The impact of English language on Afghan non-English major teachers’ profession
Mahin Azimi
English language and literature Department, Faculty of Education, Herat University
E-mail: mahinazimi73@gmail.com
Mohammad Nasim Tahsildar(Corresponding author)
English language and literature Department, Faculty of Education, Herat University
E-mail: nasim83.angel@gmail.com
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of English language on Afghan non-English major teachers’ profession. The participant of the study consisted 30 (17 male and 13 female) non-English major teachers of Education faculty and Herat University. A quantitative research design with a survey approach was employed to find out the relationship between the English language and teachers’ profession. The only problem is that the non-English major teacher use their mother tongue in their context and their teaching as a profession. The teachers need English as an instrument in order to improve in their profession. The data was analyzed by excel program. The findings revealed a positive, significant correlation between English language and teachers’ profession. The study recommended that English language should teach to non-English major teacher in order to their professional development and it will have positive impact due to positive attitude that non-English major teachers have through the English language.
Keywords: English language, teachers’ profession
Introduction:
The widespread use of English as international language makes it highly important in the world. It is no more working as the status of language of the elite class or educated class of the society such as professors, rather it is working as an instrument to bring success in life. English is recognized as the lingua franca for communication across nations and culture, and is the most desired second or foreign language in most countries in the world. English is used as a second or foreign language in the in workplace, international trade, global media, tourism, business, education, technology, and on diplomatic occasions (Abolghasem Heidarabadi et al, 2012).
Thus, individuals seeking to learn English do so not because it is an enriching second language, or because it is a rewarding pastime. More usually they learn because it affords access. It allows a young woman in Pakistan to communicate with a professor in US, a farmer in Ghana to get international weather reports and commodity prices via his mobile phone, or a student in Myanmar to share hopes and aspirations with community organizations in Belfast or Sarajevo (F. Sülen ùahin, 2010).
Nowadays, teachers also need to learn English language for research works like taking part in conferences of foreign countries and workshops, presenting ISI articles, using world information, etc. Teachers may teach different major but all of them need English language for their educational improvement (Abolghasem Heidarabadi et al, 2012).
Although teachers generally required taking part in professional development by certification or contractual agreements, most report that they engage in these activities because they want to become better teacher. They see professional development programs as among the most promising and most readily available routes to growth on the job (Fullun, 1991, 1993). Many educator, scholars, and policy makers see professional development (PD) as key to improvement of teaching, learning, and schools (e.g., Mourshed, Chijioke, & Barber, 2010; Opfer & Pedder, 2011).
Although research suggests that high-quality PD can improve instruction (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001; Van Den Bergh, Ros, & Beijaard,2014) .In addition professional development programs are systematic efforts to bring about change in the classroom practices of teachers, in their attitudes and beliefs, and in the learning outcomes of students (Thomas R. Guskey, 2002). What attracts teachers to professional development, therefore, is their belief that it will expand their knowledge and skill, contribute to their growth, and enhance their effectiveness with students (Fullan & Miles, 1992). Non-English Major teachers define as ones who teach a Non-English subject or the teacher’s study or (her or his major) is a Non-English subject.
1.1 Problem Statement:
As English define as an international language that 1.75 billion people spoke it as a first language, second language or foreign language and it used by quarter of the world population, the problem is that Non-English Major Teachers use their mother tongue in most of their work and context (Abolghasem Heidarabadi et al, 2012). This research see whether the knowing English has affect in their profession or not because most of updated material in their teaching process will be access by the English language and teacher should use some of them in their learning process.
1.2 Research Question:
The question is that dose knowing English effect on Non-English Major Teachers’ profession or not?
1.3 Research Objective:
The aim of this study is to investigate that if knowing English has effect on Non-English Major Teachers’ Profession or not.
1.4 hypotheses:
1-If the teacher have positive attitude they go through improving their profession.
2-In order to improving their profession they need the English language because most of updated material in their major and their profession especially in teaching are available in English language.
