L1 and L2 secondary teachers’ perceptions of the use of instructional strategies in Lebanon’s public schools

L1 and L2 secondary teachers’ perceptions

Abstract

This study explores how language teachers in public schools in Lebanon perceive and utilize various instructional strategies designed to equip secondary students with the skills they need in the 21^st century. Participants included 38 Arabic, 21 English, and 22 French language teachers with various experiences in teaching in public schools across Lebanon. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire containing closed-ended and open-ended questions about items related to 9 commonly used instructional strategies. The analysis of the qualitative data revealed that the three groups of teachers shared somewhat similar preferences for the 3 most commonly-used student-centered instructional strategy. However, different teachers of different languages favored different strategies. Problem solving was mainly used by teachers of French (40.9%), classroom discussion by teachers of English (71.4%), and cooperative learning by Arabic teachers (63.2%). Cross tabulation analysis and Pearson Chi-Square were performed to analyze the quantitative data using SPSS (V. 20). Results show that there are no significant differences among the percentages of the 3 groups of language teachers and (a) their use of instructional strategies, and (b) their years of teaching experience except for the field trip (sig= 0.028).