A STUDY ON MICROTEACHING AS PERCEIVED BY UTM TESL

UNDERGRADUATES

NIK AZRAINI BT. AH’HYAT

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

PSZ 19:16 (Pind. 1/97) UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS TESIS♦

JUDUL: A STUDY ON MICROTEACHING AS PERCEIVED BY UTM TESL

UNDERGRADUATES

SESI PENGAJIAN: 2007/08

Saya NIK AZRAINI BINTI AH’HYAT mengaku membenarkan tesis (PSM/Sarjana/Doktor Falsafah)* ini disimpan di Perpustakaan Universiti Teknologi Malaysia dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Tesis adalah hakmilik Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. 2. Perpustakaan Universiti Teknologi Malaysia dibenarkan membuat salinan untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja. 3. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan tesis ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi pengajian tinggi. 4. **Sila tandakan (√)

Disahkan oleh

________________________ __________________________

(TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (TANDATANGAN PENYELIA) Alamat Tetap: PUAN WAN ZARINA BT. WAN ZAKARIA 67, SIMPANG 3 HAJI MUSA, 16030, KOTA BHARU, KELANTAN.

Tarikh: APRIL 2008 Tarikh: APRIL 2008

CATATAN: * Potong yang tidak berkenaan.

** Jika tesis ini SULIT atau TERHAD, sila lampirkan surat daripada pihak berkuasa/organisasi berkenaan dengan menyatakan sekali sebab dan

tempoh tesis ini perlu dikelaskan sebagai SULIT atau TERHAD. ♦ Tesis dimaksudkan sebagai tesis bagi Ijazah Doktor Falsafah dan Sarjana secara

penyelidikan, atau disertasi bagi pengajian secara kerja kursus dan penyelidikan, atau Laporan Projek Sarjana Muda (PSM).

SULIT (Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972)

TERHAD (Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan)

TIDAK TERHAD

√

A STUDY ON MICROTEACHING AS PERCEIVED BY UTM TESL

UNDERGRADUATES

NIK AZRAINI BT. AH’HYAT

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the award of the

Bachelor of Technology with Education (TESL).

Faculty of Education

University Teknologi Malaysia

APRIL 2008

DEDICATION

A gift from heart for those who never been tired to be by my side, through thick and

thin, when I need them the most…

To my guardian angel…Tuan Rafuan binti Tuan Mat…

For her endless prayers…you light my way, you keep me strong,

your every tear makes me stronger…

To my father…Ahhyat b. Sulaiman…

You might not say much, but your prayers are always with me to keep me strong…

To my brothers and sisters…Abe, K Intan, Kakak, AF, Man-G, Pooteh…

You guys are the strength to keep me going whenever I feel tired… you guys inspired

me…

To my little warriors…Ayaff, Ayong, Angah, Amsyar

Your laughter and joy tell me to never give up…

To all my beloved friends…Suya, Nas, Alyn, Shila, Yong, Made, Chermz, Reen, Ijad

Thank you for your endless support that keeps me motivate… for always be there

when I need comfort of a family…

And to my special someone…Jamil Tarmizi…

Thank you for keeping me on track… for believing in me and for landing your

hands to guide me whenever I feel lost…

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Allah the merciful for blessing

me with good health and peace of mind which allow me to stay strong in completing this

report.

A special thank you to my dedicated supervisor, Puan Wan Zarina bt. Wan

Zakaria for her patient and commitment in guiding me to complete this report. Without

her assistance, I will be having a real hard time completing my PSM. I really appreciate

all her comments and advices to improve my work.

I also wanted to thank those who have been sticking closely to me to keep me

motivated in completing this report on time- my family and friends. Without your words

of advices, I am not sure if I am able to stay strong through out the storm.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my respondents for their willingness to

answer my questionnaire which serves as the research instrument in this research.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR COOPERATION.

iv

ABSTRACT

Microteaching is a compulsory subject to be taken before a student is allowed to

go for the practical teaching. This indicates the importance of microteaching to prepare

the future teacher trainees to teach in school. However, there are some students who take

the subject for granted. Therefore, this research had been carried out to investigate the

perception of Teaching English as Second Language (TESL) students in UTM regarding

their microteaching course. 78 students from the third year and fourth year were chosen

to become the respondents of this study. These respondents had completed their

microteaching course and had done their teaching practice in the previous semesters.

