Opinions of Students and Teachers on Using Different Foreign Language Teaching Activities in Young Learners’ Classrooms in Turkey

Abstract

The study was conducted to find out what kindergarten students and their teachers think about using different foreign language teaching activities in young learners’ classrooms in Turkey. It also examines which activities (songs, games, drawing) are favored most by the students and what kind of interaction patterns (individual, pair, and group) the students and teachers of young learners favor most. The study compares pre-school and primary school students’ and teachers’ opinions of the activity types. 52 kindergarten students, 31 primary school students and 10 teachers of young learners participated in this study. The students were interviewed one by one and the teachers were asked to answer a questionnaire including 12 statements. According to the results, both the teachers and the students agree with using different foreign language teaching activities in young learners’ classrooms. Students like games most, then drawing and lastly songs. It was also found that there is a difference in the opinions of pre-school and primary school students on the activity types. As for the opinions of the teachers, there is no significant difference between the opinions of pre-school and primary school teachers concerning the activity types. Lastly, the results indicated that both teachers and students prefer pair and group work activities to individual activities.