An investigation of prospective language teachers’ knowledge and attitudes towards inclusive education in Turkey

Authors

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to find out the knowledge of prospective language teachers about inclusive education, and their skills and professional competences about inclusive practices. This study also aims to investigate prospective language teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education and their suggestions to make inclusive language education practices successful. The participants of the study were a total of 20 4th year prospective English language teachers. A questionnaire consisting of 8 open-ended questions was given to the participants to gather data. The responses were examined one by one and interpretational approach was used to determine the categories and themes. Four main themes were generated. These themes were knowledge about inclusive education, professional competence, teachers’ attitude towards inclusion and disability, and things to do. The findings showed that although the majority of the participants know the meaning of inclusive education, only few of them described the detailed process of inclusive education. This study also revealed that although most of the prospective language teachers did not have enough expertise and skills for teaching students with learning difficulty, they had positive attitude towards inclusive language education. Prospective language teachers also expressed the necessity of pre-service trainings on inclusive education.

Author Biographies

Bengü Aksu Ataç, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi

Asst. Prof. Dr. Bengü AKSU ATAÇ has completed her Ph.D. in Ankara University, Department of Linguistics, Foreign Languages Teaching in 2008. She has been working in Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Faculty of Education, Foreign Languages Teaching Department since 2013. She is the Director of the School of Foreign Languages. Her professional interest areas are; language teaching, testing and assessment, Common European Framework of Refence for Languages, European Language Portfolio, authentic assessment, peace education and ELT for young learners. Dr. Aksu Ataç is a member of WCCI since 2004 and she is the president of WCCI Turkish Chapter and a member of the Board of WCCI International.

Samet Taşçı, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi

Dr. Samet Taşçı has recently completed his Ph.D. in English Language Teaching at Anadolu University. He has been working in Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Faculty of Education, Foreign Languages Teaching Department since 2017. His research focuses on EFL reading comprehension and syntactic and lexical errors made by EFL learners.

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Published

2020-09-07

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2020): International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction

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