A profile on the methodology courses at the ELT departments of the education faculties in Turkey

Abstract

In this study, the methodology courses at ELT departments in Turkey were examined in terms of design, content and delivery. In order to collect data, sample ELT Departments of the Education Faculties in Turkey were chosen from different parts of Turkey. Data were collected through questionnaires administered to two groups of respondents, 2 methodology instructors and 20 final year students that were chosen randomly from sample ELT Departments. A total of 11 methodology instructors from 6 ELT Departments and 115 final year students from these institutions responded to the questionnaires. The findings were analyzed according to frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. The findings indicated that the methodology courses were offered for three or more semesters in five of the sample universities. However, neither the instructors nor the students found the number of the courses adequate. Among the course activities, lectures and assigments were reported to be the most common and textbooks were the most widely used course materials. The students rarely attended professional ELT activities such as workshops, seminars or conferences while the instructors sometimes found opportunities to attend such activities. An interesting finding was that the students stated that they were quite familiar with the English Language Teaching approaches and methods. Equipment such as video-camera, video-player and computers were rarely used in the courses and other equipment such as tape-recorders were not used very often. When they were asked their opinions about the courses in their institutions respondents answered that the amount of practice in the methodology course and the length of the practicum course itself should be increased. Since the number of the students was high in some institutions, some activities such as microteaching or demonstrations could not be performed as much as necessary. Based on the above findings of the study, several recommendations can be made. First of all, the success of the methodology courses can be increased by providing sufficient course materials and classroom conditions. The number of the students should be limited since in a crowded class the activities such as microteaching, group discussions or demonstrations cannot be performed successfully and finally the amount of practice within the courses should be increased. Since methodology is closely related to practicum, the practicum course should be integrated with the methodology courses.