This article first appeared in TESOL Quarterly, Volume 46, Number 3, pgs. 450–471. Subscribers can access issues here. Only TESOL members may subscribe. To become a member of TESOL, please click here, and to purchase articles, please visit Wiley-Blackwell. © TESOL International Association.

The first years of practice are noted as a critical time for teachers. Teacher attrition often occurs in the early years of teaching and is highest among novice teachers within their first 5 years of teaching (Moon, 2007), with approximately 40%–50% of novice teachers in North America reported to leave the profession (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003; Maciejewski, 2007). During this period, novice teachers face the reality of the profession and decide whether teaching is the right career choice for them. For teachers of English to speakers of other languages (ESOL), this time has been characterized as a period of anxiety and a time of critical development (Farrell, 2009). It is also during the early years of teaching that teachers form their efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1997). After this initial career stage, teachers either strengthen their efficacy beliefs or leave the profession (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2007).

Given the fragility of these early years in a teacher's career, the issues of what teachers take away from induction programs, and how such programs prepare novice teachers for the tasks they are expected to accomplish in their teaching, become of paramount significance. A wealth of research supports the notion that well-prepared and knowledgeable teachers have a significant impact on student achievement (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 2000). The significance of the early years of teaching and issues related to novice teachers has received much attention in school-based education with children (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 2000, 2003; Fantilli & McDougall, 2009). However, little is known about the transition from preservice to in-service and the efficacy beliefs of novice teachers of language to adults (see Farrell, 2008). The purpose of this study is to address this gap. The research reported in this paper examined the perceptions of novice ESOL teachers about their preparation and efficacy to teach in adult ESOL classrooms. First, the conceptual framework, which draws on research in language teacher education and teacher self-efficacy beliefs, is presented. Then, the study, its methodology, participants, sources of data, and findings are described. Finally, the implications of the findings for policy and practice in language teacher education programs are discussed.

Conceptual Framework

Language Teacher Education
A key issue in second language teacher education is what teachers need to learn in teacher education and how this learning impacts their language teaching practices. Pivotal to this issue has been research concerned with establishing a common understanding of the core knowledge base that teachers need to develop in order to succeed as teachers. Traditionally, a shared knowledge base has been viewed as consisting of certain domains of knowledge, such as pedagogical skills and linguistic expertise (e.g., Day, 1993; Lafayette, 1993; Richards, 1998). This perspective has since been reassessed to include a recognition that teacher learning is situated in a context and is constructed by individuals as they interact with the social and professional conditions of the environments in which they learn and teach (Johnson, 2006, 2009). Freeman and Johnson (1998) make a significant contribution by emphasizing the activity of teaching, which consists of three interrelated aspects: (a) the teacher-learner, (b) the social context, and (c) the pedagogical process. Their seminal work is the start of a new direction in second language teacher education that views teacher learning as highly situated and context dependent (Johnson, 2006, 2009).

In line with this focus on teacher knowledge as situated, a number of key issues have emerged that examine how teachers draw on what they know as opposed to what they are taught. These include an examination of the teaching process (e.g., Golombek, 1998; Tsui, 2003), knowledge (e.g., Gatbonton, 1999; Johnston & Goettsch, 2000), cognition (Borg, 2003, 2006), and beliefs (e.g., Almarza, 1996; Crandall, 2000; Farrell, 1999; Mattheoudakis, 2007; Peacock, 2001) that teachers hold about language teaching and learning and how their knowledge and beliefs guide their teaching practices (e.g., Basturkmen, Loewen, & Ellis, 2004; Freeman & Johnson, 2005; Tsui, 2003). Teachers' beliefs and perceptions about their teaching skills have a strong impact on their teaching effectiveness (Knoblauch & Woolfolk Hoy, 2008) and, as such, merit investigation. In this article, this line of inquiry is captured by an examination of teacher preparedness and self-efficacy beliefs.

Teacher Preparedness and Self-Efficacy Beliefs
The focus on teachers' perceptions of their self-efficacy draws support from research in (elementary and secondary) school-based teacher education...

This article first appeared in TESOL Quarterly, 3, 450–471. For permission to use this article, please go to http://www.copyright.com/.
doi: 10.1002/tesq.37