Perceptions of English Teachers in Turkey and Germany

Sibel İnci ,Sevilay Yıldız

doi:10.13189/ujer.2019.070216

Abstract

We can assert that teachers have a key role for the success of program implementations. Also, the compatibility of beliefs and pedagogical practices of the teachers is significant. Analyzing the perceptions of teachers on programs in different countries may provide us with comparative lenses to comprehend how primary English programs are applied in each country and teachers' beliefs about English teaching. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the perceptions of English teachers on primary school English programs in Turkey and the states of Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden Wurttemberg and Berlin). This is a qualitative case study based on data from the perspectives of teachers. Semi-structured interview form was used with the study group including primary school English teachers in Turkey and Germany. On the basis of data, it can be concluded that teachers in Turkey are not trained to teach children and do not get sufficient support for professional development whereas the teachers in Germany are class teachers with English degrees, because the teacher trainings in these countries are different. In addition, while the teachers in Turkey experience difficulties with various reasons, English teachers in Germany have no difficulty in implementing the English programs overall.

Highlights

It has been a controversial issue among the linguists, educators and countries whether ‘earlier is better’ [1,2], teaching a foreign language to children is ‘a global phenomenon’ [3]
The study group of schools and teachers in Turkey was determined with convenience sampling method, as the central programs provided by the Ministry of National Education (MONE) are applied in all primary level
A study conducted in Turkey concluded that the generic teacher competences proposed by The Ministry of National Education (MONE) do not specify competences that are critical to teach English effectively and the subject-specific teacher competences are out-of-date and do not include teacher competences for English in the second year of primary education [78]

Summary

Introduction

It has been a controversial issue among the linguists, educators and countries whether ‘earlier is better’ [1,2], teaching a foreign language to children is ‘a global phenomenon’ [3]. The aims of early language teaching are increasing the immersion time and getting benefit of physiological advantages. This hasty implementation of foreign language education into primary school curriculum across the countries needs to be scientifically proven for its long-term effects in all aspects [4] since the majority of research is still conducted in ESL contexts but EFL contexts is less relatively [3] and the results do not generally demonstrate success in every country with different reasons. According to the results of the global exams like International English Proficiency Index (EF) Turkey, South American countries and some of Asian countries have ‘low’ or ‘very low’ skills [9,10,11,12,13]. The studies on teaching English to children is still a field needs to be searched and one of the main elements of this issue is teachers and what their beliefs about teaching English and especially teaching English to children

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