Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
English for Young Learners in Asia: Challenges and Directions for Teacher Education, Subhan Zein,Yuko Butler Goto, Editör, Routledge, London/New York , New York, ss.85-105, 2022
Turkey, with its limited hours of instructional time in English, a strong will for English communicative competency, traditional foreign language teaching methodology, and heavy reliance on government-approved textbooks lacking to provide age-appropriate learning contexts for young English language learners (Haznedar, 2009) shows similarities to other emerging nations in Asia such as Taiwan, (Butler, 2015) and Indonesia (Zein, 2012). Despite all favorable intentions, Turkey has been failing in English as a foreign language instruction (British Council and TEPAV, 2013). One of the remedial solutions in Turkey- like the rest of the world- has been lowering the age of foreign language instruction (Nunan, 2003; Kırkgöz, 2008). Effective since 1997, the primary level foreign language education was lowered from Grade 6 to Grade 4 and as of 2012, English as a foreign language started to be offered as early as Grade 2 (age range ~ 6,5-7,5). Such policy changes, according to Cameron (2003), necessitate the training of specialized language teachers equipped with pedagogical knowledge and professional development tailored to young learner language instruction including teaching English to young learners (TEYL)-based methodology. Haznedar (2012) records the limited knowledge of Turkish primary level language teachers in second language acquisition (SLA), first language acquisition in relation to SLA, assessment of young English learners, and most importantly critical evaluation of their own professional development. Despite its urgency, pre-service English language instructors to young learners (EYL) do not receive a systematic training except for a sequence course called “Teaching English to Young Learners” with 3-4 hours per week for one or two academic semester(s). TEYL is a mostly theory-based course discussing numerous instructional, pedagogical points of young learners with little practical, hands-on, in-person experience component where teacher candidates observe and transform the theoretical points discussed in TEYL courses into practice through the lens of field-based observation and reflection. Akyel (2012) highlights the undeniable impact of indirect experience of teaching through field observations and reflective writing for pre-service instructor professional development. Zein (2016) acknowledges professional development encompasses complex and dynamic processes among teacher educators and educational administration for a teacher education program with practicality and relevance. Atay suggests (2003) reflections establish the core of the teacher education research. The current study presents a case study of a group of pre-service teachers gaining professional experience via observations and reflective writing as a follow-up component of field observation of two private institutions. The observations made mainly were pre-primary level (ages 3 to 6) at one institution and primary education (Grades 1-4, ages 7 to 12) at the other one. A group of pre-service teacher candidates (N:23) visited a kindergarten and a private primary school (Grades 1-4) located in Ankara, Turkey once a week and observed English classes offered to young ones (age range~ 3-10) for four weeks (each session was 40 to 80 min.). Following each visit, pre-service instructors wrote reflections discussing classroom physical layout, TEYL methods, teacher-student interaction and so on. The reflections were coded based on a layered coding involving two major steps. Initially the reflective entries indicating instructional commentaries are extracted and secondly, these reflective entries were coded. Once coding is complete, the emerging themes within the dataset become visible so to provide a more global interpretation of the sampled pre-service instructors’ of (non)effective TEYL practices. In their reflections (N: 92 reflective entries), pre-service instructors shed light on what TEYL classrooms should be like with spacious, colorful, class layout, seating arrangement facilitating group work and student to student interaction, TEYL tasks through games, songs, drama, content and language integration, theme-based language instruction, early literacy instruction, dynamic classroom interaction patterns, age and proficiency-appropriate, quick activities and transitioning across activities, and setting class rules and routines. Pre-service teacher (PST) reflections also reveal some misconceptions and lack of PST knowledge in TEYL. The present study, through the reflective practices of the participating pre-service ELT majors aims to increase awareness in the pre-service English language instructor professional development and training. The PSTs’ reflective endeavor provides invaluable feedback to policy makers, educational administration, and teacher educators to keep field experience and reflection as integral components of PSTs’ professional development and training.