Pre-service efl teachers' beliefs about communicative skills development and communicative approach in Turkish context

Abstract

Concerns about the purpose of developing communicative skills in English teaching and approaches to overcome them have always had an important place in language teaching. Besides the fact that teachers' roles are important, their beliefs about the approach are thought to have a profound influence on their professional achievement. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to determine Turkish pre-service EFL teachers' beliefs about developing their prospective students' communicative skills with 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 a total of 28 participants are analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. As a result of the analysis, it is found that pre-service English teachers generally have positive attitudes towards improving communicative skills of their prospective students with communicative approach, but it is difficult for this approach to work properly in Turkey and in Turkish education system due to various reasons. In addition, it is found that pre-service English teachers' self-efficacy beliefs are correlated with their attitudes towards the approach, and that many sub factors such as second language proficiency also have an influence on the attitudes. Lastly, these findings are found not mostly to be significantly different according to age and sex, but it is found that there are significant differences between departments.