A study of problems, needs, and wants of a practicum course provided for EFL student teachers at Nakhonsawan Rajabhat University

Abstract

The purposes of the study were to investigate the problems, needs, and wants of a practicum course of the fifth year EFL student teachers at the Faculty of Education in Nakhonsawan Rajabhat University. This study also examined student teachers' opinions regarding teaching practice to be emphasized in the practicum course. The sample of this study included two groups. The first group included 78 fifth year EFL student teachers who completed all courseworks and enrolled their practicum course in the first semester of the 2013 Academic Year. The second group included six EFL student teachers, two university teachers who had different years of experiences, and two teachers from a secondary school and an elementary school. The participants were selected by simple random sampling and purposive sampling. Two research instruments were used in this study: questionnaires and semi-structure interview. The questionnaires included four sections: demographic data, problems, needs, and wants during students' teaching practice. Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) whereas, qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The findings were as follows. EFL teacher students at Nakhonsawan Rajabhat University stated that English classroom action research was their main problem. The study also found that English classroom action research was most necessary in teaching practice. Moreover, EFL student teachers wanted English knowledge regarding listening and speaking strategies.;