Kuwaiti EFL Teachers' Views of their Pre-Service Preparation to Teach at State Secondary Schools, the Challenges they Face, and their Perceptions of an Effective EFL Teacher

Abstract

Many students in Kuwait graduate from state schools with poor proficiency levels of English despite having studied the language for 12 years. Since teachers are the students’ primary source of contact with the language, and given the established influence teachers have on students’ academic success and achievement, this study investigated whether EFL teachers in Kuwait could possibly be playing a role in their failure to learn English by exploring their views of their pre-service teacher education programmes, the challenges they face teaching EFL, and their perceptions of the characteristics of an effective EFL teacher. Utilizing an exploratory mixed-methods approach, consisting of a questionnaire administered to 60 respondents and semi-structured interviews conducted with 24 teachers, the study found that the teachers may indeed be a contributing factor. The study revealed that the teachers do not believe that they have received adequate knowledge, training, or preparation from their pre-service teacher education programs to teach EFL effectively. The study also showed that the teachers face many challenges, such as instructional challenges, workload challenges, contextual challenges, and authority abuse challenges, which adversely threaten to affect their teaching performance. The study additionally revealed that the teachers have conflicting views on defining an effective EFL teacher and consider affective traits to be the main attributes of an effective one. The study concludes by making numerous recommendations to key stakeholders on how to improve Kuwaiti EFL teachers’ pre-service teacher preparation programmes and reduce and eradicate the challenges they confront.