Each respondent was asked to answer a set of questionnaire consisted of 41 items

regarding the microteaching experience. For ease of reference, the researcher divided the

items in the questionnaire into four different sections which are demographic information

of the respondents, opinion towards microteaching, factors affecting perception towards

microteaching and application of the skills learnt in microteaching during teaching

practice. The findings of the study indicated that the students have high level of

perception towards microteaching.

v

ABSTRAK

Pengajaran mikro merupakan satu subjek yang wajib di ambil oleh setiap pelajar

sebelum mereka di benarkan untuk menjalani latihan mengajar. Ini menunjukkan bahawa

subjek ini merupakan subjek yang penting sebagai menyediakan bakal guru pelatih untuk

menghadapi pelajar-pelajar sewaktu latihan mengajar. Namun begitu, terdapat segelintir

pelajar yang tidak mengambil berat terhadap subek ini. Oleh itu, kajian ini telah

dijalankan untuk melihat tahap persepsi pelajar-pelajar Teaching English as Second

Language (TESL) di UTM terhadap subjek pengajaran mikro yang telah di ambil.

Seramai 78 orang responden daripada tahun tiga dan tahun empat kursus tersebut telah

dipilih sebagai responden kajian. Kesemua responden yang dipilih telah mengambil

subjek pengajaran mikro dan menjalani latihan mengajar. Setiap responden diberi satu set

soal selidik yang mengandungi 41 item untuk melihat tahap persepsi mereka terhadap

subjek pengajaran mikro. Untuk bahagian analisis data, penyelidik telah membahagikan

item-item tesebut kepada empat bahagian iaitu latar belakang responden, pendapat

terhadap subjek pengajaran mikro, faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi persepsi terhadap

subjek pengajaran mikro dan aplikasi kemahiran yang dipelajari dalam subjek pengajaran

mikro semasa latihan mengajar. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa tahap persepsi

pelajar-pelajar TESL terhadap subjek pengajaran mikro berada pada tahap tinggi.

vi

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER CONTENT PAGE

DECLARATION OF THESIS STATUS

SUPERVISOR’S CERTIFICATION

TITLE i

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENT vii

LIST OF TABLES xiii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xvi

LIST OF APPENDIX xvii

viii

I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Background of the study 4

1.3 Statement of the problem 8

1.4 Purpose of the study 10

1.5 Objectives of the study 10

1.6 Research questions 11

1.7 Hypothesis 12

1.8 Significance of the study 12

1.9 Scope of the study 13

1.10 Limitations of the study 14

1.11 Definitions of terminologies and abbreviation

used

14

II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction 16

2.1 Implementation of microteaching 18

2.2 Procedure in microteaching 20

2.3 Attitude towards microteaching 23

2.4 Factors affecting perception and

motivation

25

2.5 Previous research done on

microteaching

27

ix

III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 30

3.2 Research sample 31

3.3 Research design 31

3.4 Research instrument 32

3.4.1 Questionnaire 32

3.4.1.1 Pilot study 33

3.4.1.2 Advantages of

using questionnaire

34

3.5 Research procedure 35

3.6 Data analysis 35

3.6.1 Data analysis for ranking items 36

3.6.2 Data analysis for negative

statement

37

IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction 39

4.2 Background of the respondents 40

4.2.1 Gender 41

4.2.2 Grade for microteaching 42

4.2.3 Grade for practical teaching 43

4.2.4 Number of people in

microteaching class

44

4.2.5 Chances to teach during

microteaching class

45

x

4.3 Opinion regarding microteaching course 45

4.3.1 Interest towards microteaching 46

4.3.2 Benefits gained from

microteaching course

48

4.3.3 The supervisor 50

4.3.4 Students’ perception on the

different types of tasks in

microteaching class.

51

4.3.5 Importance of microteaching. 54

4.3.6 Appropriate chances to teach. 55

4.4 Factors affecting perception and

motivation in microteaching.

56

4.4.1 Audience in microteaching 57

4.4.2 Attitude towards microteaching 60

4.4.3 Feedback received 62

4.4.4 Preparation for microteaching

class

63

4.4.5 Teaching performance during

microteaching

64

4.4.6 The role of supervisor 66

4.5 Application of skills learnt in

microteaching during teaching practice.

