Exploring Factors Which Affect Quality of the English Language Teacher Training Programme for Primary Schools in Zambézia

Several factors may affect the quality of the English language teaching and learning process and teacher training as well. This paper seeks to discuss eight factors which influence positive or negatively in the English language teacher training programme for primary schools in Zambézia province. Heyworth is the great scholar, who discusses issues around quality management in English language teaching as a foreign language. His views have inspired the researcher to think over issues, which can foster or undermine the quality of the English language teacher training programme for primary schools in Zambézia province. The researcher stresses that quality of the English language teacher depends mostly of the quality of the management process, through its positive elements and excellent performance of the teacher trainers, the existing teaching and learning materials, motivation by teacher trainees and teacher trainers, and positive attitudes which can be shown by strong professionalism. The qualitative approach was chosen for this study based on discussions and review of authors who have discussed about factors affecting teacher education with focus on English language teacher training. The current study concludes that training English language teachers in a context, where English is taught and learnt as a foreign language demands the disposition of knowledge, skills, competence, motivation, quality of school infrastructure, professionalism and teacher trainers competence which can impact positively in the English language teacher trainee, the future English language teacher.


Introduction
In education, there are always factors which influence teaching and learning positively or negatively. Heyworth [12] declares that "there is a need to introduce standards for the quality of teaching methods, staff, the quality of providers, and course delivery". The author further contends that, there are a number of descriptions of quality requirements both for teachers in general, and for teachers of languages specifically. Typically they are based on a competence model, with competence defined generally as a combination of values (or attitudes), knowledge and understanding and skills", [12].
In line with Heyworth's view point, the researcher feels that a well-qualified English teacher for primary school level in Mozambique apart from knowledge, skills, attitudes and competences, they should have the following five aspects: a) high motivation for English language teaching, b) excellent knowledge of the subject matter including the four major language skills, c) strong skills for English language teaching, d) competence for English language teaching and e) professionalism of the English language teacher. Additionally, three factors need to be stressed to achieve the quality of the English language teacher trainees: well structured content and syllabus, good and well equipped school infrastructure and competent teacher trainers.
It is the researcher's belief that if an English language teacher for primary schools has these elements, the teaching and communicative competence can be clearly ensured. Moreover, teacher trainee's motivation, knowledge of the subject matter, the language learning and teaching skills, competence and professionalism in English language teaching are five tools which the researcher stresses and are applied to the field of English language teacher education. These elements embedded in quality refer to the totality of features and characteristics of the teacher trainee acquired as a result of the teachers education programme. Feigenbaum as cited in a study [12] claims that "If the expectations of the schools, students, parents and the society are met that indicates that the right type of teachers have been prepared by the teacher education institutions". Therefore, if English language teacher trainees show abilities and knowledge in what they are learning, and teacher trainers make continuous teaching improvements through trainers' interactions among themselves and commit themselves to their work, then teacher trainees will have positive outcomes. This is fundamental and gives value to the education and teaching process.
The National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) and Commonwealth of Learning (COL) 1

document in India and
Canada [22] observes that "facilities like the library are the actual learning locations, so it is essential that they have adequate volumes of books, journals, other learning materials and facilities for technology aided learning which enable students to acquire information, knowledge and skills". Thus, it is not only necessary that the computer facilities and other learning resources are available in the institution for its academic and administrative purposes but are also accessible to staff and students who are keen on using them.

Factors Which Affect Quality of the English Language Teacher Training Programme
In this section the researcher presents and discusses the factors which affect quality of the English language teacher training programme. The factors under discussion are: knowledge of English and English language teaching, skills for language and English language teaching, competences for English language teaching, professionalism of the English language teacher, the teacher trainees' motivation towards the teaching profession, quality of school infrastructure, quality of teacher training curriculum and contents and teacher trainers' competence and performance.