3-If they didn’t have positive attitude toward the English language they are not eager to use it too.
3. Research design:
Quantitative research design is employed for this study with a survey approach .The purpose of the study lies in its attempt to determine that is knowing English on non-English Major Teacher’s profession has impact or not . To determine if it has an impact or not ,the study has been designed to investigate that in which way teachers’ attitude are positive or negative and their participation in PD program and its impact in other to answering research question. The nature of this purpose and the kind of data called for necessitated the adoption of a survey type of approach and a questionnaire as an instrument.
The questionnaire survey is one of the most common methods of data collection on attitudes and opinions from a large group of participation. It has been used to investigate a wide variety of questions in L2 research. Questionnaires allow researchers to gather information that learners are able to report about themselves that is typically not available from production data alone. One of the primary advantages of using questionnaires is that, apart from being economical and practical, they can in many cases bring about longitudinal information from learners in a short period of time. Questionnaires can also collect comparable information from a number of respondents. In addition, questionnaires can be administered in many forms, such as via e-mail, by phone, through mail-in-forms, as well as in person, allowing the researcher a greater degree of flexibility in the data collecting process.
Based on the structure, questionnaires can provide both qualitative insights and quantifiable data, and thus are very flexible for use in a range of research (Macky & Gass, 2005). According to Dörnyei & Taguchi (2010), questionnaires are one of the most common methods of data collection in L2 research. Questionnaires are very popular since they are easy to construct, extremely versatile, capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in such a way that is readily process able. According to Brown, (2001, p. 6, cited in Macky & Gass, 2005), “Questionnaires are any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers.” Brown (2001, p. 2, cited in McKay, 2006) opines that language surveys are any studies “that gather data on the characteristics and views of informants about the nature of language or language learning through the use of oral interviews or written questionnaires”. Dornyei (2003, cited in McKay 2006) points out that survey can provide three types of information: (i) factual information; (ii) behavioral information; and (iii) attitudinal information. Surveys also act as a very useful tool for researchers to gather a good deal of information in a short time with little cost.
As a result, surveys are a particularly effective way for teachers to find out more about the background, habits, and preferences of their students and this kind of information can be used in curriculum development. This current study employed a questionnaire to collect data on students’ points of view regarding their attitude towards English language learning at the university. The data of this study were collected through a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey method was preferred since (i) this method is suitable for empirical research; (ii) collection of data through this method is easily quantifiable; (iii) this method enables informants enough time to provide accurate and correct answers; and (iv) this method is cost-effective and time saving.
3.1 Instrument:
The survey questionnaire consisted of 20 multiple-choice questions. The questionnaire comprised 3 sections and 20 Likert-scale items. The information gleaned from the participants was on the following themes: attitude toward use of English (5 Items), attitude toward teaching as profession (8 Items) and participating in PD program and its impact (7 Items). The first five questions were prepared based on previous study by Hohenthal (2003) after modifications according to the objective of this study. And also based on the objective of the study 8 item (4 positive, 4 negative) were took from “Attitudes towards Teaching Profession Scale” developed by Çetin (2006), It was a 5-item Likert-type scale in order to balance the questionnaire and because of two other sections were four Likert-type of scale it also scaled in 4-item Liker-type scale. In section 3, 7 item were takes from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013.
The first five questions were set to measure the attitude of teachers toward use of English. The answer of these questions would range from 1 to 4. 1 was counted as positive attitude and 4 as a negative attitude. While preparing the questionnaire, special care was given to ensure standard and quality of the questions as well as the reliability, clarity, practicality and administer ability of the instruments (Al Mamun et al., 2012).
3.2 Participant:
The participants of this study were 30 non-English major teachers; 17 male and 13 female, who work as university teachers in Herat University and Herat Education University. They were part time and full time teachers; their level of education also was different most of them were B.A and other were PHD and M.A. The participants were randomly chosen and they were from different major. Table 1, 2, 3, 4 demonstrates the participants’ demographic data.