67

4.5.1 The use of teaching aids in

microteaching class

68

4.5.2 Skills learnt in microteaching

class

69

4.5.3 Classroom management 71

4.6 T-test to determine whether trainees of 3

SPL and 4 SPL perceived microteaching

differently

73

xi

4.6.1 General opinion on

microteaching

73

4.6.2 Factors affecting motivation and

perception towards

microteaching.

74

4.6.3 Application of the skills and

knowledge learnt in

microteaching.

74

V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction 76

5.2 Discussion of The Findings 77

5.2.1 How do teacher the students

perceived their microteaching

classes?

77

5.2.2 Do third year and fourth year students

have the same perception towards

microteaching?

78

5.2.3 Are there any significant factors

affect their perception towards

microteaching class?

79

5.2.4 Are the skills and knowledge

learnt in microteaching applied

during their practical teaching?

80

5.3 Conclusion of The Findings 81

5.4 Recommendations 83

xii

5.4.1 Recommendations to improve

microteaching

83

5.4.1.1 Allocate more than one

credit hour for the

subject.

83

5.4.1.2 Provide guidelines to

write feedbacks

84

5.4.1.3 Make use of

videotaping

85

5.4.2 Recommendations for future research 85

REFERENCES 87

APPENDIX A 94

xiii

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

3.1 Four Sections in the Questionnaire 29

3.2 Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Table 30

3.3 Mean Value Used To Measure the Level 32

of Perception

3.4 Division of Items in the Questionnaire 32

According To Research Questions.

3.5 Value given to analyze ranking item 33

3.6 Value given to analyze negative statement 34

4.1 Gender of the respondents 36

4.2 Grade obtained for microteaching 37

4.3 Grade obtained for practical teaching. 38

4.4 Number of people in microteaching class. 39

4.5 Chances to teach in microteaching class. 40

4.6 (a) Attitude towards microteaching among students of 3 SPL 41

4.6 (b) Attitude towards microteaching among trainees of 4 SPL 42

4.7 (a) Benefits gained from microteaching course as perceived 43

by 3 SPL students.

4.7 (b) Benefits gained from microteaching course as perceived 44

by students of 4 SPL.

4.8 (a) Opinion on microteaching supervision among 45

trainees of 3 SPL.

4.8 (b) Opinion on microteaching supervision among 45

trainees of 4 SPL.

xiv

4.9 (a) Frequency and percentage on how students of 3 SPL 46

perceived the task given in microteaching course.

4.9(b) Frequency and percentage on how students of 4 SPL 48

perceived the task given in microteaching course.

4.10 Importance of microteaching as perceived by students of 49

3 SPL and 4 SPL (item 16)

4.11 Appropriate number to teach during microteaching class 50

(item 17).

4.12 (a) 3 SPL students’ perception towards audience in 52

microteaching.

4.12 (b) 4 SPL students’ perception towards audience in 53

microteaching.

4.13 (a) Attitude towards microteching among students of 3 SPL 54

4.13 (b) Attitude towards microteching among trainees of 4 SPL 55

4.14 (a) Perception towards feedback received among students of 56

3 SPL .

4.14 (b) Perception towards feedback received among students of 57

4 SPL

4.15 (a) Preparation for microteaching class among trainees of 57

3 SPL

4.15 (b) Preparation for microteaching class among trainees of 58

4 SPL

4.16 (a) Teaching performance during microteaching among 59

students of 3 SPL

4.16 (b) Teaching performances during microteaching among 59

students of 4 SPL

4.17 (a) The role of supervisor as perceived by students of 3 SPL 60

4.17 (b) The role of supervisor as perceived by students of 4 SPL 60

4.18 (a) The use of teaching aids among students of 3 SPL 62

4.18 (b) The use of teaching aids among students of 4 SPL 62

4.19 (a) The skills learnt in microteaching among students of 3SPL 63

xv

4.19 (b) The skills learnt in microteaching among students of 4SPL 64

4.20 (a) Classroom management skills learnt in microteaching 65

among students of 3 SPL

4.20 (b) Classroom management skills learnt in microteaching 65

among students of 4 SPL

4.21 Opinion regarding microteaching 67

4.22: Factors affecting motivation and perception 67

4.23 Degree of application 68

xvi

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

3 SPL - Third year TESL program

4 SPL - Fourth year TESL program

A - Agree

D - Disagree

ELT - English Language Teaching

PMR - Peperiksaan Menengah Rendah

SA - Somewhat Agree

SPL - Course code for TESL program in UTM.