Knowledge of English and English Language Teaching
Koç [18] contends that "the purpose of an in-service teacher training programme is to enable teachers to develop their knowledge, apply this knowledge in the classroom and achieve the projected behavioural changes". At the end of their training course, English language teacher trainees by should possess, as one of the expectations, consolidated knowledge of the English language teaching and teaching model pedagogies which may include: the English language grammar, phonology knowledge, adequate mastery of the language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing and the teaching methodologies. As highlighted by Fenner and Kuhlman [8].
Teachers also need to be fluent in social and academic English so that they can serve as role models for students. The same way, they point out that not only do ESL teachers need to be highly knowledgeable about the content they are teaching, the English language, they also must be able to apply theories and research on the process of acquiring English in order to support ELLs as these students learn academic English and content simultaneously".
Fenner and Kuhlman [8] further agree that "if teachers do not have knowledge of language structure, then they cannot teach ELLs 2 academic English." If a significant number of English language teachers are not knowledgeable in the area of language structure, then they need to be oriented on the basic concepts of phonology, morphology, semantics and discourse. Similarly, Darling-Hammond as cited in a study [14] contends that: Teachers in language education programme like those in mainstream classrooms, should possess high levels of knowledge relating to the subject matter, curriculum and technology, instructional strategies, and assessment: they must also have the ability to reflect on their own teaching.
Owing to the relevance for the English language teaching in Mozambique, the issue of subject matter has also been discussed by famous and renowned English language scholars. Richards [26] states that "subject matter knowledge refers to what second language teachers need to know about their subjects-the specialised concepts, theories, and disciplinary knowledge that constitutes the theoretical basis for the field of second language teaching". Thus, appropriate subject matter for second language teachers constitutes the following: Phonetics and phonology, English syntax, Second language acquisition, Discourse analysis, Analysis of TESOL methods, Testing and evaluating.
The items presented in the previous paragraph make part of the necessary knowledge acquisition and are really paramount for the English language teacher trainee's background. The English language teacher trainees are the ones taking the course as initial training with the purpose of teaching English in primary schools. However, for the sake of the teacher trainees' weak background in English language, it would not be ideal to introduce some elements such as Curriculum and syllabus design and Sociolinguistics as disciplines or subjects in their teaching language course due to the fact that the trainees are not prepared to discuss such contents and the fact that they will not translate into practice in the primary schools.

Skills for Language and English Language Teaching
Whoever is trained in a specific field must be equipped with abilities to perform positively in that specific area which justifies the reason for the training. For Malderez &amp; Bodóczky [19], when you ask any group of people to brainstorm the qualities of the 'good teacher' there will be categories relating to 'knowledge' and 'skills', but invariably the biggest group of factors can be found under a category one can label 'person qualities.
The researcher's interest in developing this section with respect to skills is to focus attention on what English language teacher trainees in Zambézia Province should have by the end of the programme, that is skills which encompass the following: the oral and teaching skills, the abilities to speak the English language fluently and accurately, the ability to interact with different educationists, the ability to interact with foreigners and other English language professionals, and, above all, the ability to teach English successfully in the primary schools. Hornby [13] defines skill as "the ability to do something well... in order to acquire a skill, there has to be an initial desire to achieve proficiency". Skills require practice and this takes time. In English language there are two major categories of skills, the receptive skills and the productive ones. The receptive skills include listening and reading whereas the productive skills include speaking and writing. Each of these categories is important and should be mastered by the English language teacher trainees either for the language communication reasons or for teaching reasons. Delahuntly and Garvey [5] maintain that: Learning to read and write is partly a matter of linguistic development, that is, the growth in a student's ability to communicate appropriately in an increasingly broad range of circumstances. Teachers who concern themselves with the linguistic development of their students typically view their role as twofold: (a) to promote their students' ability to speak, read, and write in their disciplines, and (b) to develop their students' ability to write in standard English, the variety of English generally expected in formal communication in various disciplines.
Similarly, for teaching reasons, the teacher trainees need to learn and know how to go about these skills when they teach or deliver lessons in the classroom. The stages of a reading and listening lesson differ significantly from a speaking and writing one. As for reading practice, Kern [17] calls attention to the fact that: The goal of reading a foreign language texts is not to achieve a 'native like', fully informed culturally-appropriate interpretation. What is important for learners to understand, however, is how the interpretations they do come up with are influenced by their beliefs, attitudes, values and experiencesin other words, by their 'world' as constituted and constructed by cultural model.
While in listening and reading most of the time the lead-in, pre-reading/listening, while-reading/listening, postreading/listening and follow-up exercises are required, in a speaking lesson, one may not need such sequences. Obviously, when thinking about the stages, the presentation or introduction stages can be considered as the first stages of the speaking lesson as well as the review stage. The stages that follow can be practiced in which one may have controlled and/or free writing, or one of the four main skills to be practised during the lesson as a stage, and finishing with a follow-up or consolidation stage.
A global study of primary English teachers' qualifications, training and career development conducted by Emery [5] from University of Essex tried to find out in her research what makes a good primary English language teacher and the largest number of participants responded to good English language skills as most important. And other qualities deemed important were: teaching experience, teaching knowledge, a kind and understanding personality. Thus, the teacher in class should be creative in organising groups, pairs or when working as whole class ensuring that everyone participates or at least says something during the lesson or the discussions. In all, the English language teacher trainees need to learn and know that the teacher's personality, adaptability, flexibility, rapport with learners or students and different teacher's roles contribute successfully for the learning process and describe positive teacher's skills in and outside the classroom.

