Teaching in a Young Learners’ English Language Classroom: An Autoethnography of a Teacher Educator

ARIKAN A.

1st EJER Congress, İstanbul, Turkey, 24 - 26 April 2014, pp.157-158, (Summary Text)

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Summary Text
  • City: İstanbul
  • Country: Turkey
  • Page Numbers: pp.157-158
  • Akdeniz University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Problem, theoretical framework and aims3 :Research in Turkey on young learners’ learning of English as a foreign language (hereafter, EFL) is yet scarce especially when the nature of the classroom tasks and procedures used in Turkish primary schools are considered. However, there are some research studies published in academic journals that have touched upon some issues related with teaching English to young learners such as those about the age factor, teachers’ use of methods and approaches in young learners’ EFL classrooms, teaching of the language skills, coursebooks used in primary school EFL classrooms, using games and cartoons, using literature or drama, policy and curriculum, ideal or exemplary applications in other countries and teachers’ and parents’ views. Although only very few of them are empirical studies, these studies comment on the need for continuous teacher development opportunities, application of new instructional activities, further changes in policies and curricula and serious changes in the coursebooks used in classrooms especially when the quality of the language used in coursebooks is considered. An autoethnography is an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno). An autoethnography focuses on one specific aspect of who the person currently is and how he/she has reached this point in his/her life. Throughout my academic life as a teacher educator, I have always been intrigued by the concerns raised by classroom teachers (practitioners) and academics whose theory driven suggestions do not seem to be working in primary and secondary schools and universities. My impetus for conducting an autobiographical study of this dilemma grew out of my willingness to understand to what extend our theory driven conclusions work in primary school English language classrooms. Similar to a visit to another country which enabled a researcher to be a teacher rather than a student, I found myself in another land with a new role. Moving from my university-level English language teacher education classes to young learners’ English language classrooms was a juxtaposition of the “theory” I taught especially in my “Teaching English to Young Learners I and I” courses and “practice,” the act of being in a young learners’ classroom. Looking into my experiences in this change of spaces and roles, I tried to find answers to a single question, that is, “what experiences surprised the researcher (teacher educator) while teaching 3rd graders in terms of what he previously considered to be true from a theoretical view point?” Methodology: I wrote my autoethnographies over a period of four months (one class-hour per week). I took notes of my feelings and opinions about my classroom teaching and re-read them on a daily basis, commenting further on these notes the whole of which has become the data in this study. Issues of reliability, validity and generalizability have been a concern for qualitative research studies. The issues of reliability, validity and generalizability may shed light on what makes this particular autoethnographical study reliable, valid and generalizable. Reliability, in a qualitative research study, refers to the narrator's credibility. In that sense, the researcher/author should give sufficient amount of “factual evidence” from his or her experiences in order to make the conclusions reliable. In short, the researcher/author should constantly ask himself/herself “Does what I write make ‘me’ believe that this is actually what happened to me? When the issue of validity is considered, “verisimilitude” is a key concern that is expected of any qualitative study. Evoking a feeling in the readers’ minds that the experience described is lifelike, believable, possible, and true make up the core of the issue of validity. Results: The first theme that appeared in my autobiographical notes concerned some issues related with classroom management. As far as I understand, students’ prior knowledge of English has contributed to the problems associated with my poor classroom managementskills that could not put an end to the chaos in the classroom. A second theme that is displayed in my notes is about young learners’ attention span. Despite the fact that there is no certain amount of minutes mentioned about young learners’ attention span, I came to see that they did not focus on a task more than three or four minutes. The final theme that is present in my notes is about the fundamental differences between primary school and university-level classroom settings. Primary school classrooms, I came to see, has almost no similarity with my university level classrooms. This made me realize the importance of “attitude goals” in addition to the “content goals” in course planning as well as the importance of the body of the teacher in young learners’ classrooms.