Table 1
Gender N percentage %
Male 17 56.67
Female 13 43.33
Table 2
Employment status N percentage %
part time 9 30
full time 21 70
Table 3
Education N percentage %
PHD 2 6.67
M.A 6 20
B.A 22 73.33
Table 4
Major N percentage %
Psychology 8 26.67
Biology 4 13.33
Chemistry 3 10
Physic 2 6.67
Computer Science 7 23.33
Persian Literature 5 16. 67
geography 1 3. 33
3.3 Data Analysis:
The quantitative data derived from the questionnaires were analyzed using Excel program. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. Data was realized using percentage, statistical comparisons, ratings and crosstabs.
A detail analysis with the number of respondents, their percentages are showed in table 5 to show attitude toward learning English. Question number 3 is the question that number of respondents who gave very positive response by tick marking the ‘strongly agree’ box is 16 i.e.53.33% of the total data range. Out of rest, 46.67% agreed with the proposition (14 respondents), and no negative respondents to strongly disagree and disagreed. This was followed by question number 1 with 13 ‘strongly agree’ respondents i.e.43.33%. The rest was 17 ‘agree’ responds with the (56.67%) and no negative respondents. The next question with high positive respondents was question number 5 with 8 strongly agree (26.67%) and 21 tick mark in agree box with (70%) and one disagree respondent (3.33%) and no strongly disagree. Then question number 4 with 56.67% strongly agree with the proposition (17 respondents) and 33.33% agree (10 respondents) and 2 disagree respond with (6.67%) and one strongly disagree respond (3.33%). The last question from this section of questionnaire was question number 2 with 11 strongly agree respond (36.66%) and 14 agree responds (46.67%).The rest 3 disagree respondents (10%) and 2 strongly disagree (6.67%).Question number 3 (Do you think that learning English will open more job opportunities for you?) was the question with most positive responds and the question number 2 (Do you think that learning English will improve your personality?) was the Question with most (5) negative responds. Most of the respondents to the range of questions were positive and the participants (non-English major teachers) had positive attitude toward learning English.
Table 5: attitude toward learning English
Questions 1-SD 2-D 3- A 4- SA
1- Do you think that learning English will help the growth of your mind? 0
(0%) 0
(0%) 17
(56.67%) 13
(43.33%)
2-Do you think that learning English will improve your personality? 2
(6.67%) 3
(10%) 14
(46.67%) 11
(36.66%)
3- Do you think that learning English will open more job opportunities for you? 0
(0%) 0
(0%) 14
(46.67%) 16
(53.33%)
4- Do you think that learning English will help you in higher academic achievement? 1
(3.33%) 2
(6.67%) 10
(33.33%) 17
(56.67%)
5- Do you think that learning English will help you in prompting business? 0
(0%) 1
(3.33%) 21
(70%) 8
(26.67%)
1-SD=strongly disagree, 2-D=Disagree, 3-A=Agree, 4-SA=strongly agree
Statistics
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5
Mean 3.43 3.13 3.53 3.43 3.23
Std. Error of Mean .092 .157 .093 .141 .092
Std. Deviation .504 .860 .507 .774 .504
Minimum 3 1 3 1 2
Maximum 4 4 4 4 4
Item 6 within the positive group, “Teaching is a passion for me” was the item with the highest attitude score [96.33 %,( 19 strongly agree and 10 agree)] and one negative respond by tick marking strongly disagree box that showed in table 6. This was followed by item 7 “Teaching is an honorable profession” with total [93.33 %,( 25 strongly agree and 3 agree)] positive responds and one strongly disagree, one disagree responds to this positive statement. Item 8 has [86.66% (16 strongly agree and 10 agree)] responds and 1 strongly disagree, 3 disagree. Item 9 has [83.33 %( 12stronglty agree and13 agree)] positive responds from the total range; the rest was 4 disagree (13.33%) and one strongly disagree respondent that showed in table 6.
