Abstract

Vocational Education and Training in Greece has a legacy from the 19th century of systematic neglect bound to accept students from lower socio-economic classes with low achievement not being able to follow the academic route. On the other hand, there is an increasing awareness, on the part of government policy, that countries have to respond to economic, social and technological changes brought about by globalization. In the future no country's economy will be internationally competitive if it is not supported by a high quality system of vocational education and training. English as a foreign language is an integral part of these changes as it tends to be the international language of communication.

English language has been a core lesson in the VET curriculum since 1926 when the first VET school was established in Greece. Since then and especially during the last decade the teaching of English as a foreign language in post-secondary vocational education has been a priority as students need to respond to the fast-paced changes. According to the official curriculum, the general goal of English on the VET stage is to develop students' language comprehensive competence and apply their skills and knowledge of English in meaningful situations and work contexts. Students need to be able to correspond to the new environment of technology, business and the competitive labor market. Respectively, EFL professionals need to understand current socio-economic factors and their influence on English language teaching.

There is also a need to realize what attitudes, knowledge and skills related to working with individuals with special needs new English language teachers should possess. This study examines data from a survey of nearly 180 EFL teachers in VET schools throughout Greece regarding their perceptions of students' achievement, their beliefs and the reasons they attribute students' failure to. The main research questions were two: a) Is the official curriculum able to meet the needs of these students? b) Do EFL teachers have adequate preparation to help these students? The hypotheses were investigated through quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data obtained by the teachers as in terms of an approach in analyzing the thought processes of teachers, the study suggests that a combination of the two methods might be profitable. The questionnaire was designed to obtain the basic individual information of the English teachers and some firsthand data about their competence to find out some problems existing. The interviews helped for an in-depth analysis of their thoughts and beliefs as well as their awareness of the situation.

Methods

The results of the survey showed that EFL teachers in VET may teach grammar or vocabulary but it does not necessarily mean that they can perceive the different needs of these students or find out essential problems existing in basic education situations. As a result, improving their knowledge and competence through in-service training becomes an urgent task to develop the quality of EFL teachers in this educational stage.

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