A comparative examination of primary school English teaching programs in Turkey and Portugal

The aim of this study is to make some suggestions that can contribute to the development of English teaching programs in Turkey, which cannot achieve the desired results in foreign language teaching, in terms of theory and practice by revealing the similarities and differences by means of comparing the primary school English curriculum of Portugal and Turkey in terms of objectives, content, educational strategies and evaluation elements. This study is a qualitative study carried out by document analysis method and a comparative education study in terms of its subject. The findings of the research can be summarized as follows: It has been determined that English as a compulsory subject starts one year later in Portugal than in Turkey and the targeted language level in the primary school English curriculum is the same in both countries. In terms of the targeted language skills in English language teaching, while there are gains for speaking and listening skills in Turkey, it has been observed that in Portugal there are gains for listening, speaking, reading and writing skills as well as cultural awareness. In terms of content, it was observed that both countries' programs included similar themes, whereas in Portugal the content was given only as a framework in the form of themes, while in Turkey it was elaborated. When compared in terms of educational status, it was seen that in both countries, student-centered methods with activities such as games, songs, etc. were recommended due to the developmental periods of children; while Total Physical Response method was recommended in Turkey, it was determined that this issue was left to the practitioner in Portugal. In terms of the evaluation element, it was seen that similar evaluation processes were recommended in both countries.