Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013) 181 – 187

Akdeniz Language Studies Conference 2012

professional development needs for specific classroom

activities
*

Akdeniz University, English Language Department, Antalya,Turkey

Abstract

Recent changes in education system have increased the importance of teaching English. As the responsibilities of
language teachers have risen, they are expected to improve their qualities continuously. This paper aims to display

development needs. Data has been gathered by means of an online questionnaire (n= 50). The findings of this study
demonstrated that repetition and memorizing are still practiced widely, while using poems, stories and literature are
considered less important.

© 2012
2012The Authors.by
Published Published
ElsevierbyLtd.
Elsevier Ltd. Open
Selection access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
and/or peer-review under responsibility of ALSC 2012
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of ALSC 2012
Keywords: English language teaching; professional development; perception of competence; classroom activities.

1. Introduction

Information and communication technologies have generated new opportunities for education. Unlike
the assumption that ICT have been diminishing or taking over the role of instructors, they have enhanced
the responsibilities of teachers. In order to apply these changes in classes, teachers should get additional
support. According to Pelgrum and Law (2003), an upgrade in teacher education is inevitable to prepare
teachers for information age. Hayes (2000) recognized teachers are in the center of educational
innovations; therefore, they are to be informed about the process.

*
Corresponding Author. Tel.: +0-506-316-2550.
E-mail address: nesrinabali@gmail.com.

1877-0428 © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of ALSC 2012
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.01.054
182 Nesrin Abalı / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013) 181 – 187

As Guskey (2000) suggested, proposals for educational reforms and plans for school improvement
underlines the importance of high quality professional development. Moreover, Vo and Nguyen (2009)
claimed that for the best student outcomes, teachers need continuous professional development.

Like elsewhere in the world, Turkey has also been trying to upgrade the quality of English language
teaching. In this process language teachers play a key role to teach methodology and improve quality of
education. They are expected to meet the needs and standards of English as an international language. In
that English language teachers should be able to satisfy the
expectations of regularly increasing number of students by using up-to-date teaching methodologies
performed with dedication and enthusiasm. By considering all these dimensions, Richards & Lockhart
(cited in Wichadee, 2011) indicated that language teaching is not universally regarded as a profession that
is, having unique characteristics, as requiring specialized skills and training and as being a lifelong and
valued career choice.

It is believed that poor quality of English language teaching leads to a lack of sound teacher training
and teacher professional development (Vo & Nguyen, 2009). The quality of the learning process is highly
affected by teacher effectiveness. Teacher effectiveness has long been discussed and studied in Turkey. In
this respect, after taking the viewpoints of 49 higher educational institutions, Turkish Ministry of
Education officially accepted the guidelines for general teacher efficacies in 2006, which aimed to be a

A variety of activities can be used to uphold productive classes. Language teachers make use of
different activities to develop particular language skills such as pronunciation or practice for integrated
use of language.

self-reported competence in these activities. By building on such knowledge, professional development

needs of teachers can be reconstructed.

This study attempted to answer the following three research questions:

Which activities do EFL teachers use frequently in class?
How do EFL teachers perceive their success in these classroom activities?
What are the professional development needs of EFL teachers that teacher training programs
should stress?

2. Methodology

Fifty English language teachers, generally from primary schools participated in this study. Convenient
sampling was used in selecting the participants. They were sent a link to a questionnaire by means of e-
mails. All of the participants were ELT graduates and 78% of them are female. The ratio of participants
who are between the ages of 20-35 is 98%. In terms of their professional experiences, 74% of them are
teaching for 1-5 years, 20% of them are teaching for 6-10 years and the rest is teaching for over 15 years.
 Nesrin Abalı / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013) 181 – 187 183

3. Results

The result of the questionnaire and the findings are described below under the titles referring the
research questions mentioned above. For always and often responses
were calculated together.

Table 1.

