The Impact of Reflective Practice on EFL Prospective Teachers’ Teaching Skill Improvement

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study conducted to see the extent to which reflective teaching can improve prospective EFL teachers’ English teaching skill and help them cope with adjusting to teaching in the real context. This empirical action research employed both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Twelve prospective-teachers undertaking teaching practicum at five different junior high schools in a city of Padang, Indonesia and eleven cooperating teachers were involved. The prospective teachers were required to do reflection on a regular basis using a guideline given prior to the commencement of this study. The data were collected through a teaching performance test, observation, interviews, and journals. The result of the analysis of the teaching performance test show that the practice of reflection improved the prospective teachers’ skills over the three cycles of the teaching practicum indicated by the average teaching scores they gained and the scores of each teaching component. Moreover, the results of observation and prospective teachers’ journals indicate that reflective practices reduced their problems and difficulties they faced of teaching in a real context. Another interesting finding from the interview and journal analysis was that the improvement of a teaching component was influenced by their attention to their conception of that particular component. In addition, their reluctance of using English as classroom language was apparently due their students’ low English ability and the cooperating teachers’ underestimation of its importance.