A Critical Analysis of Foreign Language Pre-service Teacher Education in Turkey

Abstract

Although research studies delving into foreign language teacher education in Turkey have been growing exponentially over the last few decades, so much more still lies undiscovered. What is mostly needed is not the synopsis of what Turkish foreign language teacher education policy has gone through, but the critical investigation of how it has been shaped so far, thereby allowing us to better comprehend the underlying challenges, failures, and precepts in teacher education. Yet, this need has received scant attention. This critical study, therefore, aims to display the historical process of foreign language teacher education policy in Turkey and to look into its present situation. Put simply, this study has revealed how pre-service language teacher education in Turkey has progressed through Ottoman and Turkish education era and how it has taken on much greater prominence in recent years. The study also presents some suggestions for language teacher education (hereafter LTE) program developers and tea chers.