Page 183 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Identifying the Target Needs of Non-Native Subject Teachers

Table 10. Wants (subjective needs) of the subject teachers related to the language courses

Categories Wants (Subjective Needs) Participants
Speaking practice & Fluency More practice for speaking and fluency ST 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 16,
17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28,
29, 30, 31, 32, 35
Course to be in an English-speaking country or visiting one ST 11, 14, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29,
30, 31, 32, 35, 36
Always practicing English during and after the lessons ST 1, 5, 16, 22, 24, 34, 35, 36
Learning and using daily phrases ST 1, 3, 7, 26, 27, 30
Reading Understanding field-related scientific articles ST 4, 6, 10, 12, 15, 27
Writing Writing in formal genres ST 7, 27, 31

As the Table 10 shows, the first major category of wants is related to the speaking skill, where the
reported wants are classified under four sub-headings. Firstly, the respondents expressed that they needed
more practice for speaking and fluency. As ST 8 stated “here has to be more focus on speaking practice
and fluency”. Secondly, a lot of participants reported a strong want for the courses to be in an English
speaking country or to be financially supported to visit one for some time (ST 11, ST 14, ST 18, ST
21, ST 23, ST 24, ST 25, ST 28, ST 29, ST 30, ST 31, ST 32, ST 35, ST 36). For example, ST 23 stated
“Had we had the course in a country where English is the official language, we would have had more
chances to use what we had studied and we would not have fluency and pronunciation difficulties now”.
Another want identified by the subject teachers was having more opportunities to practice speaking as
ST 1 stated “… we must be provided with more speaking opportunities”. They also offered some sug-
gestion as to how this could be achieved. ST 24 and ST 34 stated that speaking in English in and out
of the classroom should be compulsory and that they should not be allowed to use any other languages
during the course while ST 5 said that an increase in class hours for speaking skill would be better. ST
24 even wanted the course teachers to force everyone to speak in the target language by saying “The
teachers should be insistent that everybody speak in English language all the time”. Lastly, the teachers
expressed their wants related to the content of what needs to be practiced, i.e. daily phrases and expres-
sions. For example, according to ST 7 “it can be more beneficial for students if there are chances for
practicing daily spoken expressions and communication skills”.
The next category of wants was related to the reading skill, for which understanding field related
articles was reported as a major want. This finding also supports the findings related to reading skills
presented in Table 8 and 10 above, where the participants indicated greater competency in general read-
ing skill (Table 9) while they reported understanding field related books and articles as a lack (Table
8). Regarding this point, ST 6 stated ‘I would like to have the capacity to understand scientific articles
in my field’.
Lastly, three subject teachers (ST 7, ST 27, ST 31) stated that they wanted to learn more about formal
writing genres although they reported to have had sufficient writing practice.
In conclusion, the findings presented in this part indicate that the participants mostly referred to those
wants that could be classified under general English language competencies rather than professional needs,
which might be due to the fact that these teachers did not start teaching at the time of data collection
for this study and therefore they developed limited insights into their individual needs as professionals
getting prepared to teach their subject through English.

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