İngilizce öğretmen adaylarının yabancı dil konuşma kaygıları ile öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik tutumları arasındaki ilişki

This study aims to determine the correlation between English teacher candidates' foreign language speaking anxiety and their attitudes towards the teaching profession. It is also aimed to find out whether this relationship shows a significant difference in terms of gender, years of study, and universities of the participants. The quantitative research method was utilized and the participants were 137 3rd and 4th year students at the Department of ELT at OMU and SCU in the spring semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. The "FLCAS'' developed by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) and later adapted into Turkish by Saltan (2003) was used to determine the foreign language speaking anxiety levels of teacher candidates. In order to reveal their attitudes towards the teaching profession, the "Attitude towards the Teaching Profession Scale'' developed by Üstüner (2006) was used. Quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS 26.0. A weak negative correlation was found between participants' foreign language speaking anxiety and their attitudes towards the teaching profession. While there was a moderately negative relationship between male participants' foreign language speaking anxiety and their attitudes towards the teaching profession, no significant difference was found for females. In addition, while there was a weak negative relationship between 3rd year teacher candidates' foreign language speaking anxiety and their attitudes towards the teaching profession, no significant relationship was found for the 4th year teacher candidates. On the other hand, a weak negative correlation was found between the foreign language speaking anxiety levels of the participants studying at OMU and their attitudes towards the teaching profession when the participants studying at SCU showed no significant correlation at all. It was also observed that the participants had a low level of foreign language speaking anxiety and their attitudes towards the teaching profession were 'mostly' positive. In order to minimize the foreign language speaking anxiety levels of teacher candidates, it is recommended to use collaborative activities and the use of the target language should be increased. Learning and teaching experiences should also be provided to teacher candidates in teacher training programs where they can develop positive attitudes towards their future profession.