EFL Novice Teachers: Concerns and Challenges

Many teacher trainers, stakeholders and even teachers themselves have had this common belief that after graduation, novice teachers have the potentiality to apply what they have learnt in teacher-preparation programs during their first year of teaching. However, the story has been experienced in a completely different way. It means that in order to transmit the experiences of teacher education programs, to new contexts, first year teachers face different challenges or as Veenman (1984) puts, they experience some sort of a shocking reality. Though beginner teachers set ideals during their teacher education programs, due to social and political unpredictable realities of the context, they may change and reshape their goals and directions. The present article tries to review the concerns and challenges EFL novice teachers face during their first year of teaching.