Evaluation of an English Language Teacher Education Program from Student Teachers’ Perspectives: A Case from Turkey

Abstract

This mixed-design study aims to explore student teachers’ views on their own competency as prospective English language teachers and on how successful the teacher education program they are enrolled is in terms of preparing them for these competencies. Thirty-two senior students studying at the Foreign Languages Education Department (FLED) of a state university in Turkey participated in this study. A scale including Likert-type items measuring the perceived competency of student teachers on three subsections and open-ended items which seek to reach a deeper understanding of the choices participants selected in the closed-ended part was used as the data collection instrument. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were employed in order to analyze the questionnaire. The results obtained from descriptive and inferential statistics showed that teacher candidates feel themselves competent in a) language and subject area, b) planning, teaching, and classroom management area, c) monitoring, assessment, and professional development areas respectively. Using assessment methods relevant to the subject effectively and knowing a variety of assessment methods were discovered to be competencies that student teachers feel the least confident. These results were further discussed in relation to the recent studies conducted in Turkey after the educational reforms of 1997 and 2006 in the pre-service English teacher education departments’ curriculums.