Los docentes de inglés en formación: relación entre sus características individuales y su nivel de suficiencia en el idioma

Abstract

This analysis examines the relationship between pre-service EFL teacher trainees’ individual factors such as age, learning opportunities, and motivation and their English language proficiency. A background questionnaire and an English proficiency test were given to the participants and analyzed through descriptive statistics, the ANOVA test, and the Pearson Correlation test. The results revealed that the majority of participants have a low English proficiency which is not likely to improve at the end of the teaching program and that third language learning as well as integrative motivation are strong predictors of language proficiency. Qualitatively, respondents described their reasons for having English language difficulties and for their integrative and instrumental motivation, which complemented the quantitative data. These findings suggest the need to foster English language development through methodologies that focus on both subject and linguistic knowledge as well as on speaking, listening, pronunciation, vocabulary, and integrative motivation.