Etkili dil öğretmenlerinin niteliklerine odaklanan hizmet içi İngilizce öğretmenlerinin öz değerlendirmeleri üzerine karşılaştırmalı bir çalışma: ELT ve ELT mezunu olmayanlar

There has been an ongoing debate in Türkiye about which department graduates are more effective English language teachers; however, there remains a paucity of evidence on the characteristics of effective English language teachers graduated from varied departments in the country. With this in mind, the aim of the current cross-sectional descriptive survey study, conducted in a comparative manner, is to investigate how in-service English language teachers evaluate themselves in terms of characteristics of effective English language teachers with a focus on their educational background, i.e. whether they graduated from English Language Teaching (ELT) or Non-ELT (Non-ELT) departments. This nationwide comparative study adopts a mixed methods approach, a combination of quantitative and qualitative research traditions. In the quantitative part of the study, the participants included 1441 in-service English language teachers working at different levels of public schools across Türkiye. English teachers evaluated themselves in terms of personal characteristics, English language proficiency, pedagogical content knowledge and skills, socio-affective knowledge and skills, cultural knowledge and skills, and professional development, which are considered to be effective English language teacher characteristics, through a comprehensive questionnaire including a total of 312 items under 8 sections. In the qualitative part of the study, follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted with 80 in-service English teachers. Quantitative data analysis was carried out using SPSS 25.0 with descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Chi-square test. Qualitative data analysis was carried out through content analysis of the transcriptions comprising 73516 words gathered from interviews with 80 English teachers using NVivo. The findings revealed that ELT graduates were relatively more qualified in terms of pedagogical content knowledge while Non-ELT graduates, except for graduates from other departments whose medium of instruction was English, were better at English language proficiency. Although there was a difference between the two groups of teachers in terms of theoretical knowledge at the time of graduation, it was found that effective language teaching appeared to depend heavily on teachers' personal characteristics and socio-affective knowledge and skills, considering the practice of teaching for teachers in both groups. It was also revealed that English teachers, regardless of which departments they graduated from, have different problems that need to be solved so as to be effective English language teachers. Lastly, the qualitative data suggested that the continuity of professional development was found to be a vital aspect of effective English language teaching and being an effective English language teacher.