Table 6: positive statement about attitude toward teaching profession
statement 1- SD 2-D 3- A 4- SA
6- Teaching is a passion for me. 1
(3.33%) 0
(0%) 10
(33.33%) 19
(63.33%)
7- Teaching is an honorable profession. 1
(3.33%) 1
(3.33%) 3
(10%) 25
(83.33%)
8- No one can prevent me from practicing this profession. 1
(3.33%) 3
(10%) 10
(33.33%) 16
(53.33%)
9- If I were required to choose a different profession, I would choose the teaching profession again without a hesitation. 1
(3.33%) 4
(13.33%) 13
(43.33%) 12
(40%)
1-SD=strongly disagree, 2-D=Disagree, 3-A=Agree, 4-SA=strongly agree
Statistics
Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
Mean 3.57 3.73 3.37 3.20
Std. Error of Mean .124 .126 .148 .147
Std. Deviation .679 .691 .809 .805
Minimum 1 1 1 1
Maximum 4 4 4 4
In table 7 the numbers and percentage of respond to the negative statement has been showed. In this table within the negative statements, Item 11”I think teaching does not have any attractive features.” was the item with the highest negative score (50%) with the proposition 15 respondent to the strongly disagree and 14 disagree (46.67%), one strongly agree (3.33%) has the high negative score. Next Item with high negative responds is item 12“I do not like teaching profession” with 73.33% of strongly disagree respondent, 20 %( 6 respondent) disagree and 6.66% (one strongly agree and one agree).It follows by item 13 “If only I get in a difficult situation, I can think of practicing this profession.” with 46.67%(14 respondents) to strongly disagree and 40%(12 respondents) disagree, the rest was 13.33%(one agree and three strongly agree).Item 10 was the item with the low negative score within the negative statement with 20 number of respondents to negative box(10 strongly disagree and 10 disagree) and 10 positive respondents (8 agree and to strongly agree) that showed in table 7.
Table 7: negative statement about attitude toward teaching profession
Statement 1- SD 2-D 3- A 4- SA
10- I do not suppose that I am going to teach if I find a better job 10
(33.33%) 10
(33.33%) 8
(26.67%) 2
(6.67%)
11- I think teaching does not have any attractive features. 15
(50%) 14
(46.67%) 0
(0%) 1
(3.33%)
12- I do not like teaching profession. 22
(73.33%) 6
(20%) 1
(3.33%) 1
(3.33%)
13- If only I get in a difficult situation, I can think of practicing this profession. 14
(46.67%) 12
(40%) 1
(3.33%) 3
(10%)
1-SD=strongly disagree, 2-D=Disagree, 3-A=Agree, 4-SA=strongly agree
Statistics
Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13
Mean 2.07 1.57 1.37 1.77
Std. Error of Mean .172 .124 .131 .171
Std. Deviation .944 .679 .718 .935
Minimum 1 1 1 1
Maximum 4 4 4 4
In the table 8 the professional development activities that participants have been participated during the last 12 month and covered the some specific issue were analyzed. The item that most covered in PD programs was item 4 “Student behavior and classroom management” with 22(73.33%) number of respondents who tick marking yes box and 8 (26.67%) No responds. It followed with item 3 “Student evaluation and assessment practices” with 21(70%) yes responds and 9(30%) no responds. Item 1 and 7 had the same number of respondent, 20 (66.67%) yes and 10 (33.33%) no. Item 2 with 19 (63.33%) yes respondents and 11(36.67%) no respondents. Item 6 with 17 (63.33%) yes respondents and 13(36.67%) no respondents. Item 5 was the item that less covered in the PD with 15 (50%) yes respondents and 15(50%) no respondents.
