Research Information System
The 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Education, Gazimagusa, Cyprus (Kktc), 19 - 20 October 2017, pp.12, (Summary Text)
Research has shown that prospective and in-service teachers’ past learning experiences and previous teachers influence their present-day existence as (prospective) teachers. Similarly, recent approaches to and applications in teacher education and development recognize teachers’ past learning experiences as they seem to affect their personal identities as teachers. In this study, prospective English language teachers’ images of their exemplary teachers were aimed to be uncovered through interviews by using questioning techniques adopted from narrative research studies. A total number of eight prospective English language teachers were chosen randomly from a pool of all the names enrolled in Akdeniz University’s English Language Teacher education BA program. During each interview, each participant was asked to remember their teachers whom they recall as exemplary teachers that had influenced their career choices, methods of teaching or classroom behavior. As soon as the participants mentioned a name, they were further asked to explore these exemplary teachers’ characteristics that made them unforgettable teachers. Results of the study help us understand the overall effect of our previous teachers on our development as future teachers. To be more exact, prospective teachers’ memoirs point at the fundamental qualities of foreign language teachers that make them unique.