Investigating Dialogic Teaching Competence in ELT Pre-Service Teacher Education

Year 2025, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 196 - 209, 23.12.2025

Fatma Sezgin , Paşa Tevfik Cephe

https://doi.org/10.35207/later.1829959

Abstract

This study investigates the presence and implementation of Dialogic Teaching Competence (DTC) within English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) programs in Türkiye, with a specific focus on pre-service teacher experiences. Grounded in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and informed by the works of Alexander (2008), Bakhtin (1981), and Mercer and Littleton (2007), the research explores how dialogic teaching manifests cognitively, pedagogically, and institutionally in ELT settings. Drawing on a qualitative case study design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 13 student teachers enrolled in an ELT program at a state university. Thematic analysis revealed three overarching dimensions of DTC: (1) student teachers’ understanding and perceptions of dialogic teaching, (2) the enactment of dialogic interaction during coursework and practicum, and (3) the influence of curricular structures and instructor modelling. While participants valued dialogic principles and employed related techniques such as elicitation and open-ended questioning, their unfamiliarity with the term “dialogic teaching” signalled a lack of explicit integration in the curriculum. Techniques were often applied procedurally rather than strategically, and instructor modelling, though impactful, was rarely supported by reflective dialogue or theoretical framing. The findings underscore the need for ELTE programs to embed dialogic pedagogy systematically across courses, strengthen reflective practices.

Keywords

dialogic teaching , second language teacher education , pre-service teachers , interaction , sociocultural theory

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