Attitudes of the Student Teachers in English Language Teaching Programs towards Microteaching Technique

This paper evaluates the attitudes of student teachers towards microteaching experiences. The research was conducted with a total of 57 fourth year students attending the ELT Department at Trakya University, in Turkey. The data were collected via a Likert type scale developed by the researcher. The research results were evaluated regarding the benefits and disadvantages of microteaching. The findings revealed that the ELT students at Trakya University in general held positive attitudes towards microteaching applications with regard to its effectiveness for professional development, self-assessment, self-confidence, material production, and teaching experiences in various courses in which students are of different ages and linguistic levels.


Microteaching and Microteaching Activities
Microteaching as a professional development tool in teacher training programs provides student teachers with opportunities to explore and reflect on their own and others' teaching styles and to acquire new teaching techniques and strategies.Microteaching was developed in the early and mid 1960's by Dwight Allen and his colleagues at the Stanford Teacher Education Program (Cruickshank et al., 1996).Nowadays, in many teacher education programs, microteaching is used to expand the scope of student teachers while mastering various teaching skills and teaching experiences; alternatively, it orients them to gain teaching experiences for natural classroom environments (Amobi, 2005).Two associated components are generally taken into consideration in the implementation of microteaching activities: videotaped micro lessons and feedback with individual watching of the videotaped teaching for the evaluation of teaching performance is a common practice aimed at encouraging the development of self-analysis and reflective practice; the other component in microteaching activities is the requirement of feedback (Miller andBrennan, 1983, Vare, 1994;Metcalf, et al. 1996;Brent, Wheatley andThomson. 1996, Kponja, 2001).Following the assessment of videotaped practice and feedback, student teachers are encouraged for teaching profession.
A micro lesson may create an occasion to view a sample picture of what/how/where/whom you teach and offer opportunities for getting feedback on teaching styles, material evaluation, teaching performance, repertoire improvement, etc. in a constructive manner which is constructed with direct tutor observation of teaching.Moreover, microteaching gives the opportunity of teaching in an instructional setting in which time is limited.Such a limitation directs student teachers to prepare and implement their course subjects in a well organized and fluent way in limited time (Çakır, 2000).
Several studies have revealed that microteaching comprises practical experiences for meeting the desired objectives of training teachers to become effective and reflective in teaching profession (Çakır, 2000;Benton-Kupper, 2001;Amobi, 2005;Eick and et al., 2005;Akalın, 2005) In this sense, microteaching activities enhance student teachers to gain professional experiences such as efficiency on preparing and applying lesson plans by taking target students' capabilities, learning capacities, needs, and expectations.In consequence of such experiences, they become more conscious about their future occupations and can be able to implement teaching issues successfully in real school environments.Some studies have concluded that microteaching activities help student teachers overwhelm their anxiety levels, defeat hesitation and fear, increase professional commitment, raise consciousness about teaching profession, become efficient in all topics related to teaching proficiency, learn how to interact with students, become experienced in testing and evaluating, become professional for taking student's attention to lesson, consume time professionally, utilize educational technologies, and control classroom management (Arends, 2000;Karamustafao lu and Akdeniz, 2002).
The efficiency of microteaching on gaining professional consciousness is generally agreed; additionally, microteaching helps student teachers analyse their present teaching performance in order to discover their strengths and weaknesses by engaging in reflective practice.Reflective practice in teaching implies a tendency to revisit the sequence of one's teaching for the purpose of making thoughtful judgments and decisions about improved ways of acting in the future, or in the midst of the action itself (Kottcamp, 1990).Due to the reflection by teacher educators while student teachers are teaching, reflective habits of mind can be extended (Valli, 1997); in this sense, the quality of reflection is directly related to guiding student teachers to use all aspects in their teaching experiences.Further, microteaching technique is a reflective learning process shaping student teachers' professional growth.Therefore, microteaching activities need to be considered as positive experiences which improve the development of professional awareness.
