Enhancing Pre-Service EFL Teachers’ Teaching Skill through Teacher Training: A Case Study of a University in Thailand

EFL teacher training for pre-service teachers plays a vital role in second language teacher education (SLTE). In Thailand, pre-service EFL teacher training benefits in helping studentteachers gain confidence before going to their practicum. This study investigates the effects of the pre-service EFL teacher training in a university in Thailand. The pre-service teachers’ perceptions towards the EFL training were also examined. Participants were 30 pre-service teachers currently studying in English Learning Management Program in the university at the research site. Research method applied training program evaluation (Owen & Rogers, 1999), and a 24-hour EFL training program was implemented. An experienced trainer in EFL was invited to provide the EFL training during the whole training course. Data collection gained was from: 1) an evaluation form, 2) a questionnaire, and 3) a student reflection sheet. Data analysis employed percentage, means, and S.D. for quantitative whereas grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1999) was applied for qualitative data. Three major findings revealed that: 1) the effects of the preservice EFL teacher training was very high; 2) the participants showed changes in all areas of EFL knowledge and experience provided after the training; and 3) the participants viewed five factors which included training contents, knowledge and experience, training activities, training process, and the trainer that affected the training. However, the findings indicated that the critical problem of the study was time limitation of the training course. This study has shed light on the significant role of EFL training for pre-service EFL teachers before their practicum as the findings showed positive change in their motivation and attitude for their teaching practice.


INTRODUCTION
This research project aims to investigate the effects of the pre-service EFL teacher training in English language program. Also, the trainees' perceptions towards the EFL training course were examined. Background of the study is in threefold. They are: 1) an overview of second language teacher education, 2) teaching practicum, and 30 the role of pre-service EFL teacher training.

An Overview of Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE)
To start with, second language teacher education (SLTE) plays a key role in the countries where English is used as a second language as well as a foreign language. In particular, the roles of teacher education for both in-service and pre-service teachers are very significant. As thus, universities that are responsible for EFL teacher education program place very high importance in SLTE, particularly in pre-service EFL teacher education. In Thailand, while the Ministry of Education is normally responsible for in-service teacher education, teacher training in particular, pre-service teacher 2 ALLS 12(3):1-11 practices in-service teacher education and training and it led to the change in pre-service teacher education. That is while lots of in-service EFL teachers proceed their professional development by furthering their studies in higher education, pre-service teacher curriculum has been adjusted and revised. For example, Chumworatayee (2019) found that the participants, who are in-service teachers, studying in graduate programs perceived EFL teaching methods at high frequency levels, particularly teaching grammar and using Thai in class as appropriate. Obviously, this study did not investigate how in-service teachers perceived about "subject matter knowledge." This might be because classroom teaching practices are focused and regarded as more important than the knowledge of English.
However, Franz and Teo (2018) examined EFL teachers' perceptions in secondary schools about their English proficiency test (conducted in 2015) that was below the national standard regarding CEFR standard (Ministry of Education, 2006;Worawong, 2019). The results showed that English proficiency of Thai teachers was problematic. As it showed that ninety-four percent of English teachers failed to reach the targeted proficiency level of B2 in the national test. Surprisingly, findings revealed the participants ignored this. In fact, they did not pay attention to the CEFR assessment which is used by the Ministry of Education even though the purpose was to raise English proficiency standard of EFL secondary school teachers in the country.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Education had lately redesigned to extend one more year for students' teaching practicum of English teacher education program. In other words, in order to graduate a bachelor degree of English education program, student-teachers have to complete five years of education program instead of four years as they used to be. This is applicable for pre-service EFL teachers as well since they have to spend two semesters of their practice teaching for their internship (teaching practicum) in the final year. To elaborate, Thai pre-service teachers are required to complete their EFL content courses before proceeding on a one-year teaching practicum of internship (Kasetsart University KamphaengSaen, 2020).
To sum, this means that after four years of completing their EFL content course syllabus, the EFL pre-service teachers have two semesters of teaching practicum waiting ahead. Of course, this is not easy for those inexperienced fulltime EFL pre-service teachers. The question is how the university can help their pre-service EFL teachers before going out to their schools for practicum or teaching practice. Thus, a short course of EFL training for pre-service teachers could be the answer to this question.

