Examining competencies of prospective English teachers through their pedagogical content knowledge: A case study

This dissertation aims to investigate the competencies of the prospective language teachers in the English Language Teaching Department of Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University through their pedagogical content knowledge. The mixed method sequential explanatory design was used to collect and analyze the data. Quantitative data obtained from 127 prospective teachers via the questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The researcher made use of coding in order to analyze the qualitative data obtained from document analysis, observation procedures, and interviews of the three participants. Codes and subcodes were created from the transcriptions of the qualitative data collection instruments to conduct both within-case and cross-case analyses aiming to explain the quantitative results. Results reveal that prospective teachers of English believe they do not have required knowledge of the language they teach though they see themselves competent in other knowledge domains. Though they believed they would use communicative methods to language teaching, they preferred using grammar translation method while presenting the new vocabulary. What they believed they could do and what they actually did were also different considering their knowledge on planning lessons, knowledge of their learners, and knowledge on assessment. Last but not least, their knowledge domain was shaped not only by the teaching experience they had, but also by pre-service teacher education. Bearing these results in mind, some implications for teacher education and for further research were provided at the end of the study.Key Words: EFL Teachers? Knowledge Base, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Mixed Method Sequential Explanatory Design