The analysis of teachers' views regarding the difficulties in teaching of English as a foreign language in Turkish primary schools

It seems to be accepted in the educational circles, English language teaching inTurkey has not reached its objectives either since the foundation of the republic in 1923or during the earlier Turkish educational history. Much seems to have been done onteaching of English as a foreign language (TEFL) but little has been achieved so far.This study named ?The Difficulties in Teaching of English as a ForeignLanguauge in Turkish Primary Schools? was aimed at determining and measuring theprincipal difficulties both the educators and learners encounter and propose any possiblesolutions.Data was obtained through a questionnaire from randomly selected 107 Englishlanguage teachers working at Turkish State Primary Schools in the province ofDiyarbakır during 2004- 2005 school year.The findings revealed that major problems seem to lie behind the determinationand implementation of teaching approaches and methods without cogitating on socio-linguistics, semantical and syntactic concepts of both the languages, English andTurkish as well as unfavourable circumstances of schools such as overcrowdedclassrooms, inadequately qualified teachers and other adverse educational elements.This study attempts to propose solutions for the current problems of the teaching ofEnglish at primary school level and pave the way for more effective and efficientapproaches for the English language teaching and learning.Key words: TEFL, primary school, methodology, socio-linguistics, semantics, syntax.