Assessment and Ranking Framework for the English Skills of Pre-Service Teachers Based on Fuzzy Delphi and TOPSIS Methods

Abstract

In this study, pre-service teaching refers to teaching English as a second language (TESL) to Malaysian students whose first language is not English. TESL prepares English-language learners to become future teachers of English as a second language. To date, no multi-criteria framework has been developed to evaluate and select the skills of pre-service teachers. This study presents a new framework to assess and rank the English skills of pre-service teachers on the basis of fuzzy Delphi and multi-criteria analysis. Three experiments were conducted. Firstly, criteria were identified from the literature review and the opinions of representative experts via the Delphi method. Secondly, 31 pre-service teachers were evaluated to determine the skills of pre-service teachers on the basis of Delphi criteria outcomes. English proficiency was tested through the English Language Testing Service and four language skill examinations. Each examination was evaluated by experts with vast experience in English teaching. Thirdly, pre-service teachers were ranked on the basis of a set of evaluated Delphi criteria outcomes through the technique for the order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method. Thereafter, the mean and standard deviation were utilized to ensure the identical systematic ranking of pre-service teachers. Findings are as follows. Twenty-five criteria from previous studies are representative as evaluated by the opinions of experts, which were gathered through interviews and a structured questionnaire. The validity of content was verified using a five-point Likert scale. With Delphi method outcomes, 14 criteria were selected and included in the final framework. The results of the proposed evaluation framework were tested on Malaysian pre-service teachers. TOPSIS is effective for solving the selection problems of pre-service teachers. In the final experiment, significant differences were recognized between the scores of groups, indicating identical ranking results.

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