Competences for English Language Teaching
As far as the researcher is concerned, the term competence will only be noted when one has strong skills that can be utilised in different contexts of work or a lesson. According to Tomlinson [29] "competence or skill signifies a more or less consistent ability to realise particular sorts of purposes to achieve desired outcomes". The concept of competence, as explained by Westera as cited in Tomlinson [29] is strongly associated with the ability to master complex situations, and goes beyond the levels of knowledge and skills to include an explanation of how knowledge and skills are applied in an effective way. Furthermore, Passos [23] remarks that, In a much broader sense, competence is a highly valued quality that accounts for the effective use of knowledge and skills in specific and concrete contexts. The mastery of relevant knowledge and skills alone is no guarantee of successful performance in complex environments. Thus, individuals should be able to select from their available knowledge and skills in such a way that efficient and effective behaviour occurs which requires special "abilities" that take into account the characteristics of a specific context [32]. 2In general, competence is regarded when looking at the two first concepts brought in the conceptual framework: knowledge and skills. These two concepts alone cannot bring positive results if teachers are not equipped with positive attitudes accounting for their professionalism in which they should know and understand the learners' social context, their background and reality.

Professionalism of the English Language Teacher
For Estrela [6] "the concept of professionalism is in constant development and it should be made on the basis of concrete historical moment and social reality that school knowledge aims to legitimise, in short must be contextualised". Whereas, Wallace [31] considers as professional a person with the following qualities: "scientific knowledge; a period of rigorous study which is formally assessed; a sense of public service; high standards of professional conduct and the ability to perform some specified demanding and socially tasks in a demonstrably competent manner". It is necessary to highlight the education policy situation that exists in Mozambique. An English language teacher needs to show and demonstrate knowledge of the English language as a subject, and the required skills and competencies for English language teaching in different contexts of English language teaching for students or teacher trainees to feel comfortable and confident in what they are learning. In addition to that, English language teacher trainers and teachers in general should behave and have positive attitudes towards their daily life and teaching styles. They should show seriousness, accountability, respect, tolerance, and availability towards teacher trainees' amiability.
The elements aforementioned help good professionals in general, and English language teacher trainers and teachers are no exception. It is also necessary to understand the education policy as the goals that each government intends to achieve in each historical moment. For example, the training model of grade 10 + 1 comes to match the population growth and the need for expansion of education in Mozambique. However, it does not answer the need for quality terms, if one bears in mind that English language teachers are trained in only two semesters corresponding effectively to eight (8) months. Indeed, professionalism can be manifested by deeper responsibility on actions undertaken in one's work whether at work place or outside. More than responsibility, there are additional elements such as positive attitudes, good practices, good communication, and openness to colleagues, clients and public in general. Nevertheless, professionalism may have further interpretation.
The term professionalism consists of a process of rationalisation of knowledge to put into action and effective practices in a given situation [25]. However, the knowledge that English language teacher trainees in Zambézia Province acquire in the training process should be put into practice through simulations of micro English classes where the teacher trainers and trainees observe and suggest further improvements for English language teacher trainees."As a professional.... the fact that the teacher trainee learns to be a teacher for teaching and contacting more experienced and competent teachers... it presupposes a large field of disciplines content that is supposed to teach" [20]. In this regard, it is crucial to understand that professionalism as a training process should be based on the implementation of activities related to the profession. Given its environment and complexity in educational terms, the professionalism involves having a range of positive attitudes towards the work, the students and the society.
Passos [23] reveals that "the fact that teachers have low levels of qualification without professional training tends to contribute to pupil's weak performance". In addition, Châu [4] states that "classroom observations in the different countries show that certain teachers have insufficient mastery of the subject matter they teach". Therefore, it is expected that the English language teacher trainee should be able to gradually meet the requirements of the same school, based on the intrinsic and extrinsic needs of the students. In this context, the English language teacher trainees should be aware of what they will teach, how they will teach and when to teach respecting the convictions of students in relation to the content so that there is not a total autonomy in the teaching of this discipline. In line with Carter &amp; Nunan [3] in teacher development the content generally stems from the teacher-learner who generates it from their experience. Thus, the process engages teacher trainees in some form of sense-making or construction of understandings out of what they already know and can do. By analysing the quality of training of English language teachers, the researcher seeks to relate the value that is given to theory translated into practice. Therefore, one must question what kind of English language teacher the country wants to have?
According to the Training Curriculum Plan for Primary Education [21], "the English language teacher training lasts for a year and aims to give the student teacher knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to act safely in teaching English language". Looking at the quotation above one wonders whether the teacher training colleges are prepared enough to train English language teachers within a period of eight months. Many teachers have positive feelings, hopes, desires and dreams, and are keen on improving aspects of their professional practice, and to find out about new teaching ideas. However, the fact that English language teachers are trained within eight months, it only helps the teacher trainees get employment and not impart knowledge of their profession.
