EFL TEACHERS’ EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS AND THEIR SPEAKING PROFICIENCY: THE NEXUS AND PREDICTIVE POTENTIALS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between pre-service EFL teachers’ epistemological beliefs and their speaking proficiency. The study employed an explanatory correlational design involving 94 pre-service EFL teachers. The teachers were selected using a comprehensive sampling technique. The instruments employed for data collection were a speaking proficiency test and an EFL epistemic beliefs questionnaire. The data was analyzed using statistical methods such as Person’s Correlation Cofficient and Simple linear regression.  Accordingly, the results indicate that the EFL pre-service teachers typically have less sophisticated epistemological notions with a medium level of speaking proficiency. On the other hand, the correlational analysis disclosed that speaking proficiency was positively connected with four aspects of epistemological beliefs: source of knowledge (r=300, p<. 003), control of knowledge (r=.333, p<.001), speed of knowledge acquisition (r=.593, p<.001), and structure of knowledge (r=.590, p<.001). On the contrary, the EFL teachers’ speaking proficiency is not substantially correlated with the certainty of knowledge (r=.188, p=.069). What is more, the results of the regression analysis showed that the combined impacts of the predictor variables of epistemological views could account for 45.6% of the changes in the speaking competency of the students which reveals that cultivating preservice EFL teachers’ epistemological beliefs enhances their speaking proficiency.