BUILDING SELF-ESTEEM OF TEACHER TRAINEES - Awareness of Innate Communicative Abilities*

Abstract

Teacher trainers in Malaysia very often have to work with pre-service ESL teacher trainees who are not proficient in English. They consequently face a real problem making role models out of them. This paper explores the possibility of improving the accuracy of the spoken English of such trainees (with special emphasis on grammatical accuracy) through building the self-esteem of teacher trainees. This is done by helping them to build on the communicative abilities they already possess through a consciousness-raising process.