THAI PRIMARY SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ SELF-EFFICACY

Abstract

         Teacher’s qualification has raised concerns about the students’ performance in English learning in Thailand. This study investigated Thai primary school English language teachers’ self-efficacy, which is the belief about their ability to achieve desired goals. Questionnaires were randomly sent to 800 public primary schools under the Nakhonratchasima Primary Education Service Area Office. One English teacher from each school was asked to complete the questionnaire. The total number of 196 questionnaires was returned for analysis. The followed-up semi-structured interviews were conducted. The statistics used in the data analysis included descriptive analysis, analysis for means, correlational analysis, and comparative analysis. Frequency and percentages were used to analyze the general characteristics of the respondent concerning their field of study and years of teaching. The results showed variations in the levels of self-efficacy. The respondents reported their self-efficacy at the mean score of 3.40 (SD=0.54), which was at the moderate level. Significant differences occurred between the self-efficacy of English and non-English major teachers. A moderate level of self-efficacy was also perceived by all respondents in the Non-English major group (mean=3.21, SD=0.49). However, in the English major, only the Novice group viewed their efficacy at the moderate level (mean=3.48, SD=0.67), while the other two groups perceived their high level, with the mean score of 3.56 (SD=0.43) and 3.55 (SD=0.41), respectively. Certain patterns of teacher’s response were identified from the analysis of the interview data. The researchers concluded that teachers’ qualification influenced how teachers perceived their efficacy, which may affect their performance as a teacher of English.