Attitudes, beliefs and challenges of Turkish mathematics teachers while teaching mathematics in a second language

Abstract

Some high schools in Turkey provide medium of instruction in English. Mathematics, science and social science courses are taught in English in these schools. This study explored attitudes, beliefs and challenges of high school mathematics teachers who work in institutions where medium of instruction is in English. Furthermore, this study investigated difficulties students face with when they learn Math from Turkish teachers from these teachers‟ perspective. Eight private high schools located in Ankara, Ġstanbul and Erzurum where the medium of instruction is in English were selected as sample and 50 out of 72 teachers participated in the questionnaire from these schools. Of these, five teachers from three private schools located in Ankara were chosen in order to conduct the interview and lesson observations by purposeful sampling method in regards to their questionnaire results. This study utilized mixed-methods approaches. Results of this study were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data analysis methods. According to the findings of this study, a majority of Turkish mathematics teachers have negative attitudes towards teaching mathematics lessons in English. According to the general results, some of the factors leading these teachers to have negative attitudes and beliefs are University Exam reality in Turkey, English background and proficiency of teachers, English proficiency of students, mathematics lessons being abstract in nature, students‟ lack of mathematical terminology knowledge and participation of the students in the lessons. According to the interview results, it was found out if the teachers have issues while teaching the lesson in English and the fact that teachers‟ preference of medium of instruction differed depending on the teachers‟ own English levels.