Students’ and Instructors’ Attitudes towards Peer Teaching Component in ELT Courses

The present study attempted to investigate into the students’ and the instructors’ attitudes towards the ‘peer teaching’ component in the Department of Foreign Language Education of Eastern Mediterranean University. In addition, aims to identify the students’ and instructors’ suggestions regarding how the quality of the peer-teaching component can be improved. The participants of the present study comprised two groups which are thirty-three third and fourth year undergraduate ELT students and the six instructors in the department. In order to collect the data for the study, a set of four instruments were used, including student questionnaire, instructor questionnaire, interviews with students, and interviews with instructors. The results of the data analyses indicated that both the students and the instructors expressed positive attitudes towards the peer-teaching component of ELT teacher education programs held at the EFL Department of EMU. The results of the study also indicated that the instructors and students were aware of the benefits that peer-teaching would have for ELT teacher education programs and for the students’ future teaching careers. The participants also mentioned some suggestions as to how to enhance the micro-teaching component of ELT courses. Overall, based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that ELT peer-teaching has been successful in proving itself as an effective instructional strategy in the eyes of both students and their instructors. However, based on the suggestion that students and instructors have made, some improvements can be done to enhance the micro-teaching component of ELT courses. Further, in the present study, some implications and suggestions for further research on attitudes towards the peer-teaching component of ELT teacher education programs are made to guide other researchers who are willing to conduct research in this area. Keywords: peer-teaching, teacher education programs, students’ attitudes, instructors’ attitudes