Page 185 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Identifying the Target Needs of Non-Native Subject Teachers

and fluently, now I feel that I have not mastered enough” (ST 32). Having the same expectation, ST 10
also reported to “have difficulty in speaking English fluently”. Two of the respondents called speaking
their “biggest worry” (ST 8, ST 21) since in the near future they would start teaching which requires
more face to face oral interaction than anything else.
As for the reasons for this perceived underdevelopment, fear of making mistakes was found to be
the major emotional barrier as ST 27 pointed out “… we need to build self-confidence. We do not want
to talk in front of people for fear that we would make mistakes”. ST 28 also stated that “I avoided the
Canadian teacher every time I saw her, because I was scared to make mistakes. I want to communicate
with her without feeling any stress”. The second identified reason was a lack of opportunities to prac-
tice speaking (ST 28, ST 29, ST 9, ST 5, and ST 7). Also, time allocated to speaking in the course was
not enough as 12 subject teachers stated that speaking skill was not as much emphasized as writing in
the language course schedule (ST 2, ST 4, ST 6, ST 7, ST 8, ST 9, ST 11, ST 17, ST 28, ST 29, ST 34,
and ST 36). Apart from these reasons, the insufficient number of native speaker teachers available was
another point raised by the respondents as ST 28 clearly stated that “I believe that there must be other
native speakers or native-like people to practice English. Only one Canadian teacher is not enough for
all the students”. However, some subject teachers also assumed the responsibility for not developing
their speaking skills as much as they expected. For example, ST 28 stated that “It is partly our fault
for we do not try to speak with teachers” while ST 24 indicated that developing fluency in speaking is
basically her own “responsibility”.
Course Manager’s Views

The semi-structured interview with the course manager provided data that were categorized under two
major themes: needs and lacks of subject teachers attending the language course and strengths and
weaknesses of the language course.
Under the first theme, the course manager firstly stated that subject teachers had similar necessities
and lacks regarding certain language skills and sub-skills. Similar to the views of the subject teach-
ers above, he also identified speaking as the major skill they needed although he stated that “all skills
ought to be developed”. According to him, subject teachers “mostly worry about their accuracy and
avoid speaking with the teachers or in the classroom” and this prevents them from developing their oral
skills. Listening and writing are the next two main skills the course manager pointed out as lacks to be
developed. He pointed out that especially at the beginning of the course, subject teachers lack effective
listening skills because they are beginners or elementary learners. He said “they usually cannot answer
any questions… since they do not comprehend what is asked or said”. In terms of writing, the course
manager also mentioned the subject teachers’ needs to develop and practice a range of sub-skills from
the simplest ones like spelling to more complicated ones like academic essay writing, which also shows
the tremendous job that the course tries to achieve in a limited period of time i.e. 8 months. The simi-
larities between the course manager’s and the subject teachers’ opinions and perceptions as reported in
the quantitative and qualitative data analyses prove that the course manager is aware of the needs and
lacks of the course attendees.
Under the second theme, on the other hand, the course manager’s comments on the strengths and
weaknesses of the program were identified. Firstly, he stated that all course attendees are intrinsically
motivated and open to new ideas, two traits that are most needed in an intensive program such as this

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