English proficiency administered to 159 preservice elementary school teachers. The results showed that preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs were relatively low and there were gaps between the preservice teachers’ perceptions of their current levels of English proficiency and desired levels needed to teach English to elementary school students. It was also found that preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs were positively related to their English proficiencies and willingness to teach English. Implications for teacher education and future research are discussed.