A COMPARISON OF ARGENTINEAN AND TURKISH ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION CURRICULA
A COMPARISON OF ARGENTINEAN AND TURKISH ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION CURRICULA

Summary/Abstract: In this study, we look at the education of English language teachers in two countries, namely, Argentina and Turkey. We specifically discuss the curricula of the teacher education programs by focusing on the specific courses taken by prospective teachers of English in each country and the steps they have to take to start teaching officially. Methodologically, we studied and analyzed two sample curricula, one from each country, in terms of the titles of the courses offered. While comparing, first, each curriculum was studied individually to understand the general outlook of it in terms of the type of English language teacher it aims to graduate. Hence, we tried to understand to “ideal” teacher that is to be educated for the country’s specific needs. Then, courses are grouped under categories and the groups are compared with each other. Results show that the Argentinean curriculum aims at graduating “proficient” language users who will develop their knowledge and practice of the language teaching methods on the job whereas the Turkish curriculum aims to graduate a workforce of teachers who have strong knowledge of teaching methods and who, most probably, will develop their language skills in time. This finding is supported with another which shows that literature and culture-related courses are given a significant place in the curricula offered at Argentinean teacher education institutions whereas little importance is given to literature and culture-related courses in the Turkish curriculum.

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