Abstract:

The pre-service training of future teachers of English consists of two main courses: the academic course in general pedagogy in the Bachelor’s program and the two-semester Master’s program ELT course, which involves lectures, seminars and the practicum. Students are systematically trained to teach English according to modern trends in language education, inspired by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and concepts that are intensively tested in different contexts.

After the first semester of the academic course, student teachers were invited to participate in the study to reflect on their didactic knowledge and skills essential for teaching target languages, to self-assess their development of didactic competences and to monitor their progress. They were asked to answer questions on the main aspects of their language knowledge and communicative skills. The second set of questions contained items related to assessment, which were answered by some of the respondents who had enrolled in the academic course Testing and Assessment of Language Competence alongside the ELT course.

The methodology of the study refers to the collection of appropriate data from the student teachers’ records in their portfolios, based on the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL), which was designed by a group of European language teacher educators and is seen as an essential tool for reflecting on student teachers’ development towards language teaching competence.

Our study will summarize the data obtained from the portfolios, which are structured and the descriptors provided allow a systematic way of looking at student teachers’ competences. Student teachers’ responses will be analysed in depth and supplemented by their comments and precise wording to provide evidence of their development of professional awareness.

Keywords:

Student teachers of English, questionnaires, the EPOSTL, data analyses, professional awareness development.