Practicum and Pre-service EFL Teachers
Regarding teaching practicum, practicum or teaching practice is an essential component of English education program for EFL teacher-learners. In second language teacher education (SLTE), students learn "knowledge about language and language learning" (Burns & Richards, 2009, p. 3), that is, classroom teaching skills as well as pedagogical techniques. However, that is not enough to prepare pre-service EFL teachers for their teaching career in the future. This is where practicum comes to outshine in the English education curriculum program. Practicum is defined and called in various names, for example, "practice teaching, field experience, apprenticeship, practical experience, or internship" (Gebhard, 2009, p. 250;Burns & Richards, 2009;CELIK, 2008). Whatever it is called, the meaning is the same, that is, practice teaching of pre-service teachers for undergraduate student-teachers before they complete their education program. Teacher-students, namely, pre-service teachers are required to go out and get their feet wet about English teaching with the real classroom and students before becoming a professional EFL teacher.
In this study, the researcher used the word "practicum" for EFL teacher training as it is called in the curriculum by the university at the research site (คณะศึ กษาศาสตร์ และพั ฒน ศาสตร์ มหาวิ ทยาลั ยเกษตรศาสตร์ วิ ทยาเขตกำ าแพงแสน, 2560). Briefly, the goal of practicum is giving pre-service teachers opportunities to apply and try "the what and how" of the theories they learn at the university to the real classroom of their own students at schools. However, practice teaching is not just another course for pre-service teachers to complete and earn their degrees. It is also the way for them to start their professional development. As stated by Burns and Richards (2009, p. 5), there are other factors complying with the practicum more than applying their "practical knowledge or pedagogic content knowledge." The other factors that are integrated in practicum are teaching observation including self-observation and peer observation and recording teaching journals as well as having discussions during the seminars (Gebhard, 2009, pp. 252-253).
As a result, pre-service teachers will learn to realize whether they really want to move on their career as an EFL teacher in the future or rethink about their profession as a teacher of English. This is very critical because a one-year practicum means they have to adapt, adjust, and apply content knowledge and pedagogic teaching skills in the real context. This will include their ability of being able to comply with the school rules and regulations, and get along with their new colleagues too. Moreover, having a good rapport with students could be another important factor for their success and motivation of being an EFL teacher in the future. For example, CELIK (2008) found that pre-service teachers in Turkey had to endure certain stressful experiences during the practicum such as getting rapport and communication with students, preparing lesson plans and delivering them. Similarly, there was a study in Thailand which revealed that English teacher identity could be developed during the teaching practicum (Prabjandee, 2019). On the other hand, another problem is pre-service teachers could find it difficult to deal with the real situation in the classroom in trying to put their theories into practice during the practicum.
To conclude, all of these challenging factors could change their beliefs and development about their content knowledge and teaching theories relating the real situation. The question is how people or English Education Curriculum who are responsible of pre-service teachers' practicum can make student-teachers have confidence and motivation to go for their teaching practice successfully. The next section will discuss Enhancing Pre-Service EFL Teachers' Teaching Skill through Teacher Training: A Case Study of a University in Thailand 3 about pre-service teacher training that is recommended to solve this problem.