In this pattern of paying close attention to all aspects of teaching action, a microteaching cycle comprises teach, review and reflect, re-teach (Arends, 2000).First of all, a microteaching lesson is initiated by teaching stage in which student teachers teach a lesson.While teaching, they are observed by their classmates and educator; then, the lesson is discussed for evaluating student teachers' performance; after that, in re-teaching stage, student teachers re-teach the lesson with regard to the proposed points in the discussion and evaluation stage.
Preparing lesson plans, as part of microteaching activities, in conformity with the syntax of the lesson cycle is the initial stage of microteaching.Preparing lesson plans are influential for gaining teaching experiences and making decisions on teaching points, and great differences can be observed between the lesson plans prepared and applied by less experienced teachers and experienced teachers (Richards, 1998).Because less experienced teachers may tend to follow their plans and seem devoted to teaching depending on it during teaching process, while experienced ones may tend to divert from their lesson plans at some points for making decisions or adding activities to provide more practice when necessary.In this sense, teaching practice through microteaching can be assumed as a boosting activity for any interactive decision to be made during teaching.Thus, student teachers may gain experiences to make quick decisions in their lesson plans.Although organization of any course is usually planned before teaching and the activities are arranged regarding the course duration and the needs of target group, making changes in the prepared lesson plan may be required in some cases.Therefore, the sub-divisions of a lesson plan into which activities are included are ongoing processes and can be modified by teachers when any problem is encountered (Woods, 2000).Hence, the success of a micro lesson is directly related to lesson planning with comprehensible objectives in a planned sequence.Initiating the lesson by gaining the attention of students at the beginning of the presentation, presenting the planned lesson by explaining and giving examples, using gestures and body language during the presentation, focusing on the core of the planned lesson, using teaching and audio-visual aids properly, highlighting ambiguity and encouraging student participation, asking and responding questions, and concluding the teaching session by self-evaluation of student teachers and their classmates are all the subsequent stages of a micro lesson.In this context, depending on the implementation of microteaching activities, a number of studies reveal that microteaching is an effective means of improving student teachers' teaching skills depending on the prepare lesson plans (Yeany, 1978, Arends, 2000;Demirel, 2004) and a tool of continuous training applicable at all stages of the teaching profession.
Although microteaching has long been used as a professional development tool in teacher training programs, student teachers are sometimes reluctant to involve in microteaching activities due to non-natural classroom environments, material production procedures, time limited course schedules, etc., so this unenthusiastic attitude reduces the efficiency of microteaching (Stanley, 1998).In addition, lack of satisfactory awareness of the use of microteaching has led to criticisms that microteaching produces homogenized standard student teachers with model procedures and stands for a form of teaching play in unnatural surroundings, that is, the artificiality of classroom environments; in addition, the cost and maintenance of equipment regarding reduced budgets of student teachers, the amount of time for preparing materials, the difficulty of material production may also cause unwillingness (Cripwell and Geddes, 1982).The general emphasis on practice with regard to microteaching disappears during student teaching, although students still stress the importance of preparation in general.They attribute this change to the students' perceptions of a lack of time for complete preparation (Lederman and Gess-Newsome, 1991).Consequently, limited time for preparation and wastefulness of microteaching may create obstacles in teaching processes of student teachers and lead them to develop reluctant attitudes in teaching experiences.Despite these criticisms, in-depth awareness of microteaching, the motivation of the student teacher to improve himself/herself and the ability of the observer to offer comprehensive feedback may bring into remarkable improvements in teaching skills.Therefore, this article deals with how efficient microteaching as a teaching tool in teacher education is and examines the student teachers' enthusiastic and reluctant attitudes towards microteaching activities.

