Parents’ and English Language Teachers' Views about Early Foreign Language Education in Turkey

Authors : Dilek Çakici

Pages : 33-42

Doi:10.17275/per.16.spi.1.4

View : 13 | Download : 7

Publication Date : 2016-01-01

Article Type : Research

Abstract :With the technological developments, social, cultural and political relations among countries have increased nowadays, and this has increased the interaction among people. Therefore, countries which want to get knowledge about different countries; to understand them and to improve their relations with them has begun to place much more emphasis on foreign language education. Turkey, which is a candidate country for EU membership, has gradually decreased the starting age of foreign language learning. Firstly, it was decreased at the 4th grade of primary schools, and recently it has decreased at the 2nd grade classes. This study aims to give some information about the history of early foreign language teaching both in the world and Turkey, and to describe the views of parents and English language teachers of primary school students about the optimal age for foreign language learning and early foreign language education after the recent regulation change in Turkey. It is expected that the views of the English language teachers may provide some information especially about the deficiencies in early foreign language education, and that the views of the parents may show what the parents’ attitudes and views about early foreign language learning in Turkey are. A total of 205 EFL primary school teachers and 212 parents voluntarily participated in the study. Two different questionnaires have been used to collect data for the research. In the light of the questionnaires, it is concluded that teachers and parents attending the research are in favor of early foreign language education, especially at between the ages 4-7. It shows that the recent regulation change, which states English courses will be started at the 2nd grade of the primary schools, is a positive and valuable attempt for early foreign language education in Turkey
Keywords : foreign language, foreign language teaching, early foreign language education