EFL lecturers’ needs for professional development: A case study of an institution in the Mekong Delta

Abstract

Professional development is considered as an essential element in improving teachers’ competencies which, in turn, enhance students’ learning outcomes. In order to provide useful input for the design of more effective and productive professional training programs, this small-scale study was conducted to investigate EFL lecturers’ strengths and weaknesses, and their needs for professional development. Seventeen lecturers were recruited for this descriptive study; they provided information via questionnaire and four of them participated in semi-structured interviews. The English Teacher Competency Framework was mainly used to explore the lecturers’ strengths and weaknesses on five domains, namely knowledge of subject, knowledge of teaching, knowledge of learners, professional attitudes and values, and practice and context of language teaching. The semi-structured interview was employed to get more information about their needs for professional development. Almost all EFL lecturer participants in this study reported a high level of confidence on all domains. The common PD activities that the lecturers need more training or sharing refer to their teaching (e.g. teaching language skills, techniques for classroom management and groupwork management, designing lesson plans for mixed ability class) and their own learning (e.g. reading professional materials and resources, participating activities related to professional community, observing colleagues’ teaching, and attending seminars, workshops or conferences). The findings from this study raise the lecturers’ awareness of their own strengths, weaknesses and needs as well as inform training program developers and administrators in designing appropriate professional training programs and suggest related research areas in the future.