Teacher Education in Malaysia: Preparing and Training of English Language Teacher Educators

This paper presents the findings of a study into the profiles of English Language teacher educators in the Malaysian teacher educator system. The objective of this study is to identify the level of preparation that teacher educators have when entering Institutes of Teacher Education (ITE). In addition, the study also aims to identify the kind of training given to teacher educators while in the system. The data for this study was obtained through e-mail and telephone interviews. The sample for this study was 20 English Language teacher educators in ITE. The findings from this study revealed that no formal teacher educator training was given prior to recruitment into an ITE and some teacher educators received various forms of training upon entry into a teacher training institution while others were left to learn on the job. The findings of this study also present various implications on the need for formal training of teacher educators before they are appointed as teacher educators in ITE.