Self-Perceptions and Practices of a Group of Omani Cooperating Teachers for Supervising EFL Student Teachers' Grammar Teaching during Practicum

This study sought to investigate: a) practicum supervisors' attitudes towards grammar teaching, b) Their perceptions of their practices in developing student teachers' grammar teaching, and c) the relationship between their attitudes towards grammar teaching and their practices in preparing student teachers to teach grammar. The participants were 47 cooperating teachers from a variety of locations throughout Al-Batinah in the Sultanate of Oman in the 2010-2011 academic year. Data were collected via a literature-based instrument whose analysis revealed that 86.4% of the cooperating teachers "agreed" with the statements associated with the grammar teaching self-perception scale with a mean of 4.32. This implied they showed a positive self-perception. Results indicated that the average mean of participants' practices on the four subscales, namely: modeling, personal attributes, pedagogical knowledge and feedback was 4.04. This implied that they perceived themselves as having "medium" capability to supervise grammar teaching. Results also confirmed that cooperating teachers' self-perceptions on teaching grammar were positively related to their own practices for supervising grammar teaching. Implications were drawn from the study for practicum programs and the training of cooperating teachers.