Reflections on practicum experiences of non-ELT student teachers in Turkey

Year 2017, Volume: 6 Issue: 3, 276 - 292, 27.09.2017

İsmail Hakkı Mirici , Funda Ölmez-çağlar

Abstract

In English language teacher education (hereafter ELT)
programs of Turkish universities, teaching practicum has a critical value due
to its pivotal role in equipping student teachers with the necessary
competences and preparing them for the teaching profession. Practicum
experience turns out to be of greater importance for the graduates of other
English language departments (hereafter non-ELT) such as English Linguistics,
English Language and Literature or American Culture and Literature who attend
pedagogical formation certificate programs offered by faculties of education.
These student teachers do not have as much opportunity to observe teachers and
practice teaching as ELT department graduates. Therefore, reflections on the
teaching practicum experiences of these student teachers might provide insights
into the nature of the aforementioned intensive teacher education programs, and
the special needs of non-ELT department graduates who decide to become teachers
of English and attend these programs. The present study aims to examine non-ELT
student teachers’ practicum experiences and put forward some practical
suggestions in order to improve their teaching skills. Data were collected from
ten randomly selected non-ELT student teachers enrolled in a pedagogical
formation certificate program at a state university in Turkey using three major
sources: observations of video recordings of student teachers’ teaching
practices by means of an observation form, the university supervisor’s
reflections on these teaching practices and the teacher candidates’
self-reflections. Initially, the teaching performances were analyzed
statistically, and the qualitative data gathered from the remaining two sources
were separately subjected to thematic analysis. The results were then
integrated. The study revealed that non-ELT student teachers need more
practicum opportunities in the classes of truly expert and experienced teachers
and supervisors to develop their English language teaching abilities.

Keywords

teacher education, non-ELT departments, practicum experience, teaching English

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