Iranian Novice versus Experienced EFL Teachers’ Perceptions about Teaching Vocabulary;Tracing professional development in their Narrations

This study was to make a comparison between two groups of Iranian novice versus experienced EFL teachers’ perceptions and practices on their professional development regarding teaching vocabulary. Moreover, the researchers attempted to consider the trace of teacher professional development in the narration of both novice and experienced teachers. Ten EFL teachers were selected as novice teachers with less than five years of teaching experience and ten teachers were selected as the experienced teacher with more than twenty years of teaching experience. A structured interview was applied to determine and compare novice and experienced teachers’ attitudes toward professional development based on teaching vocabulary. The content analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The results indicated that there were differences in the attitudes of novice and experienced teachers on different issues such as experience, attending various conferences, reading books and various articles. The study also revealed that some experienced teachers did not pay attention to their personal development while novice teachers indicated more attention and concern on their professional development. The study presented a number of implications for language teachers and curriculum designers on the issue of professional development.

Keywords:

Attitudes , Experienced Teachers , Novice Teachers , Professional Development