A media literacy course design for english language teacher candidates

Media literacy education is critical for foreign language teachers. In addition to being media literate, foreign language teachers should be equipped to use the media in foreign language teaching and to educate their students accordingly. However, there is no standardized media literacy course for language teacher candidates in Turkey to address these needs. This dissertation aims to focus on this gap and design a media literacy course for English language teacher candidates at a state university in Turkey. The English language teacher candidates in their final year at the department have been chosen as participants of this study. In order to explore the media literacy levels of the candidate teachers, a media literacy levels scale was conducted at the beginning of the semester. The same scale has been utilized as a post-test at the end of the course to see the improvement in the candidate teachers' media literacy levels. Their opinions about the course have been collected through the course evaluation forms during and at the end of the semester and semi-structured interviews at the end of the course. Media literacy levels of English language teacher candidates are high at the beginning of the semester and at the end. A significant difference has been found in the media literacy levels, which shows the effectiveness of the course. As a result of the analysis of participants' expectations, course evaluations, and semi-structured interviews, the course has been found to meet the expectations. The study concludes that the course's strengths are its educational impacts that increase critical thinking skills, its thought-provoking and eye-opening content, and its student-centered, inclusive, and participatory methods and techniques. On the other hand, its weaknesses are the year the course is given; lack of media production activities, excess of theoretical knowledge, time limitations that do not allow to offer more examples or to speak, and hesitancy to participate due to sensitive subjects. This study emphasizes the necessity of a media literacy course designed for English language teacher candidates and presents valuable insights for further studies in the field. Keywords: Media literacy, media literacy education, English language teacher candidates