Needs Analysis Primary School English Teachers in Turkey
Tez Türü: Yüksek Lisans
Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Erciyes Üniversitesi, Edebiyat Fakültesi, İngiliz Dili Ve Edebiyatı, Türkiye
Tez Danışmanı: Seniye Vural
Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017
Tezin Dili: İngilizce
Özet:
As English has become an international language in the process of globalization, the importance of learning English is growing day by day. It is inevitable that it has some impacts on the language policies of many countries. Lowering the age of compulsory English instruction in primary education is the major change in Turkish foreign language policy. From 2013-2014 school year onwards, primary school students will receive English instruction at 2nd grade rather than 4th grade in Turkish state schools. In the literature, there are lots of studies on curriculum development or renewal processes which focus on the students’ needs to develop an effective curriculum, while there are few systematic studies that investigate the needs of teachers to implement the curriculum effectively. This study aims to conduct a needs analysis for English teachers working at state primary schools after the policy change. With this aim, 60 English teachers working at different state schools in different cities were chosen randomly. A questionnaire and semi-structured interview were used as data collection devices. The questionnaire includes two parts, one of which is about participants’ educational background and the other one is about the participants’ attitudes towards English and their perception of their own English abilities. The answers were coded for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Semi-structured interviews include 7 questions about the qualities of the teachers’ most fruitful classes and possible problems they face in the current system. The answers were analyzed qualitatively through categorization. According to the overall findings of this study, it is concluded that teachers were trained on the learning characteristics of the young learners, but that was not enough for them to be fully confident about teaching young learners. They need to learn more games, songs, activities and how to develop age and level-appropriate materials to be more effective while teaching young learners.
Key words: Needs analysis, Primary education, Teaching English to young learners (TEYL), Language policy