Sampling
The undergraduate fourth year students attending the English Language Teaching Department at Trakya University, in Turkey, were the participants in the survey.57 student teachers participated in the survey.Participation was on a voluntary basis.The reason for conducting the research on the fourth year students was that they employed microteaching applications many times in the courses in their undergraduate studies in Turkey.
Training of teachers working in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools is proposed at the faculties of education in universities in Turkey.A standard curriculum offered by the Council of Higher Education (YOK) has been followed for educating those teachers.The Council of Higher Education has re-structured the faculties of education since 1998.The recent curriculum, which has been employed since 2006-2007 academic year, offers many courses in which student teachers can get the opportunity of employing microteaching activities.The overall aim is to prompt both teaching and learning outcomes expected from teachers of English.In this context, the issues of teaching such as preparing lesson plans, implementing it in classes, assessing and evaluating the processes of learning and teaching are sought out.Therefore, in the curriculum, the faculties of education are anticipated to have common standards as the requirement of teaching process, and the courses have been adjusted to these purposes.
The curriculum is based on the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEF) which provides a common basis for language programmes and a comprehensive way to describe language teaching and learning processes (Council of Europe, 2002).Within the framework of CEF, the trainees are expected autonomous learners and teachers who widen the scopes of both personal and professional development.The reorientation of the curriculum has been planned within the framework of European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) and designed by taking the prerequisites of teacher training programmes and faculties of education (YOK, 2008).EPOSTL which is a means of fostering professional growth is a document by which educational knowledge and skills for teaching languages are assessed, monitored, recorded and reflected.In these processes, feedback is provided for students' performances.Since EPOSTL is a means of promoting professional growth through reflection and dialogue, it enhances autonomous learning.
The English language teacher training bachelor's degree programme, a division of teacher training at the faculties of education, takes four years and consists of basic courses and electives.The courses namely are ELT Methodology I, ELT Methodology II, Drama, Classroom Management, Teaching English to Young Learners, Teaching English to Young Learners I, Teaching Language Skills I, Turkish-English Translation, Literature and Language Teaching I (short story and novel), Teaching Language Skills II, Literature and Language Teaching II (poetry and drama), Language Teaching Materials Adaptation and Development, School Experience, Guidance, Special Education, Teaching Technologies and Material Evaluation, English Language Testing and Evaluation, Teaching Practice, Special Education Methods I, Special Education Methods II.
The general courses in the curriculum are provided for professional and practical training.Successful completion of the programme is a prerequisite for any kind of appointment on probation or permanent at the secondary education level.The courses focus on both theoretical and practical principles.In those courses student teachers are directed and tutored for the principles of education.For gaining effective teaching practices, they are required to involve in microteaching activities, presentations, and school practices.

