Turkish state elementary English language teachers' opinions and perceptions of the changes within 4+4+4 curriculum innovation in the light of their awareness of 'English as a lingua Franca' and beliefs about English language teaching

Abstract

The current study aims to investigate Turkish state elementary EFL teachers' opinions and perceptions of the changes within 4+4+4 curriculum innovation in the context of their ELF-awareness and beliefs about English language teaching. With the intent of understanding whether new learning model for English has created the anticipated transformation in the field from EFL teachers' eyes, mixed-methods methodology is followed in the current study. In that interviews were performed following questionnaires, a sequential explanatory design is adopted. The questionnaire was implemented to 167 participants among whom 14 EFL teachers were chosen for semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data obtained from questionnaire survey were analysed via SPSS v.15.0 while content analysis was preferred for semi-structured interviews questions. The findings obtained indicate that despite their familiarity with the fact of globalisation and its impact on ELT, Turkish EFL teachers regard 'native speakers' and the related elements as a target supposed to be reached. Having known the ultimate target of the new model is to provide with the use of English for communication; EFL teachers think that redesigned curriculum and coursebooks enable this in turn creating the expected impact compared to the previous periods. However, EFL teachers believe that new model and coursebooks do not serve for the purpose of 'ELF' in terms of not including various Englishes, listening activities enabling the introduction of different English accents and language activities displaying different uses of English in various cultures. Also, it is seen that EFL teachers' opinions regarding revised coursebooks show significant differences varying by the grades. On the other hand, the whole teachers are found to share the same opinion as regards the negative impact of TEOG exam on themselves which was redesigned in line with the gainings of new curricular model. Although they acknowledge that the content of TEOG exam is such as to encourage the daily use of target language, teachers do not think that it serves for the purpose of 'Teaching English for Communication'.