No abstract

This study aims to explore the role of school-based practicum in promoting pre-service English language teachers' professional development through the use of a longitudinal design in combination with qualitative methods. To achieve this aim, pre-service teachers were asked to successively reflect on video-recordings of their micro-lessons in their university-based methodology courses directly after delivering the micro-lessons and retrospectively after their practicum experience. The participants of this study were 13 pre-service English language teachers studying at a foundation university in Istanbul, Turkey. The same data collection methodology was adapted before and after the practicum to gain a deeper understanding of the learning stemming from school-based practicum. The data for the study came from pre-and post-self-evaluation reports as well as pre-and post-focus-group interviews that had been collected based on the pre-service teachers' video-recorded microteaching simulations. The findings indicate that pre-service teachers commented on the same pedagogical, psychological, and physical factors they had noticed regarding their micro-lesson before and after the practicum. However, some qualitative changes were detected in their views over time as they had become more learner-oriented and had developed a more reflective view of teaching following the practicum.These findings have implications for the impact of practicum for future teacher education programs.

The purpose of this study was to determine prospective English language teachers ' views

This study investigated World Englishes from the perspectives of non-native pre-service teachers in Turkey. More specifically, the study explored how EFL pre-service teachers evaluated speakers from different countries of origin, representing the different circle in Kachru's (1985) model, either positively or negatively. To elicit their perceptions of the speakers' English accents, we asked them to listen to audio-recordings of six different speakers representing Kachru's Three Circles of English, reading the same passage, and then to discuss which variety they were familiar with and which one they would prefer. Pre-service teachers' orientations towards speakers from different varieties emerged under the following themes: (i) native speakerism, (ii) intelligibility, (iii) reference to own experience, (iv) potential ownership and (v) potential professional awareness. The findings suggest that, although they were starting to develop professional awareness regarding different varieties of English, to broaden their experience of varieties, and even to develop a potential ownership, they still revealed a tendency to conform to the native-speaker norms and to rate speaker intelligibility according to these norms. We argue that revisiting language teacher education programmes to address the current sociolinguistic reality of English is a must.

Business professionals, who use English language in their daily interactions at global corporate companies in Turkey, have been educated within the paradigm of teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). However, as most of their interactions in business world take place with speakers of other languages in multilingual/cultural settings, these professionals' use of English language as Lingua Franca (ELF) may commence to function in different domains with different purposes and communicative outcomes within the paradigm of BELF. However, to our best knowledge, how business professionals in Turkey use and conceptualize English language in their daily business domains and how they position themselves as users of English and BELF have not been investigated. With this aim in mind, we conducted a research with 19 business professionals working at global companies in Istanbul. The data was collected through a survey administered with 19 business professionals and semi-structured interviews with five informants working in top positions at those companies which serve global customers. The findings of the study revealed that business professionals in Turkey are in a state of flux between the two paradigmsi.e., EFL and ELF toward the construction of BELF because EFL and ELF co-exist in their minds.