The impact of EFL trainee teachers’ concern levels on their tutoring practices

Year 2017, Volume: 6 Issue: 4, 302 - 321, 30.12.2017

Eda Üstünel Merve Mutlu

Abstract

This
study aims to find out about the factors affecting foreign language trainee
teachers’ concern levels in an ELT department in Turkey. The participants are
31 junior non-native trainee teachers in the ELT department in Muğla Sıtkı
Koçman University. A mixed design method has been chosen and in order to
collect the data three instruments have been used; the Student Teacher Concern
Scale (STCS), which was developed in a Turkish context (Alpan, Özer, Erdamar,
Subaşı, 2014), observation of trainee teachers during a tutoring session for
prep-school students and semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data has
been analyzed to initiate the qualitative data and the semi-structured
interviews were analyzed through the Constant Comparative Method. According to
the analysis, four main themes emerged to have an influence on trainee teachers’
concern levels; past experiences of trainee teachers, the facts of students,
the facts of trainee teachers and the impact of being observed. All the factors
are presented with details and supported with extracts from the interviews with
the trainee teachers.

Keywords

trainee teacher, tutoring practice, EFL, foreign language teaching concern

References

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