Novice Teacher’s Roles and Challenges in Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP): A Narrative Inquiry
Keywords:
English for Specific Purposes (ESP); narrative inquiry; novice teacherAbstract
This study explored the roles and challenges experienced by a novice teacher teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in a Sharia Banking program at an Islamic university in Indonesia. Employing a qualitative narrative inquiry with an autoethnographic orientation, the researcher served as the sole participant, drawing on reflective teaching diaries and self-narrative accounts to capture lived teaching experiences. The findings revealed that the novice ESP teacher assumed multiple roles, including language facilitator, material developer, mediator between language and disciplinary content, and reflective practitioner. The study also identified several challenges, such as limited preparation in ESP pedagogy, students’ varied English proficiency levels, and the absence of mentoring support, despite the availability of institutional guidelines. This study contributes to ESP literature by foregrounding the lived experience of novice teachers and highlights the importance of mentoring and institutional support in sustaining effective ESP instruction in discipline-specific contexts.
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