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Teachers' sense of efficacy and selected characteristics of selected English as a foreign language Venezuelan middle school teachers /

To understand EFL teachers' actions and pedagogical decisions in the classroom, it is necessary to investigate teachers’ beliefs because teachers’ beliefs and perceptions tend to guide their actions and behaviors. According to Bandura’s social cognitive theory, teachers’ beliefs about their instructional efficacy influence the kind of environment they create to orchestrate learning. Thus, teachers with a high sense of teaching efficacy usually believe that difficult students are teachable if the teacher puts in an extra effort. Conversely, teachers with a low sense of efficacy tend to believe that there is little they can do to teach unmotivated students because students’ success often depends on the external environment. This study explored the teacher efficacy beliefs of selected Venezuelan EFL middle school teachers. The purpose of the study was twofold. On the one hand, it sought to investigate the EFL teachers’ self-reported proficiency in English and the extent to which they reported that they felt well prepared to teach English. On the other hand, the study also addressed the need for research on teacher efficacy in the field of foreign/second languages, particularly in EFL contexts. Quantitative as well as qualitative methods were used to answer the research questions in regards to EFL teachers’ self-reported sense o f efficacy, self-reported English language proficiency, and self-reported strategies used to teach EFL and manage student behavior.