Student teachers’ attitudes towards the compulsory English lessons at a Turkish university

The intent of the current study is to explore teacher candidates’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitude towards the compulsory English courses at universities and the relation of attitude with the participants’ genders, studying departments, graduated high schools, goals and hours for studying English. The cross-sectional survey and correlational research design, interlaced within each other, were embraced to reach that objective. 207 volunteer freshman students were sampled at the education faculty of a state university. A partially adapted survey was wielded as a data collection instrument. Based on the results of the descriptive and inferential statistics, while a large number of the respondents aimed to pass the English course, almost half of them did not ever exert any effort to learn the English language. The participants displayed negative attitude in all attitudinal components substantiating monolithic attitudinal concept. Male students displayed more favorable dispositions than females. Teacher learners getting education at the Turkish Language Education department bore more approving attitude than the other departments. The participants graduated from general high schools unexpectedly embraced more favorable dispositions. The participants’ goals and hours for studying English had very little share on their attitude. Hinged upon the results, a number of suggestions were forwarded to educators to promote approving dispositions in the language learners and teacher learners.

Öğretmen adaylarının bir Türk üniversitesindeki zorunlu İngilizce dersine ilişkin tutumları

Bu çalışmanın amacı öğrencilerin zorunlu İngilizce derslerine yönelik bilişsel, duyuşsal ve davranışsal tutumlarını ve bu tutumların cinsiyet, bölüm, mezun olunan lise, İngilizce öğrenme amaçları ve İngilizce’ye ayırdıkları saatlerle ilişkisini belirlemektir. Bu amaçla birbiriyle iç içe kesitsel anket ve ilişkisel araştırma deseni benimsenmiştir. Araştırmanın örneklemi bir devlet üniversitesinin eğitim fakültesinden gönüllü seçilen 207 öğrenciden oluşmaktadır. Bilgi toplama aracı olarak kısmen uyarlanmış anket kullanılmıştır. Tanımlayıcı istatistik için frekans, yüzdelik, ortalama ve standart sapma, çıkarımsal istatistik için ise bağımsız örneklem t-test, tek yönlü ANOVA ve regresyon analizinden faydalanılmıştır. Bulgular bu istatistikler yolu ile tanımlanıp ve yorumlanmıştır. Bu sonuçlara göre katılımcıların büyük bir çoğunluğu İngilizce dersini geçmeyi amaç edinirken, yarıya yakını İngilizce öğrenmek için hiçbir çaba sarf etmezler. Katılımcılar tutum bileşenlerinde ayırt edilmeksizin hepsinde olumsuz tutum sergilemişlerdir. Önceki çalışmalara zıt olarak, erkek öğrencilerin tutumları kız öğrencilere göre daha olumludur. Türkçe Öğretmenliği’nde okuyan öğrenciler diğer bölümlerde okuyan öğrencilere göre daha olumlu tutum göstermişlerdir. Düz liselerden mezun olan öğrenciler beklenmedik bir şekilde diğer liselerden mezun olan öğrencilere oranla daha olumlu bir tutum sergilemişlerdir. Öğrencilerin İngilizce öğrenme amaçları ile İngilizce’ye ayırdıkları saatlerin sergiledikleri tutumlarda çok az rolü vardır. Bir öneri olarak, dil öğretmenlerinin İngilizce dil yapısını öğretmenin yanında, bireysel farklılıklara ve duyuşsal etmenlere daha fazla odaklanmaları ve İngilizce bilmenin önemini aşılamaları tavsiye edilir.

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