SPM - Sijil Peperiksaan Malaysia

SPSS - Statistical Package for Social Science

TA - Totally Agree

TD - Totally Disagree

TESL - Teaching English as Second Language

UTM - Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

xvii

LIST OF APPENDIX

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE A QUESTIONNAIRE 84

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Like any other profession in this world, teaching requires teachers to be well

prepared and armed with good classroom management skills and communication

skill. These skills will be useful to be used in classroom to enable them to handle the

students and the classroom better. Teachers who are not able to handle the students

effectively will find it difficult to deliver a meaningful lesson. According to

Underwood (1987), “a teacher needs to be able to organize and control the pupil’s

behavior and interaction during a lesson”. This requires certain managerial skills

especially on how to conduct the class and setting a rule of discipline that the

students agree to comply with. Therefore, it is essential for teachers to talk the

students into obeying the classroom’s rules so that everybody will be able to learn

better.

2

Nowadays, in the era of science and technology, teaching and education has

taken a different form if compared to the traditional form. Traditional forms of

education for example in language education have gone through several major

changes especially in terms of teaching methods. Language teachers used to give

serious attention to reading comprehension. However, changes in language teaching

methods throughout history have reflected recognition of changes in the kind of

proficiency rather than reading comprehension as the goal of language study

(Richards & Rogers, 1988). The changes are parallel with students’ growing needs

to be more competitive and reading comprehension alone is not enough to make

them able to compete with other students.

Apart from changes in the teaching method, significant social changes in

recent years also have caused teaching profession to undergo transformation from

its original form. “Many teachers find that the traditional forms of motivation such

as urging the students to work hard at school so that they will obtain a good job, no

longer have the appeal they once enjoyed” (Wragg, 1984). Students need more than

just a plain excuse to motivate them in their learning. It is the teachers’

responsibility to ensure that their students are provided with every opportunity to

learn and achieve their goal, be it in education or in life.

It is important for teachers to make the students feel comfortable and

motivated to be in school and at the same time get them to involve actively in

school’s activities. According to Wragg (1984), “teachers need considerable skill to

select topics, activities and ways of working from the vast array of possibilities”. It

is important for teachers to learn how to make their teaching and information

3

delivery meaningful and interesting to capture the students’ attention. In other

words, it is the teacher’s responsibility to engage the students in their learning.

Capturing and engaging students in learning are not the only responsibilities

that have to be carried out by teachers. In fact, teachers are also responsible to

ensure that the students are able to cope with their environment so that they will be

able to learn more whether in class or outside their classroom. To be able to carry

out these challenging tasks, teachers need to be mentally well prepared. That is the

purpose of having teacher training courses. These courses are meant to help those

who are interested to become teachers to prepare themselves in facing their students

and teaching environment as a whole. Microteaching course is created to expose

teacher trainees to classroom environment. From microteaching course, the trainees

will be able to improve on their teaching techniques.

Microteaching is always associated with a very small number of “students”.

This is to allow teacher trainees to practice their teaching skills under observation of

a supervisor. As suggested by McGarvey & Swallow (1986), the main aim of

supervision is to help the students for “self-discovery” by encouraging the

development of the skills of perception and interpretation of significant events

encounters. Trainees who do not have any teaching experience need feedbacks on

their teaching performance. These feedbacks will be great points of departure for

teacher trainees to improve on their teaching skills so that they will be able to

deliver meaningful lessons in the future. This will allow them to manipulate proper

teaching skills so that they will be able to use them in their teaching, be it during

their teaching practice or the real teaching world.

4

1.2 Background of the study

Teaching is a challenging profession which requires a person to be well

prepared and patient. Once a person has decided to choose teaching as his or her

profession, he or she needs to be committed and willing to work hard. A teacher’s

responsibility does not end with the school hours. Sometimes the teacher needs to

run extra classes after the school hours or even at night especially for classes which

are sitting for their major exams for example Peperiksaan Menengah Rendah (PMR)

and Sijil Peperiksaan Malaysia (SPM).

