Uncovering teachers’ perceptions and beliefs on a certain topic, in this case communicative competence, always adds more depth to a research study. However, due to the qualitative nature of interviews, it is essential to describe the findings in rich and contextualized detail so as to help the reader to identify with the research project (Dörnyei, 2007).
6.1.1 Teacher participants
The participants of the interview study were selected with the intention of having a sample with maximum variation concerning age, setting and professional background.
Criteria for selection were being a non-native speaker teacher, having a minimum of ten years of teaching experience and teaching at a state-run secondary school at the time of the interviews. Although it was essential for the participants to have a considerable amount of experience which enabled them to formulate ideas about their teaching practices, the inclusion of participants was greatly restricted. This criterion together with the fact that four of the five female participants spent two to six years on maternity leave resulted in the majority of the samples belonging to the 40-49 age group.
An overview of the teacher participants’ biographical data is offered in Table 7.
To ensure anonymity, respondents have been given assumed names and will be cited in the presentation of the results using the aliases.
Table 7 Summary of teacher participants’ biographical data
Anna Emma Eszter Hanna Márk Nóra
Age 44 45 49 34 43 42
Teaching experience (years)
18 22 18 14 16 12
Degree(s) ELTE Teacher Training College, ELTE MA
ELTE MA University of Cluj-Napoca
ELTE CETT, ELTE MA
ELTE MA University of
Veszprém
Type of school secondary school with good reputation
secondary school with excellent reputation
secondary school with excellent reputation
secondary school with good reputation
secondary university practice school with excellent reputation
vocational secondary school
Time spent in the TL community
2-week student exchanges in the UK
6-month teacher exchange in the US
2-week student exchange in the UK
1 academic year in the US and several short visits to the UK
8 academic terms of university courses (MA/PhD) in the US
2-week student exchanges in the UK
Anna was 44 at the time of the interviews and she had been working as an English teacher and mentor at a secondary school of good reputation in downtown Budapest, her first workplace, for 22 years, with a gap of four years’ maternity leave.
She received her English teaching degree from the former Teacher Training College at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. At some point during her teaching career she obtained a master’s degree in English Philology and also completed a mentor training course. She frequently takes part in in-service training sessions, either as a participant or offering a workshop or a demonstration lesson. On two occasions she
spent two weeks in England as an organizer of student exchange programs, but otherwise had not travelled widely.
Emma, the participant with the most experience, was 45 and she had been working as an English teacher and head of the English department at one of the most prestigious secondary schools in the centre of Budapest, where she had started teaching right after obtaining her MA degree from ELTE University. At the time of the interviews she had been teaching English for 24 years, out of which she had been on maternity leave for two years. Emma had travelled extensively throughout the UK and Western Europe, and she had participated in a six-month teacher exchange program in the US.
Eszter was 49 and she was Emma’s colleague at the prominent secondary school in central Budapest. At the time of the interviews she had been teaching for eighteen years, excluding two times three years of maternity leave. She graduated from the University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and moved to Hungary upon graduation. She had worked in three different secondary schools in Budapest and in a small country town before settling down at her current workplace. In the past she used to participate in summer workshops organized by major ELT publishers in Budapest, though she admitted that the workshops had become increasingly commercialized, therefore, she ceased attending them.
Hanna, the youngest participant, was 34 at the time of the interviews. She obtained a teaching degree from the Centre of English Teacher Training at ELTE University and started teaching at the age of twenty. She was Anna’s colleague and she had been working as an English teacher for fourteen years at the same school. During her teaching career she obtained her master’s degree and completed a mentor training
years she spent an academic year studying in the US, where she was staying with a host family. She had taken part in the organization of several student exchange programs to the UK and international summer camps to various countries in Europe (Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Austria), where English was the working language.
Márk, the only male respondent, was 43 and had been teaching English for sixteen years at several primary and secondary schools in Budapest. At the time of the interviews he had been working at one of the teacher training schools of ELTE University, though he had had no qualification as a mentor. Upon graduation he had moved to the US where he pursued postgraduate studies in English and Mathematics, his other major, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He had also attended two-week in-service training courses several times at various parts of the UK, and had travelled extensively in Northern Europe.
Nóra was 42 and she had had twelve years of teaching experience, excluding five years of maternity leave. She had graduated from the University of Veszprém and immediately started working at her current workplace, a vocational secondary school in downtown Budapest. She once organized and took part in a student exchange program in the South of England, but otherwise had not travelled extensively.
6.1.2 Schools
Anna and Hanna were teaching at a secondary school of good repute in the centre of Budapest when the interview study was conducted. Although it was not an official practice school of a university, several members of the staff had completed mentor training courses in different subject areas, and trainee teachers regularly came to do their teaching practices there. The school curriculum placed greater emphasis on the
humanities, including languages, and offered classes with a higher number of language lessons per week, at least in the first foreign language.
Emma and Eszter were working at one of the most prestigious secondary schools in downtown Budapest. The excellent reputation of the school was demonstrated by the fact that in the previous academic year four times as many students applied for admission as the school was able to accept. Students attending the school came from different parts of Budapest and from the outskirts of the city. The school gave prominence to the science subjects; languages and language teaching were not given special attention.
At the time of the interviews, Márk was working at an outstanding university teacher training school in the centre of the city. Being a university practice school, it was a requirement from the teachers to complete mentor training courses and receive trainee teachers every semester. Neither the humanities nor the science subjects were given preference, however, foreign languages were taught in a higher number of lessons per week than the obligatory.
Nóra was teaching at a vocational school specializing in catering in an outer district of Budapest. Students came from a variety of backgrounds but usually did not show special interest in learning foreign languages. The teaching of foreign languages was not given special emphasis in the school curriculum.