The Effectiveness of Traits of Speaking Model on Developing Trainee Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge and Attitudes

Abstract

Developing a reference framework is one of the most important approaches that guides teaching, learning and assessment of languages (Council of Europe, 2018). The Communicative Traits Model (Hussien, 2018, 2020) is a framework for teaching, learning, and assessing Arabic language with respect to speaking, writing, reading and listening. This study investigated into the effectiveness of a Traits of Speaking Model - as a part of the Communicative Traits Model - on developing trainee teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and attitudes. The hypothesis is that a Traits of Speaking Model develops a shared vocabulary to improve the trainee teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills to teach and assess speaking to primary school students. Mixed methods were used with the trainee teachers in a quasi-experimental repeated measure. 54 participants from Arabic specialization completed a pre and post achievement test and responded to an attitude scale at the end of semester. The results indicated that the Traits of Speaking Model has found effective in developing trainee teachers’ pedagogical knowledge with respect to teaching and assessing of speaking and has a positive impact on the trainee teachers’ attitudes toward using this model for teaching, learning, and assessing of speaking. Further implications for teacher education are discussed.