THE ROLE OF TEACHER ATTITUDE IN PRESCHOOL LANGUAGE EDUCATION

Year 2012, Volume: 41 Issue: 1, 70 - 86, 08.03.2014

Esma Biricik Yonca Özkan

Abstract

Children seem to be motivated to get new things into their lives. However, it may sometimes be meaningless for a child to be interested in learning a foreign language for its own sake. The fact that they catch new things with no consciousness is undisputable but there is a crucial point that in a learning atmosphere, they need to be strongly motivated to learn the language. Based on this premise, this study aims to discuss the importance of motivation in teaching English to very young learners, the reasons of demotivation and as to what teachers could do to increase motivation and keep students motivated in classrooms of 5-6 year-old learners. The participants consisted of 45 children studying in two difference classrooms. The study aims to seek answers to the following questions: What factors lead to preschool children’s motivation in language classrooms? What factors lead to preschool children’s demotivation in language classrooms? The data of the study gathered throughout video recordings, observation notes, protocols and a questionnaire was applied to find out children’s feelings about the most appropriate attitudes of language teachers. The study may have significant implications for English teachers, second language researchers, preschool language teachers, teacher trainees who focus on importance of motivation in EFL learners’ performance in language classes.

Keywords

Motivation, English language teaching, young learners, classroom language activities, teacher attitude

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