Teachers Perceptions of their Knowledge and Skills in General and Specific Purposes English Courses at Distance and Regular Universities

Abstract

Abstract:The purpose of the this survey study was to explore if there were any differences between EGP and ESP teachers in terms of the way they perceived their pedagogical knowledge and teaching skills in teaching English when they were teaching in distance and regular education systems. To this aim, 84 teachers from a regular University and 50 teachers from the distance university were selected to participate in the survey. They were all novice teachers that had been working either in EGP and ESP courses for 1 to 4 years. The survey instrument used in this study was a questionnaire developed by Choy, Lim, Chong, and Wong (2012). It consists of 37 items, each with two Likert rating scales of 5 points which assess the self-perceived pedagogical knowledge and skills of the teachers. To compare the mean scores obtained from EGP and ESP teachers' perceptions of their knowledge and skills in distance and regular systems, MANOVA statistical technique was run on SPSS. The results showed that there was not any significant difference between distance and regular teachers of EGP in terms of their perceptions of their knowledge level and teaching skills. But, distance and regular teachers' perceptions of their pedagogical knowledge level in ESP courses were significantly different. A significant difference was also observed in the perceptions of pedagogical skills level between ESP teachers in two university systems with ESP teachers in the distance university perceiving their knowledge and skills at a higher level than their counterparts in regular education system. The results of this study have some implications for teacher training and professional development programs and pave the way for future studies on teachers' and learners' perceptions.