English language teaching quality criteria in Turkish secondary education

In this study, the main aim was to find out to what extent the secondary education institutions in Turkey are able to apply the quality criteria of EAQUALS, the European Association for Quality Language Services, in English language teaching. The concept of quality in general, and quality of education and foreign language learning and teaching in specific were also aimed to be explored. In order to explore these aims of the qualitative study, observation, interview, and document analysis were administered to get clear and in depth results.For the purpose of the study, two schools participated the study. One of the schools was a private high school and the other school was an Anatolian High School. The EAQUALS Inspection Checklist was used to find out the quality level of the schools. The teachers were interviewed by using the semi-structured interview technique, they were observed for a month during their lessons, and the documents of the schools including the exams, staff contracts, the curriculum and syllabuses were analyzed.The analysis of the qualitative data results of the study revealed that the secondary education institutions in Turkey are not able to apply the quality criteria of EAQUALS in English language teaching for various reasons. Furthermore, the weak points of the educational institutions were listed and then some important points that the Ministry of National Education in Turkey has to consider very carefully were pointed out.