Teacher Training and Its Impact on Novice Teachers’ Performance in the EFL Classroom

The main purpose of the present study is to look into the teacher training offered by a private language centre in Sidi Yahia (Algiers, Algeria) to novice teachers and to explore whether these teachers later on make use of and reflect on the teaching skills taught throughout the course of their training. Consequently, a case study of five novice teachers of English has been conducted during a period of two months. In an attempt to answer the three research questions posed by this investigation, three data collection tools have been utilized: document analysis, lesson observations (three for every participant) and one questionnaire for teachers. The collected data have been analyzed both quantitatively (closed-ended items) and qualitatively (open-ended items). The main results have shown that the language center training for teachers is rather conservative and focuses exclusively on the use of the direct method and the PPP approach. The study has also revealed that 80% of the teachers do not completely agree with the idea of using one method for all learners and have highlighted the importance of eclectic teaching. Therefore, they do not always stick to the approach that they have been introduced to during the course of their training and their classroom teaching performance progress is quite unstable. Although the school usually follows up on their progress and encourages them to reflect on their own teaching to improve, these novice teachers still feel trapped and unable to innovate within their classrooms.