Table 8: participation in PD programs
Question Yes No
1- Knowledge and understanding of my subject field(s) 20 10
(66.67%) (33.33%)
2- Knowledge of the curriculum 19 11
(63.33%) (36.67%)
3- Student evaluation and assessment practices 21 9
(70%) (30%)
4- Student behavior and classroom management 22 8
(73.33%) (26.67%)
5-Approaches to individualized learning 15 15
(50%) (50%)
6- Teaching students with special needs 17 13
(56.67%) (43.33%)
7- Teaching cross-curricular skills (e.g. problem solving, learning-to-learn) 20 10
(66.67%) (33.33%)
Statistics
PD1 PD2 PD3 PD4 PD5 PD6 PD7
Mean 1.33 1.37 1.30 1.30 1.50 1.43 1.33
Std. Error of Mean .088 .089 .085 .085 .093 .092 .088
Std. Deviation .479 .490 .466 .466 .509 .504 .479
Minimum 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Maximum 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
In the table 9 positive impacts of the issues that PD programs cover analyzed. The most covered item in PD programs was item 4“Student behavior and classroom management” with 13.63% with the proposition (3 respondents) said that had large impact. The rest 59.09% with the proposition (13 respondents) said that had moderate impact and 27.27% (6 respondents) tick marking small impact. Item 3“Student evaluation and assessment practices” with 23.80% with the proposition (5 respondents) said that had large impact. The rest 52.38%with the proposition (11 respondents) said that had moderate impact and 19.04% (4 respondents) said that had small impact and one respond (4.76%) to no impact. Item 1“Knowledge and understanding of my subject field(s)” with 30% with the proposition (6 respondents) said that had large impact. The rest 65% with the proposition (13 respondents) said that had moderate impact and 5% (1 respondent) said that had small impact. Item 7 “Teaching cross-curricular skills (e.g. problem solving, learning-to-learn)” with 15% with the proposition (3 respondents) said that had large impact. The rest 50% with the proposition (10 respondents) said that had moderate impact and 35% (7 respondents) said that had small impact. Item 2“Knowledge of the curriculum” with 26.31% with the proposition (5 respondents) said that had large impact. The rest 57.89% with the proposition (11 respondents) said that had moderate impact and 15.78% (3 respondents) said that had small impact. Item 6 “Teaching students with special needs” with 17.64% with the proposition (3 respondents) said that had large impact. The rest 47.05% with the proposition (8 respondents) said that had moderate impact and 29.41% (5 respondents) had small impact, one respond (5.88%) to no impact. Item 5“Approaches to individualized learning” with one (6.67%) respondent said that had large impact. The rest 40% with the proposition (6 respondents) said that had moderate impact and 53.33% (8 respondents) had small impact.
Table 9: positive impact on PD programs
Question Large Moderate Small No
1- Knowledge and understanding of my subject field(s) 6
(30%) 13
(65%) 1
(5%) 0
(0%)
2- Knowledge of the curriculum 5
(26.31%) 11
(57.89%) 3
(15.78%) 0
(0%)
3- Student evaluation and assessment practices 5
(23.80%) 11
(52.38%) 4
(19.04%) 1
(4.76%)
4- Student behavior and classroom management 3
(13.63%) 13
(59.09%) 6
(27.27%) 0
(0%)
5-Approaches to individualized learning 1
(6.67%) 6
(40%) 8
(53.33%) 0
(0%)
6- Teaching students with special needs 3
(17.64%) 8
(47.05%) 5
(29.41%) 1
(5.88%)
7- Teaching cross-curricular skills (e.g. problem solving, learning-to-learn) 3
(15%) 10
(50%) 7
(35%) 0
(0%)
Statistics
IPD1 IPD2 IPD3 IPD4 IPD5 IPD6 IPD7
Mean 2.17 1.97 2.07 2.10 1.27 1.57 1.87
Std. Error of Mean .296 .294 .279 .255 .249 .278 .266
Std. Deviation 1.621 1.608 1.530 1.398 1.363 1.524 1.456
Minimum 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Maximum 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
4. Discussion and conclusion:
The analysis of the study found that the teachers mostly have positive attitude toward teaching as a profession. I use percentage of response because there is a little difference in mean of question. In this study we measure teachers’ attitude toward teaching in order to see if they are interested in their profession or not, because one of the hypotheses of this study was if the teachers not interested in their profession so they didn’t go through the improving their profession and as the second hypotheses they didn’t touch the English language in order to improve in their profession. The result showed that the response of participants to the positive statement are in a high level of agreement. The non-English Afghan teachers see the teaching as an honorable profession and most of them work in this profession by their passion. The studies by Stun, Erika and Kaman (2004), Kaya and Buyukkasap (2005), Ustun (2007), Çetinkaya (2009) and Tanel, ùengören and Tanel (2007), all of which were conducted on the attitude towards the teaching profession, revealed that the students were in a positive attitude