The Role of Pre-service EFL Teacher Training
EFL teacher training for pre-service teachers is considered playing as high important role as EFL teacher training for in-service teachers. To elaborate, EFL teacher training for in-service teachers has been long practiced and conducted in Thailand both from American native and British native. And this is under responsibility of Ministry of Education regarding English secondary school teachers in the country. In fact, there are two outstanding organisations that run teacher trainings in Thailand, namely the AUA Language Center (AUA LANGUAGE CENTER, 2020) and the British Council (BRITISH COUNCIL Thailand, 2020). However, both organisations mostly run EFL training for in-service teachers, and not pre-service teachers. And of course, their goal of teacher training is totally different.
To simply state, the goal of in-service teacher training mainly usually focuses on professional development both in language knowledge and pedagogical skills. In contrast, pre-service teacher training is usually run by the English Education Department in the university; and the purpose of pre-service teacher training is mainly pre-service teacher preparation for their coming practicum in the following semesters. Although professional development can be an underlined schema in that particular training, it is not the major attributes of the training contents.
Regarding benefits of pre-service teacher training, it is obviously seen more as practicum preparation-preparing student-teachers to encounter their teaching in real context. Previous studies show that pre-service teacher training advantages student-teachers in twofold. One is raising their awareness of being EFL teachers and the other is testing their beliefs of EFL subject-matter and theories of pedagogical knowledge in regular class and external training outside class. For example, Tuzel and Akcan (2009) found that pre-service teachers, during their practicum, encountered difficulties in teaching grammar structures, vocabulary, adjusting their use of language to their students, including using classroom language. Concerning pre-service teacher beliefs about teaching and learning English, a pre-service teacher training program indicated a better change in beliefs about teaching and learning English (Debreli, 2012). For example, the three participants in this study had changed their beliefs about the theories previously learned in regular class that sometimes they were not practical. Furthermore, they had developed more awareness of teaching practice.
In brief, it could be concluded that teacher training for pre-service teachers advantages them not only preparing them for practicum in the following year but also allowing them to TEST whether the language knowledge and teaching skills previously learned workable or not the real classroom context. As thus, the pre-service EFL teacher training can be a good a solution for practicum due to the limitations of practicum previously discussed.
In this study, the researcher has implemented a short course of EFL training for pre-service teachers. The purpose was to investigate the effects of the EFL training provided on them and their perceptions towards the EFL training.

RESEARCH METHOD
This study applied the theory of program evaluation (Owen & Rogers, 1999) for running the program study. In this study, a twenty-hour training program was provided to the participants. The major focus of this program evaluation was to clarify and develop the program elements if similar ones are to be conducted in the future (Owen & Rogers, 1999, p. 54). Two research questions were posed as a guideline for investigation in this study. They were: 1) To what extent does the EFL training course have effects on pre-service teachers in English language program before their practicum? 2) In what ways do the trainees perceive the EFL training course provided?

The EFL Training
This study mainly consisted of three stages of implementation. Firstly, needs analysis investigation was conducted using the questionnaire. Secondly, the EFL training course was outlined and designed based on the results of the NA. And finally, the pre-service EFL teacher training was conducted.
To elaborate, before conducting the pre-service EFL teacher training, the researcher explored the students' needs by distributing a need analysis questionnaire to the 4 th year students in the English Learning Management Program. The purpose was to investigate the students' needs for teaching topics in EFL before the pre-service EFL teacher training was implemented. Moreover, the hidden purpose was to examine which areas of EFL they needed the most.
After data analysis of the questionnaire, the researcher and the trainer used the results to design the training program. To start with, the pre-service EFL teacher training was 30-hour course including micro-teaching and a seminar; however, as the training proceeded, it was adjusted and condensed to 24-hour course including training program evaluation without the seminar due to students' time limitation. Consequently, the intervention of this EFL training consisted of in-class training including micro-teaching.

The Trainer
The trainer in this training program got her Doctor of Education in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). She also had more than 30 years experiences in teaching and EFL training in both secondary school and tertiary levels, national and international. Most of all, action research and case study were her main interest and experience she had.

The Participants
The participants in this study were thirty of fourth year students who were currently studying in English Learning

ALLS 12(3):1-11
Management Program at the at the time of the study at the university of the research site. These students were to practice teaching for their internship for two semesters in the following year after the training.
However, some participants were absent during the training course but they were all present in the last week. The absentees normally happened in most of research implementation. When the first week started the trainer realised this problem since the pre-service EFL teacher training program was designed once a week each time. As thus, before the following week started the trainer briefly summarised the previous contents conducted for the trainees. This helped those absent participants in the previous weeks have background knowledge before the trainer started the new session in the training schedule.