Item Use (%) Perceived Competence (%)

1. Filling in gaps 92 84
2. Grammar exercises 70 76
3. Students memorizing words and phrases 70 72
4. Student reading out loud 68 70
5. Using real objects and flash cards 66 68
6. Playing games 64 64
7. Children repeating after teacher 64 62
8. Listening to the tape 62 60
9. Project work 60 56
10. Working on the computer 52 56
11. Arts and crafts 52 54
12. Role play 48 52
13. Singing songs 48 50
14. Watching videos 42 50
15. Copying down to notebooks 42 46
16. Spelling exercises 42 46
17. Puzzles 40 44
18. Silent reading 38 42
19. Teacher reading stories 32 34
20. Creative / free writing 20 26
21 Students telling stories 18 22
22. Rhymes or poems 14 20

Teachers report that filling in gaps, grammar exercises, students memorizing words and phrases, and
teacher reading aloud are the leading activities in Turkish EFL classrooms. Fallowing items are; using
real objects and flash cards, playing games, and children repeating after teacher. Playing Gamesare an
indispensable part of children education as seen in both tables. Now that the participants of this
questionnaire are mostly primary school teachers, they frequently perform games in their classes and the
rate of perceived competence is 68%. High ratio of listening to the tape / CD is rejoicing because of the
exact necessity for language teaching. It gives students a chance to hear different voices than their teacher
and the fluency of daily speech conversations, -natural speech.

Although Item 9, project work is seen as a common activity, 35% of teacher expressed their needs for
assessment training. The fallowing item is working on computers, which has not been preferred enough
despite many auditory and visual ELT materials and this rate is compatible with the teac
competence. Teachers need to aware that technology and language teaching are indispensable. Similar to
songs, role play is not practiced enough in classes despite its positive effects on both student and teacher.
With the help of various visual & auditory materials and books, the need for copying down to notebooks
have declined a in the first table. The reason for less preference of watching videos in classes
may be related with the poor physical conditions of some schools.
184 Nesrin Abalı / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013) 181 – 187

The activities referring to constructivist classrooms such as creative writing, student telling stories, and
rhymes & poem vel.

Item Intended Needs (%)

1. Speaking skills 64
2. Classroom management 54
3. Games and songs 52
4. Multiple intelligence 48
5. Warm up activities 42
6. Pronunciation 42
7. Arts and crafts 40
8. Methods and Techniques 39
9. Materials development 38
10. Listening skills 36
11. Culture of target language 36
12. Assessment 36
13. Preparing students for national exams 36
14. Use of literature 34
15. Writing skills 30
16. Using course books efficiently 24
17. Reading skills 16
18. Time management 16
19. Grammar 14
20. Lesson plan 10

The
management (54%). In crowded classes,
new strategies to lessen the time spent for discipline problems in or out of the class. Nearly half of
teachers want to attend trainings about games and songs to motivate and cheer-up their pupils. The
following items are multiple intelligence (48%) and Warm-up activities (%42). In order to address many
students with different intelligences, teachers need training as Ministry of Education asks teachers to
prepare individual education plans for special students in each class. In the same way, teachers seem like
trying to improve their pronunciation. In item 8, the ratio of participants who noted their needs is 39%.

Item 10, 11, 12 have the same ratio that course books have culture integrated dialogues and texts, which
give the teacher responsibility to know about the target culture. As for assessment, new evaluation types
have been implementing such as portfolio and rubric in constructivism, which is prioritized by Ministry
of Education. Teachers have difficulty in making distinction between them and they need further
information about these evaluation types. Teachers need to have critical understanding of principals for
testing and assessment as they are expected to prepare testing for student assessment and prepare students
for testing as well. To fulfill the fore mentioned functions, 36% of teachers wish to learn more strategies
to make their student better since education system based on national exams.

Finally, remarkable rate can be seen in item 14 and 15. 34% of teachers want to learn more about
literature by means of poems and literary texts and 30% of them indicate their needs on how to teach
writing as a language skill. The items such as reading, using course books, time management, and
grammar and lesson plan are the least-preferred ones by teachers as they feel themselves highly sufficient
for these items.
 Nesrin Abalı / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013) 181 – 187 185

4. Conclusion

competence about these activities and professional development needs related with their perceptions. The
results of questionnaire are studied under three research questions stated above.