Research questions
The present study investigated answers to the following questions: -What are student teachers' perceptions about microteaching activities in English teacher training departments of universities?-What advantages and disadvantages do microteaching activities impose?
Answers to those questions were thought to be helpful for teacher educators and student teachers in teacher training departments.

Research instruments
The purpose of the survey is to investigate the attitudes of student teachers towards microteaching applications.Data was generated via a Likert-type scale which was developed by the researcher.22 items with 5 options -strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly disagree-were included into the scale.Following the reliability analysis, 2 items were excluded from the scale and 20 items were evaluated in the scale.Some items used in the scale were worded in a positive manner and some items were reversed in meaning from the overall direction of the positive ones.The individual responses in positive items were assigned numbers 5-1 from strongly agree through strongly disagree.The reversal ones were assigned numbers 1-5 from strongly agree through strongly disagree.The results of the scale are presented in three sections in the study.

Findings
The statistical program SPSS 11.0 was used for analysis of the data.Investigation of the reliability and validity of the scale was purposed and the Crobach's Alpha reliability coefficient of the Likert-type scale was calculated as .79(see Appendix I).The relations among the factors were analysed via factor analysis.The internal consistency of the total scale was found out to be between .35 and .73.Furthermore, the percentile values of the responses given to the items in the scale were calculated (Table 1, Table 2, Table 3).
The percentile values of the responses for 20 items were evaluated in three sections in the study.Of the positively worded items, 9 items are displayed in Table 1; and 5 positively worded items examining the students' attitudes towards microteaching in different course types are presented in Table 2; the negatively worded items are included into Table 3.
In Table 1, the items about the benefits of microteaching were evaluated.The positive statements about the beneficial and favourable scope of microteaching, items 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 imply the beneficial aspects of microteaching regarding language teaching activities in terms of pedagogical practice for different linguistic and age levels, preparing lesson plans, material production, self-assessment and self-assurance.In general sense, when the responses of the students for item 1, questioning the motivating aspect of microteaching in their present course, and item 2, questioning the favourable side of microteaching for their future occupation, were evaluated, it was seen that most of the students (74.2% and 80.4% respectively) admitted the benefits of microteaching for both their present courses and future occupations.The responses of the students for items 3, 5 and 6 inquiring into the benefits of microteaching for the students' future occupation demonstrated that nearly all students (93%) acknowledged the most central advantages of microteaching offering the opportunity for preparing lesson plans with suitable material production for a range of linguistic and age levels.More than half of the students (62.6%) thought of microteaching activities as enjoyable when applied individually (item 8).
Additionally, microteaching was appraised by the students as beneficial for evaluating their teaching performance (item 7) by 82.4% students.In addition, 89.5% of the students stated that teaching methods were understood in a better way via microteaching applications (item 4); and 89% of the students stated that they met a variety of teaching activities while their classmates presented microteaching lessons (item 9); the responses for item 9 questioning the students' attitudes towards their classmates' microteaching lessons indicated that, while observing other classmates' teaching, the students learned from feedback and from others' presentation strategies.Regarding the responses of the participants in this context, it is possible to state that by observing other teaching styles and strategies and by discussing common subjects of teaching and learning, microteaching applications give participants the opportunity to practice in a supportive surrounding.
In the curriculum of ELT departments, the most suitable courses to apply microteaching activities are methodology courses, literary courses and material production courses.Therefore, in the survey, the students were also questioned about the significance of microteaching with respect to teaching literary materials and gaining experience of the methodological issues.The items dealing with the microteaching practices in specific courses are displayed in Table 2. Items 10,11,12,13,14 about the microteaching practice in specific courses such as methodological courses, short story, novel, poetry, drama analysis and teaching courses--investigate the students' attitudes towards the assistance of microteaching for getting experience to use literary materials as teaching aids with appropriate methods.The responses specified that the students, in general, valued microteaching activities as productive within those courses.However, for most of the students (91.2%), microteaching practices in methodological courses were declared to be much more constructive (item 10).In addition, the results indicate that literature courses in which teaching of poetry and drama can be implemented shared nearly the same proportion in positive manner (61.5% and 63.2% respectively); and short story and novel teaching shared the similar percentile values (80.7% and 76.9% respectively).Whatever the proportions of the items, the students generally considered microteaching activities as favourable and enjoyable to deal with in their literature courses.
Despite the benefits of microteaching technique, some critical aspects of microteaching such as a form of play in unnatural surroundings, the high cost for the maintenance of equipment, the amount of time for preparing materials, and reduced budgets of student teachers are proclaimed.For this reason, in the survey, the students were questioned on the negative aspects of microteaching in the survey and the items dealing with the negative aspects were displayed in Table 3.The statements examining the negative aspects of microteaching applications from the students' perspectives -items 15,16,17,18,19,20-are concerned with artificiality of the classroom environment, difficulties of material production, hindrances of microteaching in the learning process, limited time, and the wastefulness of microteaching.These items were reversed in meaning from the overall direction of the items indicated in Table 1.As seen in Table 3 when the students were questioned in reverse, some items in which the negative attitudes of the students were questioned verified the negative sides of microteaching activities.Although the students were favourable to material production for microteaching (item 5 in Table 1), 56.3% of the students focused on the difficulties they were confronted with while producing materials (item 17 in Table 3); 42.7% students did not agree that material production was a daunting task.Due to limited time and the unnatural classroom environments in which microteaching is implemented, half of the students (50.9% and 52.5% respectively) declared that they could not teach efficiently (items 20 and 16).While 47.4% students stated that microteaching directed them to consume the course time efficiently, 36.9% declared their disagreement on this point (item 19); however, 82.6% students did not accept the hindrances of microteaching with regard to the learning process (item 18) and 91.2% of the students considered microteaching as a useful tool (item 15).In a general sense, they were mostly enthusiastic to use the microteaching technique for the implementation of their own experiences in practice.

