Developing and validating the effectiveness and feasibility of training courses in English language teacher proficiency

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Preliminary research was conducted to identify the basic skills and competence that are required of professional EFL teachers by means of literature review and interviews with in-service teachers and questionnaires with in-service and pre-service teachers. Based on the information, a range of qualities and skills that professional EFL teachers have to possess were identified. Based on the list of skills and qualities, a syllabus was developed for undergraduate EFL teaching methodology courses. In order to examine the effectiveness of the course, the data were gathered including the teaching log, students' reaction paper and the recording of the classes on DVD. The data are still in the process of being analyzed, and yet it has indicated so far that the course was not as effective as had been expected. One of the reasons for this seems to be that there is a perception gap between students and teachers, particularly the one between what the students reported having learned through the co … More urse on the one hand and what the teacher thought he had taught.The same set of information was used as a checklist for examining if the skills needed for teaching practicum were covered in the course. In-depth analyses of the questionnaire responses indicated that there was a gap between what they felt needed in the teaching in classrooms and what had been taught in the course.The above results show that greater efforts need to be made to render the content of the undergraduate course serviceable for the teachers, both pre-service and in-service. In order to do find a clue to that end end, an attempt was made to consult experts in the field at international conferences and individual consultations. Part of the outcomes are reported, which show that teacher training courses in Japan need to provide with the would-be teachers the type of knowledge which are practical but based on robust theory. The whole data sets and information are yet to be analyzed and interpreted, the results of which will be published in due time. Less