Generally there is a consistency between practice and competence. Many participants find themselves
sufficient for items such as time management, reading, grammar and lesson plans. The activities of
constructivist education such as student telling stories, rhymes and poems, creative / free writing have
received the lowest score, while traditional methods such as repetition and grammar exercises have still
been using.

The interpretations stated above are also supported with equivalent studies. Similar results were found
, which put forth the view
that English teachers see themselves insufficient in speaking and listening and cannot adequately follow
foreign publications and literary texts that were produced in the target language.

Almost three decades ago, Demirel (1990) demonstrated that Turkish EFL teachers rarely utilized

terms of utilizing varied methods & techniques and using visual materials (pictures, flashcards, real
objects) to attract students while teaching new vocabulary and concepts, teachers considered themselves
sufficient. It is gladsome to observe progression when confronted with a former study (Demirel, 1990)
which suggested that Turkish EFL teachers are reluctant to emplo
th
and 5th
of competence is rather low in implementing creative writing, drama applications, using audio materials
and ICT. These results are consistent with the findings of this study.

ting and
listening are convenient to student levels, it is rarely practiced because of the overcrowded classrooms.

When it comes to culture, language teachers are also required to reflect target culture and generate
cross-cultural communication situations
view that target language is the most challenging area of teacher effectiveness. In this vein, curriculum
designers and teacher trainers should recognize the importance of cultural knowledge. In addition to good
teacher efficacies, teachers are required to have skill proficiency to get better results in classroom. Similar

themselves as being insufficient in implementing listening activities. Pronunciation is also seen as a need
for many teachers in other similar studies.

It is hard to generalize the results since the participants taking part in the study are limited in number.
In this vein, more research is needed to understand the perceived competence and the professional
development needs of Turkish EFL teachers.

References

-service
teachers in Turkey. Electronic Journal of Social Sciences, 9(31), 209-223.
186 Nesrin Abalı / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013) 181 – 187

-
and problems. International Conference on New Trends in Education and their Implications, 306-309.

for elementary schools. Hacettepe University Educational Journal, 28, 55-64.

ons of English language

teaching as a career. Unpublished M.A thesis. Ankara: Bilkent University.

Teaching profession and properties. Institute of Social

Sciences Journal, 19(2), 207-237.

). dil yeterlilikleri. Hacettepe

Dergisi, 4, 5-26. Ankara.

Guskey, T. R. (2000). Evaluating professional development. California: Corwin Press.

Hayes, D. (2000). Cascade training ELT journal, 54(2), 135-145.

doi:10.1093/elt/54.2.135.

onal supervision in relation to

their professional development: A case study in Northern Cyprus. Novitas-Royal, 4(1), 16-34.

Hooker, M. (n. d).Models and best practices in teacher professional development. UNESCO Online.1-23.

Kiely, R. (1993). Professional development for teacher trainers: a material writing approach. ELT
Journal. 50(1), 59-66, doi:10.1093/elt/50.1.59.

Law, N., & Pelgrum,W. J. (2003). ICT in education around the world: trends, problems and prospects.
UNESCO: Internatinal Institite for Educational Planning.

Ministry raporu. Ankara: MEB-EARGED.

Okan, Z., & 'nin .

dil kongresi bildiriler , Ankara, 181-187.

genel yeterlilikleri. (2006). T.C. Milli Dergisi. 69(2590).

Dairesi B

methods,
Lisans Tezi. Onsekiz Mart Sosyal Bilimler .

,& (2010). To what extend does English language teacher education curriculum
prepare prospective teachers for teaching young learners? International Conference on New Trends in
Education and their Implications, 18-23.

Thompson, T. & Goe, L. (2009). Models for effective and scalable teacher professional development.
New Jersey: ETS
 Nesrin Abalı / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013) 181 – 187 187

Vo, L. T., & Nguyen, H. T. M. (2009). Critical Friends group for EFL teacher professional development.
ELT Journal, 64(2). doi:10.1093/elt/ccpo25

ELT Journal, 52(2), 133-

139. doi:10.1093/elt/52.2.133

Wichadee, S. (2011). Professional Development: A path to success for EFL learners. Clute Institute
Online Journals, 4(5), 13-21.