Moving from teaching older learners to young learners : cases of English language teachers in Turkey

This thesis explores the experiences of four English language teachers in Turkey who moved
from teaching in either high schools or language schools to teaching English to young
learners. The study follows these teachers in their first year of teaching in primary school,
describes the changes they went through in their approach to teaching English, and identifies
the influences on these changes.
The background to this research was an educational reform which introduced English
into the primary curriculum. After this reform, there was a shortage of English teachers at the
primary level. A common solution was to recruit English teachers from other levels of the
educational system. Three of the participating teachers taught in high school before they
moved to teach English in the primary school. One of the participating teachers taught
English to adults in a language school before moving to the primary level.
The data for the study was generated through systematic interviews with the teachers,
as well as regular observations of their classes, over the course of the school year. The
interpretation of the data was informed by the existing literature on teaching English to young
learners and the literature on teacher change.
At the end of the school year, all of the teachers said they would like to continue
teaching English in the primary school. In adjusting to teaching children, the teachers mainly
focused on developing class management strategies. The teachers did not, however, focus on
maximising opportunities for learning the target language. The main influences on the
teachers' change were in-service training, textbooks, as well as interaction with and support
from colleagues. The research contributes to the debate of how to best facilitate the
introduction of English into primary schools, and calls for further research into teacher
development in the context of such curricular reforms.