The Analysis of the Views of English Teachers about 2nd Grade English Language Teaching Curriculum/İkinci Sınıf İngilizce Öğretim Programına İlişkin Öğretmen Görüşlerinin İncelenmesi

From the 2012-2013 academic year on, Ministry of National Education (MoNE) initiated twelve-year compulsory and progressive education instead of eight-year non-stop compulsory education. During this implementation, MoNE started English language teaching in 2nd grade rather than 4th grade. This study aims to determine the views of English teachers about 2nd grade English language teaching curriculum. The illuminative evaluation model was used in this study. The data were collected from 21 English teachers teaching 2nd grade classes in Uşak through semi-structured interviews during the spring semester of the 2013-2014 academic year. The interviews were coded and themed through both descriptive and content analysis. 30% of the transcripts were given to two foreign language field experts for coding. The agreement was calculated according to Miles & Huberman (1994) and found .88 and .90 between experts and the researcher and .85 between two researchers. The findings were gathered under five themes: “Basic Dimensions”, “Problems”, “Strengths”, “Weaknesses” and “Recommendations”. Research findings indicated that teachers found the strengths of the 2nd grade English language teaching program as benefits of English teaching in the 2nd grade, applicability to the 2nd grade students, focus on listening and speaking skills and the learning-teaching process whereas they found applicability of the program in different learning contexts to be the weakness. In addition, it was found that teachers had problems due to teaching at the 2nd grade for the first time and not getting any in-service training about the program. Keywords: ELT Curriculum, Young Learners, English Teachers, Illuminative Evaluation Model Özet: Araştırmanın amacı İngilizce öğretmenlerinin ilkokul ikinci sınıf İngilizce öğretim programına ilişkin görüşlerinin ortaya çıkarılmasıdır. Çalışmada aydınlatıcı değerlendirme modeli kullanılmıştır. Araştırma verileri 2013-2014 eğitim öğretim yılı bahar döneminde Uşak ilinde ikinci sınıflarda görev yapan 21 İngilizce öğretmeninden yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşme yoluyla toplanmıştır. Görüşmeler hem betimsel hem içerik analizi kullanılarak kodlanıp temalaştırılmıştır. Öğretmenlerin ilkokul 2 sınıf İngilizce öğretim programına ilişkin görüşlerinin genel olarak programın erken yaşta dil öğrenimine olanak sağlaması nedeniyle olumlu olduğu söylenebilir. Anahtar Kelimeler: İngilizce Öğretim Programı, Genç Öğrenenler, İngilizce Öğretmenleri, Aydınlatıcı Değerlendirme Modeli