Abstract
Concerns about the purpose of developing communicative skills in English teaching and approaches to overcome these concerns have always had an important place in language teaching. In this context, besides the fact that teachers’ roles are important, their beliefs about the approach have a profound influence on their professional achievement. In this regard, the aim of the present study was to determine Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers’ beliefs about developing their communicative skills with the communicative approach in Turkish context. The data obtained through Pre-Service Teacher Beliefs Questionnaire, in which 445 participants took part, and focus group interviews with 28 participants at several times and places were analysed by quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods respectively. As a result of the analysis, it was found that EFL student teachers generally had positive attitudes towards improving communicative skills of their prospective students with communicative approach; however, it was difficult for this approach to work properly in Turkey and in Turkish education system due to various reasons. In addition, it was found that EFL student teachers' self- efficacy beliefs were correlated with their attitudes towards the approach, and that many sub-factors such as second language proficiency also had an influence on the attitudes. Lastly, these findings were found to be significantly different according to the departments (ELL, ELT) rather than age and gender.
Highlights
While the developing technology eliminates the time and place concepts through leading to rapid globalization (Beck, 2002; Oral, 2003), in political and in academic aspects (Altan, 2010), English language has evaluated and dominated most parts of the world (Altan, 2010; Altan, 2017a; Bottery, 2000; Chang, 2006)
Considering the problems of foreign language teaching in Turkey, what kinds of beliefs Turkish pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers have about communicative skills development and communicative approach in Turkish context was investigated within the present study
As the questionnaires and focus group interviews were conducted at both English Language Teaching (ELT) and English Language and Literature (ELL) departments, participants planning to be teachers after graduation were included in the study
Summary
While the developing technology eliminates the time and place concepts through leading to rapid globalization (Beck, 2002; Oral, 2003), in political and in academic aspects (Altan, 2010), English language has evaluated and dominated most parts of the world (Altan, 2010; Altan, 2017a; Bottery, 2000; Chang, 2006). Considering the problems of foreign language teaching in Turkey, what kinds of beliefs Turkish pre-service EFL teachers have about communicative skills development and communicative approach in Turkish context was investigated within the present study. As their beliefs about their teaching profession could not be based on actual teaching experiences due to their lack of field-work, pre-service EFL teachers‟ beliefs and ideas about teaching can be considered as their future expectations influenced by their learning experiences and observations during their education life. The data obtained from 24 Turkish EFL student teachers by Akyel (2015) revealed that the participants make use of practice teaching and research engagement during their school practicum
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