Teacher Efficacy Beliefs and Language Skills of Preservice Elementary Teachers of English

Abstract

Jae-WooIn an effort to understand the dimensions of teachers' sense of efficacy among preservice teachers of English and the relationship of the dimensions to teachers' language skills, the present study surveyed 104 preservice elementary school teachers of English at a teachers' college. The subjects responded to Anita Hoy's Teacher Efficacy Instrument and language proficiency inventory, both a six-point Likert type scale. Based on the responses of the subjects, principal factor analysis was conducted to investigate the dimensions of teacher efficacy beliefs of the subjects. The analysis revealed that there were two dimensions (i.e., factors) of teacher efficacy beliefs among the subjects. One dimension was named Personal Teacher Efficacy (PTE) and the other General Teacher Efficacy (GTE).The derived dimensions of teacher efficacy were correlated to teachers perceptions of their language skills measured. The canonical correlation analysis revealed a statistically significant function. The result indicated that some proportion of teachers' sense of efficacy can be accounted for language skills variables.＜Chonbuk National University＞