Limitations
The present study shows the student teachers held positive attitudes towards microteaching as a teaching tool.But, despite the optimistic findings presented in this study, there were some limitations in the survey.The first relates to the number of the students.57 students were the participants of the survey, because this is total number of the students attending the ELT department; so this study reports on small scale research into the attitudes of student teachers to microteaching.Secondly, the survey was carried out at a single university, and thirdly, only fourth year undergraduate students from the ELT department of Trakya University took part in the survey.The reason for the participation of only fourth year students in the survey is the fact that those students experienced microteaching practices in all courses.Instead of the large size of the sample from all ELT departments in Turkey, conducting research on the small size of the sample from only one university was of local interest for this study.But such a study may demonstrate a profile of microteaching activities in ELT department from the student-teachers' perspectives for the similar studies.In spite of these limitations, the findings obtained from the data offer some indications about the beneficial aspects of microteaching activities.

Discussion and Suggestions
The findings of this study dealing with questioning the strong and weak points of microteaching applications in English Teacher Training program at Trakya University support the prior literature pointing out that microteaching applications are practical experiences for meeting the desired objectives of training teachers to become effective and reflective in teaching profession (Çakır, 2000;Benton-Kupper, 2001;Amobi, 2005;Eick and et al., 2005;Akalın, 2006).The overall results about motivation gained via microteaching activities in the present courses and for teaching occupation indicate that most of the students were satisfied with the applications of microteaching.The data also demonstrated the influence that microteaching applications have had in teacher education in the faculties of education was pervasive; thus, microteaching as the main medium of instruction needs to be practiced in teacher training departments for training experienced teachers.The data also showed that the respondents welcomed the use of microteaching activities and appreciated its benefits for fulfilling appropriate classroom functions.It is clear that understanding the possible role for microteaching and using it in legitimate functional contexts would be a useful tool for student teachers.
Additionally, the findings specify the creativity and resourcefulness of the microteaching activities and prove that the students, as student teachers, strongly acknowledge the usefulness of microteaching for boosting creativity.Therefore, in the light of the current data presenting the student teachers' views, it is possible to proclaim that microteaching is a useful tool in teaching practices for these students, motivates the students for the teaching profession, is beneficial for differentiating course designs for different linguistic and age levels, enhances the understanding of teaching methods in a better and more suitable way, is efficient in material production process for introducing various materials, forces the students to prepare lesson plans and is beneficial for evaluating teaching performance and getting feedback.Besides, microteaching assists and enhances student teachers to develop new teaching and learning strategies.Since microteaching focuses on teacher behaviours, it gives clues about weak and strong indications of student teachers as prospective teachers.
In this sense, microteaching represents a bridge between theoretical and practical issues.In addition, microteaching may boost consciousness about organizational commitment as well as professional commitment.While preparing and implementing micro lessons, student teachers gain some insights about how to prepare their lessons as consistent with the expectations of education organizations.All these findings are in line with what Yeany, (1978), Arends, (2000) and Demirel, (2004) have pointed out about the helpful aspects of microteaching experiences.
While implementing teaching practices, student teachers may gain many experiences.One of those experiences is classroom management.In some cases, they may face misbehaviours in their classrooms.Through microteaching applications, they can gain experiences for overwhelming such undesirable behaviours and take the attention of inattentive students to lesson.Those experiences may also be gained by observing other student teachers' microteaching applications through which the classroom management is achieved or failed.In other words, microteaching allows them to have experiences before they involve in teaching practice in their future occupations.What is more, during the microteaching practices of student teachers, the rest of the class can also be aware of this fact in a cooperative manner.
One more advantage of microteaching can be presumed for making instant decisions in teaching process, when necessary.Such experiences may assist them to make changes in their lesson plans.The student teachers in this survey felt that they had the advantages of feeling free for making decisions on what they wanted to include in their lesson plans and do as much practice as they wanted.So they found preparing lesson plans beneficial before microteaching applications, and they became familiar with preparing lesson plans by taking different age and linguistic levels of students into account.Thus, they could comprehend teaching methods well.An additional benefit of microteaching activities for student teachers, particularly for student teachers of English, can be acknowledged for the development of language skills.They may practice and recognize how to use language efficiently while teaching.Furthermore, microteaching applications may help student teachers develop teacher identity in pre-service teacher education.It is suggested that the initial focus on self is a necessary and valuable stage in the construction, over time, of a professional self; thus, the development of a teacher identity stands for the core aspect of the experience of becoming a student teacher (Conway and Clark, 2003).Accordingly, pointing out some of the ways for fostering student teachers' perceptions and teaching experiences about teacher identity during microteaching presentations may be beneficial for professional development of student teachers.
Although the optimistic views about microteaching were confirmed by the student teachers in this survey, some negative aspects were also admitted by the participants.Since microteaching applications were carried out with their own classmates, they mostly did not feel themselves in real classroom settings where the target learners were not real students.Moreover, even though microteaching can be assumed as an efficient way for material production process, the student teachers stated that they had troubles while producing the materials.The troubles most probably appeared due to the high cost of material production with regard to the limited budgets of students.Such pessimistic statements are in line with the former critical aspects of microteaching put forward by Cripwell and Geddes (1982) and Stanley (1998) such as the high cost for the equipment, the amount of time for preparing materials, reduced budgets of student teachers, and unnatural surroundings in which microteaching practice is realized.In this sense, it is crucially admitted that such pessimist views may restrict student teachers' enthusiasm and create reluctant attitudes towards microteaching applications.