Saldanha [27] states that "when someone learns a new profession, he or she starts with his or her conventions, difficulties, requirements, limitations, specific knowledge and languages, value systems, knowledge of typical cases, thought and action schemes". The image and ideal professionalism are configured for a number of aspects related to social values, curricula content, methodological practices and evaluation. Several aspects about the practical knowledge of teacher trainees of model 10 + 1 English course are the result of its practical domain in terms of technical and didactic procedures in use. Knowledge in action is enshrined in the know-how practical to the same teacher in the context of the classroom. Therefore, the English language teacher who has this feature is endowed with spontaneous capabilities in their action.
As regards to learning activities, "choosing learning activities is a core competency, which implies not only a good knowledge of the general mechanisms of development and learning, but also a field of teaching of discipline" [24]. The reflection brought by this author submits the researcher to a reality of English language teacher training situations in Zambézia Province. In the analyses around the English language teacher training process, it is necessary to bear in mind the teacher training as a process of social preparation and integration of training considering the reality.
Regarding the initial training of English language teachers, trainers should devise and arrange several activities with appropriate strategies for their implementation. The value for the profession is grown to the extent that the climate of motivation in relation to the matter and teaching techniques come into agreement. Therefore, it is important to have these aspects as positive challenges for effective training of future teachers. The effectiveness required to the English language teacher is based, of course, in the daily profession faced day to day. Perrenoud [24] mentions that: The real challenge in the domain of the total training of a learning cycle is, if possible, basic education, not so much to be able to teach indifferently at any level or cycle, but to enter each learning on a long-term continuity, whose primary logic is allocated for the construction of skills targeted at the end of the cycle or training.
The English language teacher training must have relevance in the education field to the teacher trainees to complete their course with the ability to reflect and criticise about some practices from the teaching-learning process. Self-assessment requires knowledge and mastery of methods and teaching techniques in accordance with the real situation that exists in the classroom. Perrenoud [24] comments that "teacher training nowadays is capable of inventing activities.... depends more on personal imagination or creativity of the new school movement than vocational training or formal education resources". However, the author also acknowledges that, "there is no reason to reinvent each alone, or search for originality, each teacher is able to constantly think for himself or herself." [24]. Therefore, the English language teacher trainers must first analyse the type of teacher trainee whom they interact with, that means they must take into account that the same teacher trainee is first and foremost an individual who is in constant relationship with the other members of his or her society.
Furasi and Rivers [9] maintain that "The conditions for a competent educator are on the one hand, the characteristics that qualify, and the other, in the context in which he or she exercises his or her practice in the subjects with which he or she interacts, the possibilities and limits present for collective action" The English language teacher should be prepared on the basis of social values and its current reality. However, it is clear that the teacher must be professionally prepared to match the actual situation of the teacher trainee and the classroom. The competent professional is one who knows how to do well what is needed and desired within their specialty. Competence should not be defined as static, as a model to be followed, but as something that is built by professionals in their praxis, nor has the character of something lonely, no one is competent alone. According to the Education Curriculum reviewed in Mozambique "it is up to basic education to prepare a student able to reflect, be creative, able to question the reality in order to act on it for their own benefit and their community" [21]. Thus, the basic education teacher training curriculum takes on the challenge of training a know-how professional, able to mobilise and make use of knowledge in their daily lives, able to think, discuss, argue and question the world around them, able to generate not only knowledge, but learning to do, how to be and knowing how to be in the profession and, above all, becomes a professional who bets all the time in the on-going training.
The primary school English language teacher in Zambézia Province context requires, then, the know-how to apply the art and technique of teaching English lessons with skills, enthusiasm and dedication. This is the role that needs to be analysed in the teacher training process as part of the quality of education. While mediating, there are also important roles for English language teachers, for instance, the role of supervisor of the entire educational process in the classroom context to identify and suggest ways by helping the students while monitoring different tasks in the classroom. However, it is important that well trained English language teacher be prepared to make use of their technical and scientific knowledge in order to meet the teaching and learning process progressively.
It is the researcher's position that a good English language professional needs to have knowledge of the subject matter, which is English language shaped in all dimensions, the skills to apply during the teaching and learning process for the benefit of the students or learners and the competence to cope with different situations where the students might need a help. A professional is someone who worries about his or her performance and is viewed as ideal person for a given post, position, job or profession. More than what the researcher has described before, an English language professional as any other professional should relate to their profession the issue of ethics and responsibility.