towards the profession. According to Sabriye ùener (2015) Examining trainee teachers’ attitudes towards teaching profession in Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University case showed that female students had more positive attitudes than the males did. When the attitude differences of students according to school graduation were examined, no significant differences were found among groups. F. Sülen ùahin 2010 investigated on Teacher candidates’ attitudes towards teaching profession and life satisfaction levels which according to the total scores of the ATTP scale teacher candidates has seen as in positive attitude towards teaching profession. The preliminary analysis was found that the teachers mostly have positive attitudes towards teaching and most of them had very good performance in teaching. According to the path analysis for overall sample, teachers’ attitudes towards teaching was not the factor responsible for their low or high performance in teaching. The value .12 of the path coefficient was very low and non-significant at p < .05. While the path analysis for the sub-groups samples found that the teachers’ attitudes towards teaching have a direct effect on their professional performance with the more experienced teachers. Therefore, knowing the teachers’ attitudes towards their profession is an important matter that needs to be dealt with in the educational sector.
On the contrary according to the research of Dr. Sarah Oben Egwu (2015) in a EFL context do the results of her the study showed that students have negative attitude towards teaching profession, that the teaching is a difficult task, and teachers are not well paid compared to other professions.
The study showed that non-English major teacher have positive attitude trough the English language and by many research that have been done in this area if their attitude were positive so it had also positive impact. Chalak and Kassain (2010) investigated the various socio-psychological orientations of Iranian undergraduates towards leaning English. It focused on attitude orientations of the students and their attitudes towards the target language and its community. The results revealed that these Iranian Non-native speakers of English learn the language for both “instrumental” and “integrative” reasons and their attitudes towards the target language community and its members were generally found to be highly positive. Shams (2008) conducted a study attempting to investigate learners’ attitudes, motivation and anxiety towards the learning of English. The findings underlined the learners had affirmative attitudes and high enthusiasm towards English. Sk. Abdullah al Mamun et al (2012) had a research in The Case of Life Science School of Khulna University; the result of the study shows that the respondents have positive attitudes towards English language.
Zainol Abidin (2012) also investigated Libyan secondary school students’ attitudes towards learning English in terms of the behavioral, cognitive and emotional aspect. He also explored whether there is any significant difference in the students’ attitudes towards English language based on their demographic profiles i.e., gender, age, field and year of study. The results show that the respondents’ obvious negative attitude towards English may lead to conclude that they are not well aware of the importance of English and learn it as a compulsory subject.
Based on the two previous hypotheses the third one coming forward it showed that the PD program impact on the teacher development. The most covered one in this program were “Student behavior and classroom management” Student evaluation and assessment practices” but the “Knowledge and understanding of my subject field(s)” is the third one and it followed by training some new method in field of teaching and train skill to the teacher. Most of updated material in these part were available in English and a teacher need them whatever their major are they need English.
Knowledge and understanding of my subject field(s) is the key point in order to use English; because the most important thing in this part is belongs to the use of English language in order to improve and extend their knowledge.
To illustrate all result of the study; the analysis show that English has a positive impact on Afghan non-English major teachers’ profession. Due to the positive attitude that Afghan non-English major teachers has through their profession and also on English language it is obvious that it will have a great impact. Afghan non-English major teacher were aware of the importance of English language so they can use this language as an aid in their job.
Recommendation:
The current study recommend that in PD program we should have more focused on training new method and also on Knowledge and understanding of subject field(s) .So if they have more training program in these part they will need English in order to be successful and improve in their profession