Challenges and prospects of EFL Teacher Education in Slovakia

Slovakia, ID Výzvy2016-555;  

EFL teacher training of the new millennium faces a great deal of challenges which have been generated by changes in the society in general. The huge impact that technological development has had on every aspect of our lives has been transferred into the educational context. This represents new requirements on the teacher performance since the skills that teachers were expected to demonstrate years ago are no longer sufficient. This paper looks at how the EFL teacher training in one given institution has changed over the past 25 years and highlights the most pending tasks which need to be looked at and dealt with. It is based on the feedback of graduates of the English language teaching programme. The aim of this research was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the programme and to indicate the necessary interventions and changes in the pre-gradual teacher preparation. Multiple quantitative instruments were used to collect the data including the content analysis of EPOSTL – student portfolios. The results revealed the areas where trainees succeeded or struggled most during the first teaching encounters and these stand as indicators for prospective changes in the future training orientation.