Research Instruments
Research instruments in this study were classified into 2 types, that is, the intervention which was the pre-service EFL teacher training program, and the research tools employed for data collection. Concerning the research tools for data collection, the researcher employed three research tools that were: 1) a set of the questionnaire, 2) an evaluation form, and 3) a student reflection sheet as presented below:

The pre-service EFL teacher training program
The EFL training program for pre-service teachers in the study was designed based on the results of the NA questionnaire given to the students a month before the training started. This was classified in six main types that were: 1) teaching techniques, 2) basic steps of teaching English, 3) intercultural communication, 4) lesson planning, 5) an overview of language assessment, and 6) micro teaching. All of the contents were used as the content syllabus in this EFL training program. As previously stated, firstly the schedule of pre-service EFL teacher training was designed for 30-hour training course; however, as the training proceeded the limitation of time scheduled and the participants' availability made the trainer adjust the training time. In total, the pre-service EFL teacher training consisted of 24 hours.

The evaluation form
The purpose of this evaluation form was to investigate the effects the EFL training course provide to students or pre-service teachers in English language program before they proceed to their EFL practicum in the following year. In other words, this evaluation form was used to address Research Question # 2, that is, "To what extent does the EFL training course have effects on pre-service teachers in English language program before their practicum?" The evaluation form applied a three-scale checklist covered all the contents in the training course. The evaluation checklist was designed to investigate the effects on the participants after participating in, the pre-service EFL teacher training course.

The questionnaire
The questionnaire aimed to investigate the trainees' perceptions towards the pre-service EFL teacher training program. In fact, the questionnaire intended to answer Research Question # 2, that is, "In what ways do the trainees perceive the EFL training course provided?" Twenty questions were asked how the student teachers perceive the usefulness of the EFL training provided.

The student reflections sheet
The purpose of the student reflections sheet was to explore the students' opinions and their perceptions about the whole pre-service EFL teacher training program. Data from this reflections sheet were to answer both Research questions # 1 and 2 as previously stated above.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Data collection in this study was from both quantitative and qualitative sources. While the questionnaire and the evaluation form sheet were used to collect quantitative data, the student reflections sheet was employed to collect the students' opinions about the pre-service EFL teacher training in the form of "words." Data analysis for quantitative sources employed percentage, means, and standard deviation. On the other hand, data from the students' writing that reflected how the training went was analysed using grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The grounded data were categorised using colour coding (Charttrakul, 2007) in accordance to the topics given in the students' reflection sheet.

FINDINGS
Data analysis from the study revealed that the pre-service EFL teacher training provided to the pre-service teachers in the study had high effects on the trainees; in addition, the participants perceived that the pre-service EFL teacher training was very useful to them. Findings are presented in two parts: 1) the effects of the EFL training and its usefulness, and 2) the trainees' perceptions toward the EFL training.

The Effects of Pre-service EFL Teacher Training
Regarding the effects of the pre-service EFL teacher training program, an evaluation form was employed to collect data. Thirty participants filled in the evaluation form. Also, fifteen questions were asked about the participants' knowledge before and after their attending the pre-service EFL teacher training. The purpose was to address RQ #1: "To what extent does the pre-service EFL teacher training program provide effects to pre-service teachers in English Language Program before their practicum?" The results from the evaluation form was illustrated in tables 1, 2 and 3 below: Table 1 demonstrates that the students evaluated that they had the most knowledge in using the Internet teaching resources (X=2.13) followed by lesson planning (X=2.03), and producing teaching materials (X=2.00). On the other  hand, the three teaching areas they knew the least were: 1) applying the TPR teaching technique (X=1.47), 2) using songs in English classroom (X=1.60), and 3) the 3Ps teaching techniques (X=1.73). Table 2 indicates that the students' knowledge has increased in all areas of the investigation. In particular, the three highest score of students' knowledge after participating in the pre-service EFL teacher training program were in using the Internet teaching resources (X=2.87) followed by using effective classroom language (X=2.83), and using warm-up activities correctly (X=2.77). In contrast, the lower increasing score dealt with applying the TPR teaching technique (X=2.47) as well as using basic steps of teaching grammar (X=2.47). Table 3 reveals that change of students' knowledge occurred after the pre-service EFL teacher training program in every area of the investigation. In particular, the most change found in applying the TPR teaching technique (X=1.00) followed by using effective classroom language (X=0.93), and using warm-up activities effectively (X=0.90) as well as using songs in English classroom (X=0.90).
To conclude, the change of students' knowledge that occurred in all areas of the EFL training program indicates the effects of the intervention significantly. Next, findings of the trainees' perceptions towards the pre-service EFL teacher training will be presented.

