EFFECTS OF ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS ON MALAYSIAN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ SUBJECT MATTER KNOWLEDGE OF LITERARY DEVICES

Previous studies in the West have shown teachers who are academically qualified in specific subjects are able to teach better than those with degrees in nonspecific subjects (Goldhaber and Brewer, 1996). Such studies within the local context are limited. As such, this study examines the effects of academic qualifications on the subject matter knowledge of literary devices among secondary school English language teachers in a northern district in Malaysia. The analysis revealed that academic qualifications had significantly influenced the subject matter knowledge of literary devices and such knowledge differ significantly among the English major and English minor, TESL and KPLI or Postgraduate Teaching Programme English language teachers. Specifically, the English major language teachers had better subject matter knowledge of literary devices than the nonEnglish major language teachers. The TESL teachers were better than the nonTESL teachers in their subject matter knowledge of literary devices. The subject matter knowledge of literary devices amongst the KPLI English language teachers was lower compared to the nonKPLI language teachers.