Teacher competences for teaching English as a foreign language in the first educational cycle of primary education

Mateja Dagarin Fojkar (Author), Mirjam Grahut (Author), Darija Skubic (Author)

Abstract

Foreign language teaching in the Slovenian educational context begins in the first grade (age 6). Many studies report a lack of qualified teachers at this stage of learning around the world and numerous authors emphasise the misconception that basic linguistic and didactic knowledge of teachers is sufficient for teaching children. All three Slovenian public universities are aware of this problem and offer pre-service and in-service programmes for (student) teachers who want to specialise in teaching English to young learners. In the present article, we focus on the subject-specific teacher competences for teaching English in the first three years of primary education; namely, linguistic, subject didactic and intercultural competences. We explore teachers’ self-assessment of these competences and their perception of certain elements pertaining to them. The study seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) What subject-specific competences do teachers consider essential for teaching English in the first cycle of primary education? (2) To what extent do teachers believe they have developed certain subject-specific competences? (3) What are teachers’ attitudes toward certain subject-specific competences that the teacher needs for teaching English in the first cycle of primary education? The results of the quantitative survey, in which 100 teachers participated, show that teachers perceive their subject didactic competence to be the most developed and their intercultural competence to be the least developed. Moreover, they consider that a basic level of English is not sufficient for teaching English in the first grades.

Keywords

kompetence;tuji jeziki;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2022
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UL PEF - Faculty of Education
Publisher:	Sicklerville, NJ : Dr. Riza Ulker
UDC:	37.011.3-051:811.111
COBISS:	93472771
ISSN:	2165-8714
Views:	813
Downloads:	147
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	English
Secondary keywords:	Učitelji;Pouk;
File type:	application/pdf
Type (COBISS):	Article
Pages:	str. 423-433
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ11
Issue:	ǂissue ǂ1
Chronology:	2022
DOI:	10.12973/eu-jer.11.1.423
ID:	14270519