Quality in English Language Teaching: Postulating a Prospective Quality Enhancement Model

Subject Areas : Research in English Language Pedagogy

Zahra Kafi ¹ , Khalil Motallebzadeh ² , Hossein Khodabakhshzadeh ³ , Mitra Zeraatpisheh ⁴

1 - Department of English, Torbat-e Heydarieh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e Heydarieh, Iran
2 - Department of English, Torbat-e Heydarieh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e Heydarieh, Iran
3 - Department of English, Torbat-e Heydarieh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e Heydarieh, Iran
4 - Department of English, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran

Received: 2019-11-14 Accepted : 2020-02-01 Published : 2020-09-01

Keywords: Quality, Private English institutions, Prospective, Quality enhancement, CIPP Model,

Abstract :

The literature review left the researchers with an unanswered query about whether teachers' years of teaching experience could act as an index for enhancing the quality of teaching learning output. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to propose a quality enhancement model for the status of private Iranian English institutions. An ex post-factorial design was employed for the study. Thus, 250 male and female EFL teachers filled a previously developed English Language Teaching Quality Indices Survey. The reliability and validity of the survey were checked by Cronbach alpha, 95, EFA and CFA. Then, the researchers calculated the means of ELTQI constructs. The aim was to pinpoint the most prominent components that impact the quality of ELT as "must" to be indices in any educational setting. Besides, the researchers utilized the index with the highest mean as well as the ones which were highly recurrent in the literature and shared relations/predictions with teachers' years of teaching experience. Then, a model was proposed by running CFA, AMOS Software. It included factors like years of teaching experience, 21st century skills, teachers' qualifications and recruitment, teaching activities and methodologies, CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and assessment procedure. The results revealed that all the predictions were supported except for 21st century skills. Also, Teachers’ qualifications and recruitment gained the most importance from the teachers' point of view. As the pedagogical implication, proposing a prospective quality enhancement model can bring about clarity among different stakeholders, teachers, and learners of what is exactly expected of them.

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