Journal of new advances in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

Journal of new advances in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

Stepping into the World of Young English Learners through Experiential Learning: Proactive Practical Action Research on Pre-service Teachers’ Perception Evolvement and Professional Empowerment

Author
Foreign Language Education, Trabzon University, Türkiye
10.22034/Jeltal.2025.specialissue/3
Abstract
Today, like the Aladdin's magic lamp, English proficiency offers avenues for education, career development, communication, entertainment, and partnerships. Coupled with the possible benefits of an early start, this situation has turned Teaching English to Young Learners into a truly global phenomenon. The abundance of studies with in-service teachers as research site has yielded to recent calls to complete the existing understanding with pre-service teacher perspective. Responding to those calls and informed by the Experiential Learning Theory and Reflective Practice, the current action research aimed at exploring 34 ppre-service English teachers’ views and experiences regarding the impact of a TEYL course accompanied by collaborative mock lesson experiences, teacher educator feedback, and reflective entries. The findings underlined almost complete agreement on the role of such an experiential and reflective process on their awareness of the rewarding yet arduous nature of the profession, young children’s world, and teaching skills, thereby the development of a self-confident teacher identity. Particularly classroom management including managing the time, L1 use, classroom space, resources as well as student roles and acts emerged as the primary concern. It ends with pedagogical implications informed by the insights of the action researcher, i.e., the pracademic, and solid theoretical knowledge.
Keywords