The Teacher Trainees' Motivation Towards the Teaching Profession
Motivation is a factor that should be underlined for the English language teacher trainees. Harmer [10] explains that "the kind of motivation which comes from the classroom and may be influenced by a number of external factors such as the attitude of society, family and peers to the subject in question is often referred to as extrinsic motivation". A study conducted by Henriksen [11] about language attitudes in primary schools in Mozambique concludes that "English language is positively viewed by the Mozambicans, because it is seen as the language of opportunities, mainly for social, academic, professional and economic opportunities".
English is also regarded as an important language because it facilitates the country's development because there are many foreigners in Mozambique who do not speak Portuguese. However, to achieve the level of English language teacher training excellence and its quality, much has to be done in terms of school infrastructure, teacher trainers' on-going development of training programmes, effective implementation of the contents, and teacher trainees' dedication and motivation. Indeed, it is important to find out what leads different teacher trainee candidates to get into the English language teacher training programme. Some English language teacher trainees may enter in the programme due to the fact of being the easiest way to get employment in the education sector when the candidates finish the programme as all the teacher trainees who finish the programme are employed by the Ministry of Education. Thus, they may be influenced by extrinsic motivation in the labour market.
Other English language teacher trainees may be influenced by the fact that English language plays an important role in several domains of the Mozambican society, in education, in political issues, in business and daily contacts and interaction with foreigners who speak the language. These may aspire to be translators or good English language teachers, both which may result in prestige, hence related to inner concerns which are part of intrinsic motivation. As per literature, Harmer [10] defines intrinsic motivation as to what is generated by what happens inside the classroom, this could be the teacher's methods, the activities that students take part in or their perception of their success. Some English language teacher trainee candidates may be influenced by the foreign English language teachers, Christian missionaries preaching in Mozambique and thus willing to cope with their language culture and mixing with interest of becoming language teachers to teach English and able to communicate with others as part of integrative motivation which influences positively in the teacher trainees' learning attitudes.

Quality of School Infrastructure
The National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) in India and Commonwealth of Learning in Canada (COL) Document [22] explains that facilities like the library are the actual learning locations and so it is essential that they have adequate volumes in terms of books, journals, other learning materials and facilities for technology aided learning which enable students to acquire information, knowledge and skills required for their study. For the researcher, the infrastructure is a factor which affects the teaching and learning process in schools, in training colleges and universities. Infrastructures do not simply mean the physical buildings, but they include all what we can find inside such buildings.
Well equipped schools or colleges can contribute significantly to the quality of the students or trainees. For colleges, they need to have classrooms which can accommodate a reasonable number of students, obviously not more than 40 students as is the experience for teacher training colleges in Zambézia province. The desks should be rowed at a distance that each teacher trainee may feel comfortable and not too close together. Thus, it is crucial that the English language teacher training programme at the colleges have English dictionaries grammar books, plays, a computer room or farm with access to the internet. Good teacher trainers must necessarily be concerned with the organisation of the classroom and maintaining the classroom atmosphere enjoyable.

Quality of Teacher Training Curriculum and Contents
One way to create high expectations concerning the quality of the English language teacher trainees is to have a curriculum and contents that help the training process to reach their goals and objectives. Eventually, just as with the social context of educating, teaching and learning, the context in which education programmes take place are complex and unique, consisting of a variety of factors, including: the sponsors, the teacher, the availability of the resources, the structure of the programme, the number of training courses along the semester and the incentives for teacher participation [16].
Quality of curriculum and its contents might contribute successfully if they are well structured and the contents will foster the students' knowledge and abilities in teaching learning and teaching English. It is therefore important for English language teacher trainers and teacher trainees to follow the contents provided in the curriculum and also look at the teacher trainees' difficulties, so that by the end of the programme the teacher trainees not only master the content which is contained in the curriculum but also other aspects which do not appear in the curriculum but tare relevant for their knowledge, skills and competences.

