An evaluation of 5th grade English language curriculum in terms of teacher opinions

The purpose of this study was to analyze the newly developed 5th grade prepatory class intensive English language curriculum by considering project schools prepatory class secondary school English teachers' opinion. The analysis of the curriculum was held in six aspects; firstly; general characteristics of the curriculum, secondly; the instructional objectives of the curriculum, thirdly; the content of the curriculum, fourthly; the course book and materials utilized while implementing the curriculum, fifthly; the activities and learning styles and finally the evaluation and assessment of the curriculum. The study group of the study consisted of 90 English language teachers working in secondary schools in Istanbul and especially teaching English to the 5th grade prepatory class students. The required data for the study is collected via "The Evaluation Scale of 5th grade English prepatory class intensive English Language Teaching Curriculum in terms of English Language Teachers Views" developed with the aim of determining 5th grade primary school English language teachers opinions on the 5th grade English prepatory class English language teaching program. The gathered data were analyzed with the help of SPSS 22.0 package program. In the analysis of quantitative data, percentage, frequency and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. The results showed that even though the 5th grade English language teachers have moderately positive opinions towards the intensive English language curriculum implemented at the 5th grade, lack of necessary technology, materials and equipments, crowded classrooms, traditional classroom seating arrangement and lack of guidance for the teachers about the new curriculum hinder the effective implementation of the 5th grade intensive English language curriculum. Key Words: curriculum, curriculum evaluation, prepatory class, project schools