Abstract
As teacher educators we were interested in finding out what ELT aspects and/or principles novice primary teachers find crucial in light of their relatively new teaching experience. Both qualitative and quantitative data came from an online questionnaire distributed among the former graduates of the Faculty of Education in Prague at the turn of 2022/2023 (n = 40).
The average teaching experience of the participants was between 3 and 4 years including teachers who have been teaching English to date (n = 24) as well as those who taught the subject in the past (n = 16). The categorization of the responses revealed that the following features were considered essential by eight or more participants: authentic use of English, focus on pronunciation, exposure to English, effective use of ELT materials, inclusion of movement, motivation, and safe environment.
By far the most frequently stated principle was employing a variety of engaging activities and games in English classes. Furthermore, we aimed at capturing the affective aspect of foreign language teaching, inquiring about the respondents' attitudes towards English teaching.
Their overwhelmingly positive feelings about teaching English stem predominantly from two areas; firstly it is the pupils' sheer enjoyment of English classes and secondly it is the tangibility of pupils' steady progress in English. Selected principles will be discussed in relation to the respondents' prior teacher education and the current research.