This paper evaluates the attitudes of student teachers towards microteaching experiences. The research was conducted with a total of 57 fourth year students attending the ELT Department at Trakya University, in Turkey. The data were collected via a Likert type scale developed by the researcher. The research results were evaluated regarding the benefits and disadvantages of microteaching. The findings revealed that the ELT students at Trakya University in general held positive attitudes towards microteaching applications with regard to its effectiveness for professional development, self-assessment, self-confidence, material production, and teaching experiences in various courses in which students are of different ages and linguistic levels.
The Noticing Hypothesis holds that input does not become intake during language learning unless it is noticed. The hypothesis has been tested and evaluated in many empirical studies for more than two decades, either supported or criticized. This study shares the findings on the comparative effectiveness of noticing treatments gathered and evaluated from various empirical studies that were carried out in different countries. The results of the studies reflect the potentials of noticing treatments in second language/foreign language -L2- instruction/learning and touch upon the validity of the Noticing Hypothesis. The results of the reviewed studies also showed that noticing through output oriented tasks generates higher level of perception of L2 knowledge.
Performing reflective procedures is among the attempts to improve the quality of professional development in teacher training process. Reflective procedures are assumed to be functional for increasing normative ways of thinking and for encouraging student teachers to develop more enthusiastic attitudes towards teaching profession. Action research, among such procedures, is used to employ numerous teaching drills and to reflect on the teaching practice. Therefore, this study discusses the importance of action research in teacher training process for developing reflective thinking skills of student teachers and for fostering their enthusiastic attitudes towards professional development. In the study, action research was designed with the participation of the student teachers attending English Language Teaching Department at a Turkish university. The results of this small scaled study demonstrated that action research reasonably contributed to professional innovation and renovation of the student teachers, helped them reflect on their inner thoughts about the process, and increased their enthusiastic behaviors towards teaching practices.
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