Challenges and problems faced by EFL teachers while teaching English as a foreign language to students with refugee and migrant background

The civil war in Syria began in 2011 and led to the migration of millions of refugees from Syria to Turkey, which has affected Turkey financially and spiritually. As a result of those migration movements, people with different cultural backgrounds were forced to live together that situation led to various problems, among these problems education is one of the most striking issues. Hence, it is crucial to make reforms in the field of education so that refugee students can adapt themselves to the Turkish educational context in an easier way. One of the most prevalent problems that cause trouble during the teaching process is that Turkish is not the mother tongue of Syrian refugees, so teachers face various challenges and problems in teaching English as a foreign language to students whose L1 is not Turkish. The aim of this explanatory sequential research study was to explore EFL teachers' attitudes, perceptions, challenges and needs regarding teaching English to Syrian refugee students and afterwards come up with proposed solutions and suggestions to annihilate these problems through the mixed method research design. For this purpose, this present thesis study was carried out in the second semester of the 2020-2021 education year with the participation of 104 English teachers who were selected through the convenience sampling method. The participants were selected among English teachers experienced at working with refugee students in primary, secondary and high schools of Islahiye, a district of Gaziantep province. Questionnaires and interviews were used in this study to gather data to identify teachers' opinions and suggestions regarding possible solutions to overcome the challenges and problems that they have experienced in the EFL teaching process with students of refugee and migrant background. The questionnaires were answered by 104 EFL teachers online. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 EFL teachers selected by the purposive sampling method in the qualitative data collection stage of the research. Since two data collection tools were used in the study, a two-stage data collection and analysis procedure was adopted. The data gathered through the questionnaire was analyzed via the SPSS programme. On the other hand, the interview data was analyzed through the content analysis method by identifying emerging categories and themes. These themes revolved around teachers' perceptions and challenges regarding teaching English as a foreign language to refugee students. In addition, the findings are beneficial for teachers to overcome challenges related to language, misbehaviors, materials, teaching policies and procedures. The findings of this study indicated that most of the participant EFL teachers were not prepared to deal with the actual challenges and problems that they come across during the EFL teaching process and that due to the implementation of the EFL curriculum which is not developed appropriately for meeting refugee students' learning needs, it is harder to achieve academic success. These findings underline the suggestions of organizing developmental pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes that render it possible for teachers to develop themselves in terms of teaching students of refugee and multicultural background. In these academic events, not only theoretical information delivery methods should be used but also activities should be designed that enable practical applications for teachers'effective improvement in this field. Keywords: EFL teachers, EFL teachers' perceptions, refugee students in EFL classes, refugee and migrant students, Teaching EFL to refugee students, EFL teachers' problems with refugee students.