Teacher Trainers' Competence and Performance
According to Calabrese and Dawes [2], the term 'performance' in the (Performance and Language Integrated Syllabus) we have coined, acquires a twofold meaning: one referring to the trainees' learning aim to perform the foreign language according to the 'can do' statements in a range of communicative situations, the other one referring to their teaching 'performances' as future language teachers to young learners.
English language Teacher trainers must be creative, flexible and dynamic to attend the teacher trainees' sociolinguistic needs, teaching abilities, language competences and professional attitudes towards English language teaching. If English language teacher trainers are not committed to their work, they lack training teachers' abilities, and they do not have the experiences in teaching primary school, they may not help their future English language teachers. In the training process, competence is measured by the performance of the people involved in the process such as teacher trainers and trainees.
Preparing English language teacher trainees as initial training is demanding for the teacher trainers if the teacher trainees show lack of abilities, weaknesses towards the contents to be delivered or if they have a lot of language problems. As it is emphasised, "Initially, many studentteachers are not equipped with the ability to draw on all levels of the iceberg in order to construct a personal understanding of teaching" [19]. Indeed, this may be due to personality factors affecting the person or if the majority has the sense of fear towards the course. In fact, there are personality factors that affect individuals in learning or working actively such as, introversion and inhibition. As a result people with such characteristics tend to be passive and sometimes too passive to avoid committing mistakes or errors.

Conclusion
Accordingly, Sanyal [28] observes that, "it is not just any teacher that can make education happen, it has to be the effective teacher, who benefits from quality professional preparation and is systematically supported by quality careerlong professional development". A similar point of view derives from Darling-Hammond, as cited in [30], which asserts that "The highest quality teachers, those most capable of helping their students learn, have deep mastery of both their subject matter and pedagogy". Through lesson observation, it was concluded that there were limitations by many teacher trainees, mix up of formal and informal language in expressions like problems regarding language accuracy and lack of correction management of the language problems. Teacher trainees should be taught by teacher trainers basic aspects of formal and informal language as means of developing the discourse and sociolinguistic competence, which are two dimensions of communicative competence.
Teacher trainers should always have strategies that enable English language teacher trainees advance in their interaction in English language. These would include appraisal of good practice, encouragement when teacher trainees commit mistakes, correcting errors in the classroom with teacher trainees, in which the teacher trainees themselves participate actively so that they can acquire communicative and teaching competences by the end of the training programme. For spoken mistakes and errors, a teacher trainer can suggest the whole class to pay attention to teacher trainees' speeches to the whole class in order to write down the mistakes and later on share them on the board. During the teacher trainees' speech or reading aloud exercises, teacher trainers should follow what the literature review observes. It would be wise if teacher trainers follow Harmer, Bartram and Walton's [1,10] suggestion that teachers should use words or expressions such as "….again….","….one more time…..", "…..good, but……", "….what if…..","….not quite…." with an appropriate intonation, to make the pupils in this particular case the teacher trainees who made the error repeat correctly what s(he) has just said or read.
When delivering Language Use course, where grammar aspects, vocabulary and linguistic knowledge are shared, there is a strong need for teacher trainees to have two important learning materials; dictionaries and grammar books for the benefit of communicative competence. The researcher's view is that English grammar books both English-English and Portuguese-English dictionaries offer a powerful alternative to teacher trainer's explanation. Thus, if teacher trainees are trained to be autonomous as language learners and as researchers, it would save the trainer a good deal of time. Fabela-Cárdenas [7] asserts that "autonomous learning has become the umbrella term for an approach that envisions giving learners more autonomy in their decisions about what, when and how to learn". Further to this point of view, Little as cited in a study [7] advises that: learner autonomy and teacher autonomy are interdependent and that learner autonomy becomes a matter for teacher education in two ways. Firstly, we must provide trainee teachers with the skills to promote autonomy in the learners. Secondly, we must give them first-hand experience of learner autonomy in their own training to make teachers more likely to succeed in promoting learner autonomy.
Thus, English language teacher trainees' own learning strategies must be capitalised by teacher trainers, by getting to know what teacher trainees like to read, like to do in free time and by constantly giving them remedial tasks, and homework which demand many communicative practice in and outside the classroom based on communication skills, such as grammar exercises, issues for debates in the classroom with adequate preparation outside the classroom including bad or good lesson plans, reading and writing exercises.