The Trainees' Perceptions Towards the EFL Pre-service Teacher Training Program
Data analysis from the questionnaire and the student-teachers' reflection sheets indicated that the trainees viewed the EFL training mostly useful to them. This is to answer the research question # 2, "In what ways do the trainees perceive the pre-service EFL teacher training course provided?" Firstly, twenty questions were asked in the questionnaire about to what extent the trainees agreed about the usefulness of the pre-service EFL teacher training and at what levels. Likert five-rating scale was applied and the interpretation is as follows:  Table 4 above shows that all students agreed with the usefulness in all the content areas provided in the EFL training. In fact, there were six areas of the training that the students agreed the most. They were: 1) learning teaching techniques from the trainer, 2) being given chances to participate and practice the activities, 3) learning how to use English in the classroom from the trainer, 4) practical and useful training activities and processes, 5) classroom instructions being understandable and easy to follow, and lastly 6) trainer's ability in conducting the training successfully and effectively.
To examine the usefulness of each session provided, the students were asked to rank the sessions regarding their usefulness to the students' coming teaching. Findings were presented in table 5 below: Table 5 above demonstrates that all students agreed that the most five useful sessions ranking from the first to the third were: firstly how to use games in English classroom (X=2.37), secondly using non-verbal language in teaching English, using warm-up activities effectively, using effective classroom language (X=2.30), and thirdly lesson planning (X=2.23).

The Student-teachers' Reflection
Findings from the students' reflection revealed that the students viewed the pre-service EFL teacher training program in six areas. They were: 1) training contents, 2) knowledge and experience gained, 3) training activities, 4) training process, 5) the trainer, and 6) limitations of the training course. Data presentation is elaborated below:

Training contents
To start with, data analysis revealed that the students found the training contents appropriate, useful, and practical. They reflected that the contents in all sessions including teaching techniques, lesson planning, using teaching materials, and constructing the test were useful to them. For example, Paul wrote, "It's like summarizing of all the courses we learned, and this EFL training help us for preparing in the coming internship practicum in the following year." Similarly, Tammy reflected that, "It's like a revision from years1 to 4 of their undergrad study. In fact, it was a good preparation for my practicum.
On the other hand, Mona expressed that classroom language session was very useful and could be used in real life. However, Tom thought that some contents were not interesting while another student viewed that some contents were new to them.

Knowledge and experience gained
Secondly, findings showed that all participants learned new, practical, and interesting knowledge and experience from the EFL training program. For example, Ann, Beth, and Tina agreed that this training gave them good and useful knowledge and experience for pre-service teachers in their reallife situation. Similarly, Ted and Pearl expressed that they experienced confidence in teaching through having high participation and they liked that. Likewise, Fred stated that he experienced the real teaching when the trainer assigned the trainees to play the teacher's role in front of the class Moreover, some students expressed that the EFL training had broadened their perspective views of teaching compared to the theories they studied in normal or regular classroom. For example, Sindy reflected that she had increased her knowledge in teacher techniques that would be useful for her future career. Also, Nick agreed with Sindy, and he was sorry that he did not attend every session due to his weekends' assignment and part-time job engagement.

Training activities
Thirdly, results from students' reflections indicated that the EFL training activities were motivating, relaxing, fun, various, and not stressful. This might be because the trainer started every session with warm-up activities and this helped motivate the students before they were introduced to the teaching content. Beside, the students expressed that the method of training and instructions were clear and practical including the trainer's teaching tips which were very useful to them. For example, Sindy and Ed wrote that the training activities were fun and informative while Mona said that the training activities were not boring.
As a result, the training activities encouraged the trainees' participation and the trainees learned how to observe students and make them participate in learning activities in their own class in the future. In particular, Nid viewed that the training activities provided her a good revision on lesson planning. This could be said that learning how to teach from their reflection of how to learn.