Arnold, W., & Rixon, S. (2008). Materials for teaching English to young learners. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), English language learning materials (pp. 38–58). Continuum International Publishing.
Birchinall, L., Spendlove, D., & Buck, R. (2019). In the moment: Does mindfulness hold the key to improving the resilience and wellbeing of pre-service teachers? Teaching and Teacher Education, 86, Art. No. 102919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102919
Bratož S. (2015). Pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards learning and teaching English to young learners. Journal of Elementary Education8(1/2), 181-198. https://journals.um.si/index.php/education/article/view/423
Butler, Y. G. (2015). English language education among young learners in East Asia: A review of current research (2004–2014). Language Teaching, 48, 303–342. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444815000105
Cakır, A., & Gungor, M. N. (2017). Pre-service teachers’ evaluation of practices in teaching English to young learners according to 21st century teacher qualifications. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies13(1), 244-259.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge University Press.
Copland, F., Garton, S., & Burns, A. (2014). Challenges in teaching English to young learners: Global perspectives and local realities. TESOL Quarterly48(4), 738-762. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.148
Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd ed.). Cambridge.
Damar, E., Gursoy, E., & Korkmaz, S. C. (2013). Teaching English to young learners: Through the eyes of EFL teacher trainers. ELT Research Journal2(3), 95-110.
Daza-Murcia, L. M. (2022). Meditation practice: A welcome activity in a pre-service teacher education program during pandemic. Revista de Psicología y Educación/Journal of Psychology and Education, 17(1), 54-68. https://doi.org/10.23923/rpye2022.01.216
Dörnyei, Z. & Dewaele, J.-M. (2023). Questionnaires in second language research: Construction, administration, and processing. (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Ellis, G. (2014). “Young learners”: Clarifying our terms. ELT Journal, 68(1), 75–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/cct062
Flick, U. (2014). Mapping the field. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 3-18). Sage.
Johnstone, R. (2019). Language policy and English for young learners in early education. In S. Garton & F. Copland (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of teaching English to young learners (pp.13-29). Routledge.
Gungor, M. N. (2016). Turkish pre-service teachers’ reflective practices in teaching English to young learners. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(2), 137-151. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2016v41n2.9
Gungor, M. N., & Eksursoyi, G. (2019). A review of research on teaching English to young learners in EFL contexts (2008-2018). In G. Y. Ekşi, L. Guerra, D. Werbinska, & Y. Bayyurt (Eds.), Research trends in English language teacher education and English language teaching (pp. 481-504). University of Évora
Gupta, A. (2024). Qualitative methods and data analysis using ATLAS.ti: A comprehensive researchers’ manual. Springer.
Gursoy, E., Korkmaz, S. C., & Damar, A. E. (2013). Foreign language teaching within 4+ 4+ 4 education system in Turkey: Language teachers’ voice. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research53(1), 59-74.
Hue, M. T., & Lau, N. S. (2015). Promoting well-being and preventing burnout in teacher education: A pilot study of a mindfulness-based programme for pre-service teachers in Hong Kong. Teacher Development, 19(3), 381-401. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2015.1049748
Incecay, G. (2012). Turkey’s foreign language policy at primary level: Challenges in practice. ELT Research Journal1(1), 53-62.
Julien, H. (2008). Content analysis. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The Sage encyclopaedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 120-122). Sage.
Kırkgoz, Y. (2019). Fostering young learners’ listening and speaking skills. In S. Garton & F. Copland (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of teaching English to young learners (pp. 171-187). Routledge.
Kırkgoz, Y. (2008). A case study of teachers’ implementation of curriculum innovation in English language teaching in Turkish primary education. Teaching and Teacher Education24(7), 1859-1875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.02.007
Kızıldag, A. (2009). Teaching English in Turkey: Dialogues with teachers about the challenges in public primary schools. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education1(3), 188-201.
Kolb, D. A. (2015). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. (2nd ed.). Pearson Education.
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. (3rd ed.). Sage.
Moon, J. (2000). Children learning English. Macmillan Heinemann.
Neuman, W. L. (2014). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (7th ed.). Pearson.
Othman, J., & Kiely, R. (2016) Preservice teachers’ beliefs and practices in teaching English to young learners. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics6 (1)50-59
Privitera, G., J., & Ahlgrim-Delzell, L. (2019). Research methods for education. Sage.
Raya, M. J., Vázquez, B. M., & Vieira, F. (2024).  Bridging the gap between theory and practice in initial teacher education for autonomy. In M. J. Raya, B. M. Vázquez & F. Vieira (Eds.), Pedagogies for autonomy in language teacher education: Perspectives on professional learning, identity, and agency (pp. 1-11). Routledge.
Reynolds, B. L., Liu, S., Milosavljevic, M., Ding, C., & McDonald, J. (2021). Exploring pre-service pre-primary EFL teacher beliefs about teaching English to very young learners: A Macau case study. Sage Open11(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211052932
Rich, S. (2019). Early language learning teacher education. In S. Garton & F. Copland (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of teaching English to young learners (pp.44-59). Routledge.
Rich, S. (2014). Taking stock: Where are we now with TEYL? In S. Rich (Ed.), International perspectives on teaching English to young learners (pp. 1-19). Palgrave Macmillan.
Sabgini, K. N. W., & Khoiriyah, K. (2020). The pre-service teachers’ reflection in English for young learners teaching practice. English Review: Journal of English Education8(2), 311-322.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
Shin, J. K., & Crandall, J. (2013). Teaching young learners English: From theory to practice. National Geographic Learning.
Singleton, D., & Pfenninger, S. E. (2019). The age debate: A critical overview. In S. Garton & F. Copland (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of teaching English to young learners (pp.30-43). Routledge.
Uztosun, M. S. (2016). Pre-service and in-service English teachers’ efficacy beliefs about teaching English at primary schools. Elementary Education Online15(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.17051/io.2016.80068
Yaman, I. (2019). Exploring pre-service English language teachers' perceptions about “teaching English to young learners” through metaphors. IJOEEC (International Journal of Eurasian Education and Culture), 4(7), 141-157.
Yıldız, G. R., & Savascı, M. (2024). Navigating Turkish EFL teachers’ perceived challenges with very young learners. Language Teaching and Educational Research (LATER), 7(1), 37-50. https://doi.org/10.35207/later.1356067
Yükseköğretim Kurulu [Council of Higher Education] (2018a). İngilizce öğretmenliği lisans programı [Undergraduate program of English language teaching]. https://www.yok.gov.tr/Documents/Kurumsal/egitim_ogretim_dairesi/Yeni-Ogretmen-Yetistirme-Lisans-Programlari/Ingilizce_Ogretmenligi_Lisans_Programi.pdf
Yükseköğretim Kurulu [Council of Higher Education] (2018b). Öğretmen yetiştirme lisans programları [Teacher education undergraduate programs]. https://www.yok.gov.tr/Documents/Kurumsal/egitim_ogretim_dairesi/Yeni-Ogretmen-Yetistirme-Lisans-Programlari/ AA_Sunus_%20Onsoz_Uygulama_Yonergesi.pdf
Zein, M. S. (2017). Professional development needs of primary EFL teachers: Perspectives of teachers and teacher educators. Professional Development in Education43(2), 293-313. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2016.1156013
Zein, S. (2019). Classroom management for teaching English to young learners. In S. Garton & F. Copland (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of teaching English to young learners (pp. 154-168). Routledge.
 
Volume 7, Issue 3
Call for Paper
Embracing Compassion-Based Approach: Needs to Redefine Education in Emerging Dawn for Gen Z Students
December 2025
Pages 56-78

  • Receive Date 25 April 2025
  • Accept Date 06 May 2025