The relationship between critical thinking dispositions of prospective English language teachers and their levels of new media literacy

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between critical thinking dispositions of prospective English language teachers whose degree levels are 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th at Başkent University and Ted University, the Faculty of Education and their levels of media literacy. Being a teacher requires many responsibilities. Moreover, being a language teacher might require some extra responsibilities due to cultural effects. Language teachers have been expected to be professional language users and analyse the foreign culture; also to some extend they have been expected to reflect these competencies to their students. While doing so, they need to have some skills that will help them think professionally and use their thoughts in professional environments. Two of these skills are critical thinking skills and media literacy skills. These two skills might be achieved through disposition. Critical thinking helps language teachers think about their way of thinking while media literacy is an inseparable component of our era. This study has been designed as a quantitative research study. The sample of the study is 135 prospective English language teachers approximately. Critical Thinking Disposition Scale and New Media Literacy Scale have been used to collect data. The study was conducted at Başkent University and Ted University during the 2019/2020 Spring Term via online questionnaires. According to the results of the study, it has been found that there is a moderately positive and statistically significant relationship between Critical Thinking Dispositions and New Media Literacy Levels of the prospective English language teachers. Pedagogical implications and further research were added at the end of this study.