Training process
Next, data analysis showed that the training process was good and useful in five areas. Firstly, the students observed that the training offered them high participation. Moreover, there were always activities for trainees to practice. For example, Pearl said she gained teaching guidelines experience for her students in the future. Secondly, the training was not boring like the other ones they used to attend and they learned to work in groups as Tammy said that, "The training gave use relaxing learning atmosphere." This was supported by Pearl, she said, "It was fun." Thirdly, the students expressed that the training offered them chances for creativity and broadened them more views of teaching English, e.g. the techniques of using games and songs including the 3Ps teaching. For example, Sue stated that, "The training process promoted my personality and confidence in teaching English." Fourthly, the training provided the students using the technique of "Learning by Doing," as Fred reflected. Furthermore, Jane expressed that, "I learned to design classroom activities. Before attending this training, I had no ideas to make a practical lesson-plan and design productive warm-up activities." And finally, most students agreed that the training schedule was flexible. This was when the students were halfclass absent on the second day. Thus, the researcher and the trainer changed the training time from Saturday to Thursday that was their normal class. For example, Paul said, "It was good to adjust the training time to normal class. To conclude, all students agreed that the training process was good since they learned new knowledge, teaching techniques, and English learning activities they have never known before. The training gave them high participation with relaxing training atmosphere, particularly working in groups. Moreover, the students like the training process in that it gave them chances of learning by doing and that made them confident when they were in front of the class. However, the training schedule was adjusted due to the weekend time that was not appropriate for the students to come.

The trainer
Concerning the trainer, findings revealed that the students reflected the trainer in three areas. They were: 1) her knowledge and expertise, 2) her personality, and 3) her training techniques. To begin with, the students realized the trainer was knowledgeable, expertise, potential and experienced. For example, Tina expressed that, "She was able to transfer knowledge with enthusiasm. It was not boring like I expected before attending the training." Similarly, Sindy stated that, "She made the trainees active during the training." Thus, this can motivate the students' interest. Secondly, finding showed that the trainer's personality was very significant to make the  training successful. For example, Nid said, "She has power, she was kind and understandable. And she showed us a good example of a good English teacher." On the other hand, Sue observed that, "I like her voice projection." Lastly, findings indicated that the trainer's strategy of training techniques had led to the students' satisfaction of her teaching. For example, Pearl said, "She was well-prepared." Similarly, Ed expressed that, "Her teaching helped to clarify my confusion of teaching English I used to have." This was supported by Sue as she said that, "Her presentation was clear, concise and understandable." On the other hand, Pete liked it when the trainer gave a short and concise summary of the previous session before moving the session of that day. Though most students like it when she spoke English, particularly when giving instructions. "It was clear," Peter said, Opal complained that her speaking English in class all the time was problematic for her. And sometimes, "She spoke too fast for some of us to follow," Pearl agreed.
In brief, the findings indicated that the trainer's knowledge, her expertise as well as her personality were the main results of the success of the training that made the trainees satisfied, particularly her training strategies of training presentation.

Limitations of the EFL training program
Lastly, findings revealed that there were two limitations of this pre-service EFL teacher training that were the schedule time, and the training activities. Firstly, the trainees did not like it when the first two sessions were scheduled on Saturdays. Besides, it was too long for 6-hour session per day as Ed said, "Three hours per day is OK." And thus, the trainees preferred to have more time if there is another training. Secondly, findings showed that there was not enough time for them to participate in some activities like "role-play." For example, Sarah and Pete agreed that group participation was good but it was not enough for individual practice. They needed more time. All the two limitations were very useful if there were similar pre-service EFL teacher training in the future.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
This research paper presents an investigation of the effects of the pre-service EFL teacher training in English language program including the student teachers' perceptions towards the EFL training course. The findings of the study revealed that the effects of the EFL training was very high. This showed in three areas that were the significant changes of the students' knowledge and experience in all areas of the training contents, the students' perceptions on the most usefulness of the EFL training, and finally they all reflected that they gained a lot of knowledge and experience of the training contents from the training activities and process provided. And the most important factor of the training they appreciated was the trainer. The trainees viewed that she was knowledgeable and had expertise in teaching English and organizing training activities. Moreover, they appreciated her enthusiastic personality and motivating teaching techniques which they learned a lot from.

