Transcript What Should Language Teachers Be Doing to Keep Their

EFL Teachers’
Individually-guided
Activities to Keep Their
English Alive?
Çağrı Özköse-Bıyık, Ph.D.
Yaşar University, Turkey
Öner Uslu, Ph.D.
National Education Directorate in
Kemalpaşa County, Izmir
Marie Curie Career Integration Grant
• Scholars coming to Europe and the Associate
Countries from other countries
• Scholars moving within European countries
• Within the first year of their career
• Applications twice a year: September and March
Name of the Project:
• Revitilizing EFL Teachers’ Professional
Development in Europe through Innovative
Programs
An interdisciplinary approach…
SLA Research
Professional
development
(reflective
practice)
Instructional
technology &
design
Project Objectives
• Objective 1: Investigating foreign
language teachers’ professional
development activities in Turkey in order
to identify any needs for new professional
development programs
• individually guided activities
• transcendence
Project Objectives
• Objective 2: Analyzing the current
professional development practices in
two European countries: Sweden and
Italy in order to benefit from best
practices and learn from weaknesses
Why Italy and Sweden?
• 2013 Education and Culture Management
Plan prepared by the European
Commission:
• 80% of Swedish students are stated to be
competent in their first foreign language
(as opposed to 15% in France or England).
Why Italy and Sweden?
Country
2013/60 countries
2012/54 countries
2011/44 countries
Turkey
41st, score: 49.52,
32nd, score: 51.19
43rd, score: 37.66
low proficiency
low proficiency
very low proficiency
32nd, score: 50.97
24th, score: 54.01
23rd, score: 49.05
low proficiency
moderate proficiency low proficiency
1st , score: 68.69
1st, score: 68.91
Italy
Sweden
4th, score: 66.26
very high proficiency very high proficiency very high proficiency
1st Norway, 69.09
Project Objectives
• Objective 3 and 4: Resource and program
development in light of state-of-the-art
technologies (videos, website, webinars)
and dissemination of these
Today’s focus: Objective 1
• «EFL teachers’ individually guided activities
(professional development)
1st
• individual interviews
2nd
• developing the
questionnaire
Selection Criteria
• A) twelve statistical regions determined by the
Turkish Statistical Institute (2009)
• B) the location of the teachers (city or rural
areas), and
• C) the type of institution they work at (state
school, private school or university).
Cities we collected data
Participants
14 teachers:
• 3 instructors at universities,
• 3 MNE teachers, village or small town
• 6 MNE teachers, in city centers
• 2, in private schools
Interview Protocol
•
•
•
•
structured interviews
questions developed by the authors
reviewed by two field experts
pilot-tested with a teacher before it was used
Interviews
• four interviews conducted face-to-face; all others
via Skype
• recorded
• all of the participants read and signed an
informed consent form.
• the duration of the interviews changed between
45 minutes to 2,5 hours.
Data analysis
• all interviews were transcribed verbatim
• constant comparison technique using Nvivo 8
Results (Use of English to obtain info)
• Teachers used English when they needed to
reach more reliable and comprehensive
information on something and
• Turkish when they needed local information.
• One teacher said that “I can search things in
English because it is more comprehensive.”
Results (Following news)
• In terms of following the news in English, 9
teachers reported that they check the news
websites; however the frequency differed
• they read international papers particularly when
there is a serious political event regarding
Turkey
• 4 teachers said that they read news in English
three or four times a week.
Results (Using interactive tools)
• Teachers use forums more often than blogs and
wikis.
• Passive users of forums, wikis; one way
• 2 follow blogs in English
• 7 uses wikipedia
• “I skim through forums to obtain lesson plans
and materials”
Results (Emails, social media, Apps)
• 8 teachers get e-mails in English but do not pay
attention.
• 6 teachers use social media for interactions with
English speaking people.
• As for mobile applications, instructors and
younger teachers tend to use applications such
as TED talks. A few teachers utilized only
dictionaries as mobile applications.
Results (Reading printed materials)
• 4 teachers
• Teachers who get their master’s degrees read
academic publications
• 3 teachers prefer reading novels in their original
language
• Teachers who live in rural areas can hardly find
magazines and books in local bookstores; however
they are able to obtain them via online shopping.
Results (Interactions)
• 6 teachers have friends to communicate in
English on social media.
• teachers who work in rural areas have very little
opportunity to communicate with foreigners in
English.
Some observations & discussion
• Teachers who work in private schools and at universities
are more versatile in terms of individually-guided
activities and tend to get involved in these more often.
• Teachers who raise small children hardly have any
opportunities for individually-guided activities outside
the school.
• Teachers who work at state schools do not have much
motivation for professional development since the
conditions do not let them transfer these newly-gained
experiences to the learning environment.
What do we suggest?
• Virtual platforms that can provide them the
opportunity for professional development such as
webinars.
• Awareness towards the importance of individuallyguided activities needs to be raised.
• Teachers also need to get familiarized with
technological tools available out there for forums,
blogs, wikis, etc. This can be obtained through a
website designed specifically for the needs of EFL
teachers.
Thank you for listening.
• Contact Information
Dr. Cagri Ozkose-Biyik
Yasar University
School of Arts and Sciences
Department of Science Culture
• [email protected]
EF’s methodology
• The EF English Proficiency Index calculates a country’s average adult
English skill level using data from three different EF English tests
completed by hundreds of thousands of adults every year. Two tests are
open to any internet user for free. The third is an online placement test used
by EF during the enrollment process before students start an English
course. All three include grammar, vocabulary, reading, and listening
sections. The online placement test is a 30-question adaptive exam, so each
student’s questions are adjusted in difficulty according to his previous
correct and incorrect answers. The two non-adaptive tests are 60 and 70
questions in length. All scores have been validated against EF’s course
levels. The test administration is identical for all three tests with students
completing the exam on their own computers at home. There is no incentive
for students to artificially inflate their scores on these low-stakes tests by
cheating or cramming as the results do not lead to certification or
admission to a program.