Conclusions
In this study, 57 student teachers' attitudes towards microteaching were examined to identify the benefits and disadvantages of microteaching and the participants' responses to the items in the scale affirmed that microteaching is a favourable learning and teaching experience.Therefore, the findings in this study support those who state the beneficial aspects of microteaching applications.These findings also insert new insights into the existing studies; for example, pointing to the significance of microteaching in various courses such as methodology and literature courses in ELT highlights the functions of microteaching.On the other hand, questioning both the positive and negative aspects of microteaching indicates the student teachers' attitudes towards microteaching in every respect.
Depending on the survey results, some suggestions can be presented for further studies and applications of microteaching: microteaching as a professional tool in teacher training departments needs to be applied so as to motivate student teachers for their future occupation; since student teachers have difficulties while preparing materials, feedback can be provided for material production by tutors before introducing micro lesson; in reflective process; if students are first judged in a constructive way and then the deficiency of the micro lesson presented is judged, student teachers can be more enthusiastic to be involved in microteaching; time limitation is another significant factor that creates hindrances for the efficiency of microteaching, in order to help students overcome this challenging situation, students may prepare a lesson plan but apply only one part of the lesson, for instance, only the pre-reading or while-reading or post-reading activities of a lesson plan prepared for a reading lesson can be applied during the micro lesson.Further, student teachers can be supported to cope with the financial problems while preparing efficient materials.
For implementing microteaching activities and directing student teachers to be volunteers in such applications in a broader sense, education policies of teacher training institutions, curriculum developers, institution committees, teaching staff at those institutions can be reorganized for getting student teachers to be involved in more practices.Moreover, cooperative efforts among teaching staff can be made to tutor and motivate student teachers in microteaching activities.Such cooperation may be influential in classroom practices of student teachers.Additionally, further research including more participants from various teacher training departments of universities may be conducted to see extensive judgments of student teachers about microteaching.Another scheme can be carried out for conducting research on teacher educators in teacher training departments so as to evaluate their perspectives about microteaching activities by taking student teachers' professional developments and tendencies towards it.
To conclude, microteaching can be acknowledged as an opportunity for teaching in an instructional setting in which time is limited.The opportunities of microteaching can be ranged as: encouragement for oral presentation skills; group discussions; fluency while asking and answering questions; use of teaching aids; preparing lesson plans; material production; introducing teaching objectives; and enthusiasm in teaching.Emphasizing the skills, an aspect of language performance and creating self-confidence by opening up new ways of thinking about microteaching, gives student teachers a safer space in which they can develop not only teaching abilities but also reflective practices.In this sense, a micro lesson is an occasion for student teachers to experience all teaching strategies, and microteaching activities as a whole are beneficial for motivating student teachers for their present courses and future occupation.

Table 1 .
Students' Attitudes towards microteaching in positive manner

Table 2 .
Students' attitudes towards microteaching regarding the course type

Table 3 .
Students' attitudes towards microteaching in negative manner It is beneficial for my future occupation to see course designs in different linguistic and age levels through microteaching activities.