If a person is not mentally prepared to carry this responsibility on his or her

shoulder, the person will not be able to be a good teacher. As stated by Wragg

(1984), “a good teacher is keen and enthusiastic, well organized, firm but fair,

stimulating, know their stuff and are interested in the welfare of the students”. These

are the characteristics of a perfect teacher and normally these perfect teachers are

those with vast experiences. It is true that perfection comes with experience.

However, to be able to gain the experience, teacher trainees need to be exposed to

sufficient knowledge and practice. Microteaching is one of the best ways to put a

person’s knowledge and theories he or she has learnt in class into practice. Jerich

(1986) contends that microteaching is one of the many important approaches to

introduce and to improve teaching skills through participation and observation. It is

important for teacher trainees to be in microteaching class to prepare them for their

practical teaching and later on when they become a teacher.

5

Realizing the importance of providing at least basic classroom knowledge to

its students, the Faculty of Education of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) have

made it compulsory for all second year students to undergo one semester of

microteaching course before they are allowed to do their practical teaching in third

year. This is to help them prepare themselves to face their students in school later

on. This microteaching course is only one credit subject whereby the class is held

once a week for one hour. For undergraduates undertaking Teaching English as

Second Language (TESL) in UTM, they have been exposed to several subjects

which are related to teaching language specifically. The subjects are Methodology I

(SHL 2162), Methodology II (SHL 2183), and Language Learning Theories (SHL

2173). These subjects are taught before these TESL undergraduates go off for their

practical teaching.

The main purpose of introducing Methodology I to these undergraduates is

to encourage them to examine how theories and beliefs of language teaching and

learning are put into practice (Buku Panduan Akademik Ijazah Sarjana Muda sesi

2003/04). In this particular course, students are introduced to major trends and

development in teaching and learning second language. By exposing the students to

the theories and trends in teaching and learning, they will be able to make good use

of this knowledge when they enter the teaching profession.

Methodology II, as the name suggested is a follow-up course to

Methodology I. The aim of this course is to further develop students’ understanding

of the principles and practices of ELT. The emphasis is on the principles of

Communicative Language Teaching and the teaching of the four skills which are

reading, writing, listening and speaking (Buku Panduan Akademik Ijazah Sarjana

6

Muda sesi 2003/04). Apart from that, students are also given practice on writing

lesson plan as to prepare them for their teaching practice the following semester.

During the course, students are required to conduct a lesson by applying any of the

theories they have learnt earlier. The lesson is conducted in group of four or five.

Group members will be taking turns continuously to teach the class for about five

minutes each.

Another course which is quite similar to the two discussed earlier is

Language Learning Theories. This course introduced students to the difference

between first and second language acquisition, the role of first language, age and

motivation in second language learning, Behaviorist, Innatist and Interactionist

views of language learning, group work and Interaction Analysis (Buku Panduan

Akademik Ijazah Sarjana Muda sesi 2003/04). All these are considered as essential

elements in teaching and learning second language. By exposing the students to the

factors affecting second language learners’ motivation in learning second language,

the students will be more sensitive towards the needs of their future students.

All the courses stated above only expose the students to the theoretical

aspects of teaching. However, to be able to prepare the teacher trainees for their

practical teaching, they need both theory and practical aspects of teaching and

learning a second language to enable them to teach effectively. Therefore,

microteaching course is the most suitable platform for them to put all the theories

they have learnt earlier into practice. Teacher trainees will be able to apply those

theories according to the level of their students.

7

Unfortunately, some students misunderstood the underlying principles of

microteaching. These students regard microteaching as the course which will expose

them to the real teaching experience. They expect to be given tasks which will get

them to experience the real classroom situation. As stated by Franklin and Carol

(1981), they do not understand that the purpose of enrolling them into

microteaching course is to allow them to practice a particular teaching skill for

example presenting clear instructions, asking probing questions and using wait-time

appropriately.

This kind of misconception will leave these students feeling down and

unmotivated when they enter the microteaching class. This is because, in the

microteaching class, they only get the chance to teach a small number of “students”

while in the real classroom, the number of the students will be double or triple. This

vast difference in terms of the number of audiences makes them feel that the

microteaching is not that important for them.

