English teachers' qualification of early age foreign language (English) teaching levels (Example of Kütahya province)

It is known that starting foreign language education at an early age supports a high level of language achievement. In this process, how parents are important for children to learn their mother tongue, teachers are so important for them to learn foreign language too. From 2012-2013 academic year children in Turkey have started to learn foreign languages from grade 2. In Turkey, there is no distinction between English teachers such as primary school, middle school, high school English teacher; teachers can give foreign language lessons (English) to people of all levels and ages. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to examine the level of proficiency of teachers who teach English at primary school level at an early age. This study was a quantitative study and was conducted according to the causal-comparison model from the relational screening models. The population of the research consists of 80 English teachers from 62 state and 8 private school in the central district of Kütahya. The data were collected by using an achievement test which checks the theoretical perception of early foreign language teaching developed by the researcher supported by the experts' ideas and "Foreign Language Teaching Proficiency Scale for Children" developed by Şad (2010) in order to determine the competence perceptions of English teachers on teaching foreign language to children. In addition to these, "Personal Information Form" developed by the research was used to collect information about the independent variables in the study. SPSS? software was used to analyze the data. As a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that teachers' level of knowledge and self-efficacy levels were high in general. The level of theoretical knowledge of English teachers about teaching foreign language at an early age; according to their gender, according to the type of faculty they graduated and in terms of getting an education related to foreign language teaching at an early age are similar; however, it was concluded that the level of knowledge of the English teachers with a seniority of 6-10 years is higher than the other seniority. In the study, it was concluded that the English teachers' self-efficacy perceptions towards the teaching of foreign language (English) at an early age were considered sufficient. When the English teachers' perceptions of self-efficacy towards foreign (English) language teaching applications at an early age are examined; according to their gender and their seniority were found to be similar and they perceive enough themselves in high levels; according to their faculty type was found similar and in terms of getting an education related to foreign language teaching at an early age was found to be significantly high. But on the contrary; The fact that teachers have received foreign language teaching at an early age did not appear to make any difference in their level of knowledge. Also, it was concluded that English teachers did not have a statistically significant predictor of the level of theoretical knowledge about teaching English at an early age and their self-efficacy perceptions for early foreign language teaching. Based on this result, it can be concluded that teachers' self-efficacy beliefs are not nourished by their theoritical knowledge. Key Words: Teaching English to Young Learners, Teacher Competence, Teacher Self-Efficacy, Teacher Success Test, Primary School English Teachers.