Conclusions
The study can be concluded in two arenas which are: 1) the students' change, and 2) the EFL training and its applications.

The Students' change
Two areas of change found in this study.They are: 1) knowledge and experience in teaching English, and 2) attitudes towards the EFL training as discussed below:

Knowledge and experience in teaching English
Findings of the study indicated that the students recognized the change in their knowledge and experience after attending the EFL training program. This revealed in two types of knowledge and experience. Firstly, their knowledge and experience of intercultural communication has been changed by mean score of 0.73 and their nonverbal communication rose from the average scores of 1.93 to 2.73. This was very important in that intercultural sensitivity should be enhanced in teaching pre-service English language teachers as supported by Altan (2018) and Arcagok (2020) who both examined the cultural sensitivity of pre-service teachers in Turkey. Secondly, the results reveal that overall knowledge and experience about teaching English including testing and constructing the test had risen from the average scores of 1.85 to 2.62 (see Table 12 in Section 5.2.1). In particular, the findings from the students' reflections show that the EFL pre-service teacher training had expanded their knowledge and experience in teaching English relating to the theories they learned in their normal class. Regarding to this, the trainees recognized that they have learned new things from the EFL training program in this research project. As a result, an impact that could be seen from the study is that the students can gradually develop their identity of teaching English through this EFL pre-service teacher training. A study by Prabjandee (2020) confirms this. Prabjandee explores how English teachers develop their professional identity and found that this development comes into two facets and found two changes that are immediate and gradual changes. Thus, pre-service teachers could begin their professional identity from a kind of EFL pre-service teacher training provided to them before their teaching practicum as in this study.
To sum, it is observable that substantial knowledge and experience are considered important for pre-service EFL teacher training program.

Attitudes towards the EFL training
Attitudes of the participants towards the EFL training in this study is found significantly positive. This attitudes change shows in both quantitative and qualitative findings. Firstly, the overall average score of the students' perceptions was 4.2 which means that the students mostly agreed the EFL training was useful to them. As shown in data analysis from students' reflections that his mostly dealt with learning teaching techniques and having opportunities to highly participate, involve, and practice the activities provided during the training.
On the other hand, findings from the students' reflections reveal that their positive attitudes on the EFL training are influenced by the training activities and process, including the trainer and her techniques of training. Concerning the training activities and process, the trainees expressed that the training atmosphere was quite relaxing and inspiring. This was different from the atmosphere in their regular classroom activities. In addition, during the training the students were given chances for active participation, and not only listening to the trainer. Moreover, the most interesting findings reveal that these positive attitudes towards the EFL training might be resulted from the trainer's knowledge and her expertise, her personality, and her presentation techniques. In fact, the participants stated that they liked it when the trainer gave clear instructions. Moreover, her method of revising the previous session before stating the new session was helpful for them. This helped the students to recall what was left in the last session, and be able to link the new knowledge with the previous one.
Besides, the findings indicate that the trainer's personality had affected the students concerning being a role model of English teacher. This was expressed by Nid that, "She has power," while Sue liked her voice projection and Pearl impressed her well-prepared teaching. However, Opal did not like it when the trainer spoke English all the time; she had difficulties in catching her speaking. Similarly, Pearl said the trainer sometimes spoke too fast. Regarding speaking English during the training, this should be done and enforced to make the EFL pre-service teachers familiar with using English in classroom as we call it communicative language teaching or CLT (Littelwood, 1981;Harmer, 2007). In this case, the research argues that the trainees should be encouraged and motivated to use CLT before their real-life teaching or even the near future of their practicum in the following year after this EFL training. This is supported by Mak (2004) who found that the pre-service teachers in the study were affected by CLT's beliefs when dealing their attitudes towards certain teaching problems.
In brief, attitudes of the trainees in this study are significant in motivating and inspiring them to become professional teachers in the future. And in this study, the training process and the trainer played the important role.

