Do Admission Requirements Matter? A Comparison of the Requirements for Admission to the ELT programs in the Netherlands and Turkey

Abstract

Qualifications of language teachers affect their students' language development and proficiency. Turkish learners' low performance in international English proficiency indices requires an investigation of the qualifications of language teachers from a critical point of view. Without doubt, one of the crucial qualifications that language teachers need to possess is a high proficiency and competency in the target language. However, graduating from different programs in high schools, students are placed in English language teaching (ELT) programs with limited English proficiency. Considering the success of the Netherlands as the top country in international English proficiency indices, this study aims to find the admission requirements of the ELT programs in the Netherlands, to compare them with the ones in Turkey, and to suggest comprehensive admission requirements for ELT programs in Turkey. In this regard, a document analysis merging a detailed analysis of information regarding the admission requirements of the ELT programs in both countries and national and international statistics was conducted. Consequently, some recommendations regarding the likely changes to be made in the admission requirements to the ELT programs in Turkey are made.

English Language Teacher Education Programs at Turkish Universities: A Statistical Overview

“…At this point, what needs to be discussed is not the adequate or insufficient average FLT scores of the students studying in ELTE programs in a multiplechoice test consisting of 80 questions, but rather the success of this exam in determining the students who will study in this program as the major entry requirement. This fact has been made clear in the related literature that newcomers to the ELTE programs should have high test scores (Köksal & Ulum, 2018), and more importantly, the current entry requirements should be changed by involving an integrative approach consisting of all the skills for language proficiency measurement of the future language teachers (Asmalı, 2020;Asmalı & Çelik, 2021;Öztürk & Aydın, 2018).…”

“…Despite the best efforts, Türkiye's performance in English proficiency has been ranked among the 'low' or 'very low proficiency' countries in international indices (Tuzcu Eken, 2021). Since peoples' poor proficiency skills in English may stem from the deficiencies of the ELTE programs (Şenol & Cesur, 2021), the number of studies addressing various aspects of these programs has increased recently (see Asmalı, 2020;Asmalı & Çelik, 2021;Ataş & Balıkçı, 2021;Balbay & Doğan, 2021;Karakaş & Yavuz, 2018;Kic-Drgas & Comoglu, 2017;Öztürk & Aydın, 2018;Şenol & Cesur, 2021;Uzun, 2016). The findings indicated the urgent need for some reforms both in the student selection process, such as employing integrative tests or measuring students' attitudes and aptitude (Asmalı & Çelik, 2021) and in the pre-service education phase, such as practice-based training and training teacher candidates for different age groups (Öztürk & Aydın, 2018).…”

“…Since peoples' poor proficiency skills in English may stem from the deficiencies of the ELTE programs (Şenol & Cesur, 2021), the number of studies addressing various aspects of these programs has increased recently (see Asmalı, 2020;Asmalı & Çelik, 2021;Ataş & Balıkçı, 2021;Balbay & Doğan, 2021;Karakaş & Yavuz, 2018;Kic-Drgas & Comoglu, 2017;Öztürk & Aydın, 2018;Şenol & Cesur, 2021;Uzun, 2016). The findings indicated the urgent need for some reforms both in the student selection process, such as employing integrative tests or measuring students' attitudes and aptitude (Asmalı & Çelik, 2021) and in the pre-service education phase, such as practice-based training and training teacher candidates for different age groups (Öztürk & Aydın, 2018). The findings of recent cross-cultural studies also showed the common points and differences in ELTE programs in Türkiye and Poland (Kic-Drgas & Comoglu, 2017) and Malaysia (Karakaş & Yavuz, 2018) as well as the differences in entry requirements in ELTE programs in Türkiye and the Netherlands (Asmalı & Çelik, 2021).…”

“…The findings indicated the urgent need for some reforms both in the student selection process, such as employing integrative tests or measuring students' attitudes and aptitude (Asmalı & Çelik, 2021) and in the pre-service education phase, such as practice-based training and training teacher candidates for different age groups (Öztürk & Aydın, 2018). The findings of recent cross-cultural studies also showed the common points and differences in ELTE programs in Türkiye and Poland (Kic-Drgas & Comoglu, 2017) and Malaysia (Karakaş & Yavuz, 2018) as well as the differences in entry requirements in ELTE programs in Türkiye and the Netherlands (Asmalı & Çelik, 2021). Moreover, the contribution of specific courses in ELTE programs, such as content knowledge elective courses (Şenol & Cesur, 2021), educational and technical courses (Uzun, 2016), and materials, testing and practicum courses (Ataş & Balıkçı, 2021) have been investigated.…”