A Journey to Professional Teachers: Practical Preparation for Pre-service English Language Education Teaching in Thailand Andaman Coastal Schools

Since an eventual goal of the study was to develop practical preparation for the pre- service of English language teachers to continuing professional teaching, self-efficacy of teachers in different professional development phases, were investigated as well as their promoting factors and hindrances to understand contextual circumstances. The researcher employed a mix-method in collecting data. Two types of questionnaires (α = 0.9428, 0.9137) concerning central tasks of teacher profession development in preparational and professional phases were administered to 125 student-teachers of English and 85 EFL teachers diverse teaching experience. Five pre-service teachers and eleven EFL teachers participated in semi-structured interviews, and relevant written documents were analysed. Both obtained quantitative and qualitative data was compared and contrasted to uncover the participants’ self-rating scales and positive and negative factors affecting their professional development in each professional phase. The study also found that there was mismatched preparation of the English student-teacher programs and their contextual needs. The findings suggested educators and policy makers to align the gaps between the curriculum and contextual practices of problems. The first track must focus on teaching English pronunciation, reading for cognitive processing development, handwriting and writing that develop talks in class, and linguistic structured learning designs. On the other hand, EFL learning management must be highlighted particularly in learners’ factors of individual and cultural backgrounds, interpersonal skills, ways to keep discipline in classes, positive and negative reinforcement, and being a reflective teacher.