As microteaching is a one credit subject, it is even harder for some students

to give their full commitment and effort on this course since it is taught together

with seven or eight other subjects in the same semester which carry more credit

hours and grades. This attitude will somehow have an effect on how they perceive

this subject which eventually hinders them from contributing and participating

actively in the class. When one of the members in the microteaching class is not

willing to give his or her co-operation in giving feedback or comments to others, the

objectives of carrying out the microteaching will not be achieved. This is because

the main aim of microteaching is to have feedback from peers and supervisor at the

end of the session. It is important for all teacher trainees-to-be to see the relevance

8

and importance of microteaching especially when they are about to go out to school

as teacher trainees. They need some experience on teaching to help them handle the

students and the classroom.

Thus, this study is carried out to examine the importance of microteaching as

perceived by teacher trainees especially in preparing them for their practical

teaching. It is true that in TESL program, there are several subjects that are meant to

expose students to teaching experience for example Methodology I and

Methodology II. However, these subjects adopted team teaching method due to time

constraint. So, the students are not really being exposed to preparing lesson plan and

teaching aids on their own. In terms of teaching too, they are not well exposed to

teach and to handle the “students” on their own since the teaching session is divided

into several parts and each group members have to take part and teach.

1.3 Statement of problems

Unlike other students majoring in other courses for example mathematics,

science or physics, TESL undergraduates have more advantages since their

microteaching class consists of 7-8 students only. This means, the supervisor will be

able to pay more attention to each teacher trainee especially the ones who are doing

his or her teaching in that meeting. The supervisor will be able to provide detailed

feedback and give consultation to each trainee under his or her supervision to make

these trainees aware of their teaching performance.

9

However, there is one disadvantage of having a small number of students in

a class which is one person’s attitude will easily affect other classmates. This is

because there are only seven or eight persons in the class. If one student does not

turn up for the class or does not care to participate by being the “students”, the

teaching-learning process will be rather difficult. Every person in the classroom is

needed to enable teacher trainee to practice their skills and teaching techniques

during the class. Furthermore, a person’s concern and sensitivity is needed for the

peers’ feedback. If he or she does not bother to contribute his or her idea and

generous opinion on their friends’ teaching, the peer will not be able to see the

strength and weaknesses of his or her teaching.

Another common problem among TESL students undertaking microteaching

subject is the lack of effort and responsibility towards the subject. Many of the

students are not really prepared for their teaching. When they are doing their

teaching, they will usually do it for the sake of completing it. They do not show

much effort and initiative to make their teaching lively and interesting. This is such

a waste since they are supposed to manipulate this microteaching session to gain as

much knowledge as possible for their practical teaching. One of the possible reasons

for this scenario would be the credit allocated for this subject. As mentioned before,

microteaching is only one credit subject. Therefore, some trainees might regard this

subject as less important if compared to other subjects. Furthermore, some students

do not really see the significance of microteaching classes for their teaching practice

since they could not really see the link between these two subjects. This will

somehow leave them feel unmotivated to give full commitment towards

microteaching.

10

1.4 Purpose of the study

Microteaching serves as a platform to allow the students to practice their

teaching skills and improve confidence under the supervision of a lecturer. Besides,

the feedbacks that they receive from the lecturer and friends are considered valuable

and should be taken seriously by the teacher trainees. Thus, it is important that every

student who is attending the microteaching course is given the awareness on the

importance of the class so that they will be able to put more effort towards the

course and build better perception of microteaching course.

The purpose of this study is to find out what the teacher trainees really think

about microteaching and how their opinion affect their perception and view towards

microteaching. In short, this study is carried out to identify students’ perception

towards microteaching (SPA 2001) course that they had taken in the previous

semester.

1.5 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study are as follows:

(1) To gather the teacher trainees opinion towards their microteaching class.

11

(2) To determine whether there are any differences between the third year and

fourth year TESL students on how they perceived microteaching.

(3) To identify factors affecting their motivation and perception towards

microteaching subjects.

(4) To determine whether the skills and knowledge learnt in microteaching class

are applied during their practical teaching.

1.6 Research questions

Some of the research questions that are relevant with this study are:

(1) How do teacher trainees perceive their microteaching classes?

(2) Do third year and fourth year students perceived microteaching differently?

(3) Are there any significant factors that affect their perception towards

microteaching class?

(4) Are the skills and knowledge learnt in microteaching applied during their

practical teaching?