شبكة المعلومات العربية التربوية

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of English foreign language instructors who worked at the English Institute in Saudi Arabia. The study explored how EFL instructors transferred their own language learning experiences to their teaching and how this transfer influenced their instructional practices. Finally, the study examined the teaching methods and strategies that participants used when teaching English in a Saudi educational context. The study employed a community of practice (CoP) framework (Lave & Wenger, 1991) to understand EFL instructors' teaching practices in the traditional context of Saudi Arabian classrooms. Using CoP in the field of TESOL field is essential to understand EFL/ESL teachers' practices, experiences, and their engagement and socialization (Kim & Duff, 2012). A qualitative case study methodology was utilized to deeply understand EFL instructors' perceptions, practices, and the application of knowledge and methods in participants' classrooms. Three novice female instructors whose educational background was in Linguistics, TESOL, and English Literature agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected from lesson plans, observational notes, semi-structured interviews, and a final focus group session. These multiple data sources highlighted participants' perceptions, teaching styles, educational perspectives, and teaching identities.Research findings addressed the gap between the participants' perceptions and their teaching practices. All participants agreed that learning English was not only focusing on teaching English form and meaning, but also emphasizing the meaning of the context to help students broaden their understanding of English concepts. However, the English Institute still structured participants' teaching by specifying that particular classes teach each proficiency skill in isolation. To summarize, the English Institute offered novice instructors the freedom to use varied approaches for teaching EFL. Yet in their own classroom, these novice instructors continued to struggle with their beliefs while teaching within their instructional contexts. All believed that English instructors should focus on teaching communicative skills and grammatical structures, and all tried to challenge themselves by shifting from traditional to modern instructional methods including the use of other approaches, communicative methods, and methodology. (As Provided)