An NLP-based teacher development program for enhancing efl teachers' communication skills

This qualitative study was conducted with the voluntary participation of five non-native EFL teachers at a state secondary school in Adana/Turkey during the second term of 2009-2010 academic year. The NLP-TD program was conducted on weekly basis, amounting to a total of 16 sessions.The aim of this study is three fold. First it aims to explore in depth the nature of secondary school EFL teachers? personal theories of effective communication. Second, it aims to investigate the impact of Neuro Linguistic Programming based teacher development (NLP-TD) program to see if there are any changes in the development of EFL teachers? personal theories of communication skills. Third, based on the results of the teachers? reflection, this qualitative study attempts to provide EFL teachers with a framework for a new teacher development program based on NLP techniques.Drawing on Kelly?s (1955) Personal Construct Theory, this study used the repertory grid technique as pre and post diagnostic tool. The data elicited from the teachers were analyzed by utilizing the Rep Grid 2 Computer program. In order to find out the structure of participant teachers? constructs, each of the repertory grid data obtained from the teachers was subjected to FOCUS analysis separately. The two grids obtained from the participant teachers at the beginning and end of the study were also subjected to Exchange Grid Analysis to explore the patterns of the changes in the content and structure of teachers? personal theories. The nature of the participant teachers? construction of ?self? as teacher and ?ideal? teacher were also investigated. Follow-up interviews were employed to confirm the data taken from the repertory grid constructs.Throughout the NLP-TD program, reflection sheets were employed for process evaluation. As a third data collection tool, a Course Evaluation Questionnaire (CEQ) was used to triangulate the findings. By means of the CEQ and reflections sheets, participant teachers? views and feedback were obtained to shed light for future implications of the NLP-TD program.The findings of this study indicate that teachers have their own personal theories in terms of their perception of effective communication. In particular, the findings point to positive responses as regards the effectiveness of the NLP-TD program in terms of enhancing the communication skills of the participant teachers. In the light of the Repertory Grid, findings suggest that participant teachers? personal theories displayed change both in the content and structure.In conclusion, the NLP-TD program may be suggested as a new framework of a teacher development program for enhancing non-native EFL teachers? communication skills.