The EFL training program and Its applications
This study has shed light on how the pre-service EFL teacher training program can encourage and motivate pre-service teachers to become professional in their future teaching career. Considering training applications, two issues of concerns found to have influences on the success of the pre-service EFL teacher training for pre-service teachers in this study. They are: 1) contents of the EFL training, and 2) the trainer's knowledge and skills.

Contents of the pre-service EFL teacher training
Regarding the training contents in the study, the researcher and the trainer had distributed the questionnaire to the students. The purpose was to examine their needs of training contents. Consequently, the results of questionnaire led to setting priority of the contents for the pre-service EFL teacher training in the study. This was categorised in three major areas that were: 1) intercultural communication, 2) teaching techniques, and 3) testing and evaluation. Moreover, the results from the questionnaire also revealed that the trainees viewed high benefits of the EFL training provided. This was indicated by the total average of mean score of 4.2. This could be claimed that the trainees put the importance on EFL pre-service teacher training before they would have their practicum in the following year.
However, it was noticeable that the students who attended this pre-service EFL teacher training had already enrolled in all three areas of intercultural communication, teaching ALLS 12(3):1-11 courses, and evaluation in their English Education Program. In spite of this, some students expressed that they liked the training because it was like a summary of their course syllabus from years one to four. In particular, the findings showed the students perceived the usefulness of teaching techniques and organizing classroom management and using classroom language and instructions. Lastly, the students accepted that their confidence after attending the EFL training was rather high. However, this pre-service EFL teacher program did not include content knowledge of English, only pedagogical content knowledge is concerned. It is advisable that content knowledge is as important as teaching knowledge and should be included in the training schedule as well (Muzaffar, Rahim, & Jessee, 2011, p. 11). Thus, it can be argued that a kind of pre-service EFL teacher training is necessary for EFL pre-service teachers before having their teaching practicum.

Trainer's knowledge and skills
Secondly, findings in the study indicated that the trainer's knowledge and skills made the pre-service EFL teacher training successful, particularly her teaching and training expertise. Most of these findings derived from qualitative data in this study. In this research project, the trainer's skills deal with her expertise in teaching English, presentation skills, and her personality. The findings revealed that some students expressed they expected the training was boring like the previous ones they used to attend. However, in this research project, the trainer had experience in teaching and training English teachers for more than thirty years. This might be the result why the trainees reflected they had learned these teaching techniques form her even though some complained that the trainer sometimes spoke too fast.
Regarding the trainer's skill of presentation, this was witnessed by her making the trainees active and having high participation during the sessions. And this was one of the key factors of the training success. Basically, making the students becoming active learners is quite workable in all levels of teaching English, particularly when applying group work with cooperative and collaborative learning (Kagan, 1992(Kagan, ,1994. This always led to creating students' motivation in learning (Ushioda, 2012). Lastly, it was the trainer's personality that the students impressed. One student expressed that the trainer had a kind of power as well as her kindness and understanding, "She shows us a good example of being a good English teacher." To conclude, the success of EFL training for pre-service teachers depends on two factors that influence the students' motivation and attitudes. They are the training contents and the trainer's knowledge and skills.

Recommendations
In this research study, only one major limitation was timing of the training. This EFL pre-service teacher training program was targeted at the fourth-year students who enrolled in a specific English course at the university in the study. As thus, the pre-service EFL teacher training program was added up to their regular class. At the beginning of the training, the trainees were not happy and some students were absent when the first two sessions were scheduled on weekends though they accepted that this training was very useful to them. However, when the researcher and the trainer had changed the schedule time from weekends to working days and on their learning time-table, it turned out that the whole class of students were not absent. Moreover, they were willing and active to participate in the training activities provided, particularly role-play and micro-teaching. As a result, the researcher suggests that training schedule on weekends is not recommended.