Sumru Akcan

An investigation of the nature of feedback given to pre‐service English teachers during their practice teaching experience

This study seeks to understand how university supervisors and cooperating teachers approach giving feedback during the practice teaching experience to pre‐service English language teachers and the nature of feedback they give through post‐lesson conferences and written evaluations. The data for the study come from field notes of classroom observations, post‐lesson conferences between student teachers and university supervisors, and student teachers and cooperating teachers, written evaluation sheets and documents. The findings indicated that the university supervisors encouraged reflection during their post‐lesson conferences and helped the student teachers to evaluate their lessons more critically. The cooperating teachers’ feedback was found to be more situation specific by focusing on certain instances about the classroom. This study also discussed different modes of giving feedback (oral feedback through post‐lesson conferences and written feedback through evaluation sheets) to teacher candidates during practice teaching. Finally, this study makes suggestions for the supervisors and cooperating teachers about providing constructive feedback for the student teachers during practice teaching.

Raising the language awareness of pre‐service English teachers in an EFL context

This study investigates the challenges that non‐native pre‐service English teachers (Haluk, Gaye, Selin, Öznur and Serkan) experience in their target language use when they do their practicum in actual language classrooms. This study found that the common difficulties the student teachers encounter related to certain grammatical structures, explaining unknown words to students, modifying language according to students’ level, and authenticity of the classroom language. During this study, the target language awareness training session was offered by the university supervisor in order to improve the student teachers’ target language use in the classroom. The training sessions included classroom observations, feedback sessions, semi‐structured interviews, retrospective protocols and discussion meetings with the student teachers. The findings indicated that the language awareness training had a positive impact on the target language use of the pre‐service English teachers. Furthermore, this study discusses the curriculum and the requirements of the language teacher education programme in an EFL setting and makes suggestions for the professional development of non‐native pre‐service language teachers.

Current perspectives on pedagogy for English as a Lingua Franca

The aim of this edited volume is to examine how current theories and principles underlying English as a Lingua Franca studies contribute to research on present pedagogical practices in ELF contexts. The book provides useful insights into pedagogical practices in different ELF settings and knowledge on the pedagogy-policy relationship in terms of ELF.

Isolated form-focused instruction and integrated form-focused instruction in primary school English classrooms in Turkey

Content-based language instruction and form-focused instruction (FFI) have been investigated extensively in the context of English as a second language. However, there has not been much research concerning FFI in the context of English as a foreign language. The study described here explores the effect of integrated and isolated FFI on the vocabulary, grammar, and writing development of foreign language learners in two separate classes at the primary level in Turkey. It also investigates students’ attitudes towards integrated and isolated FFI. Findings suggest that the students receiving integrated FFI performed better than students receiving isolated FFI in all measures. In addition, the students expressed a preference for integrated FFI.

Teaching Methodology in a First-Grade French-Immersion Class

Abstract This micro-ethnographic classroom-based case study explores the teaching methodology in a first-grade French-immersion class. This study was carried out in a public elementary immersion school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where English-speaking children throughout the school learn the school curriculum through a second language (French), starting in kindergarten. The findings of the study indicated that the two team teachers of the first-grade French-immersion class established a learning environment in which they consistently used interactive dialogues, humor, challenging activities, imaginary characters, prefabricated language patterns, and concrete learning experiences to teach the second language and content matter simultaneously.