The second grade English language curriculum: Theory-practice congruence

Abstract

This study aims to provide a deep understanding about English Language Education Program to English teachers, students, curriculum designers and decision makers in Turkey. Recently, the Turkish educational system has gone through a transition from the 8+4 educational model to the new 4+4+4 model, which has led to an immediate need for the redesign of current English Language curriculum. Regarding English language education, in particular, this new system mandated that English instruction should be implemented from the 2nd grade onward. In line with this, the purpose of this study is to conduct a survey research to find out whether the new program has been implemented as planned in terms of materials, activities, and teachers' expected roles using process part of Stufflebeam's CIPP evaluation model. A questionnaire including the standards of the curriculum has been administered to a group of teachers who have been teaching English at the primary schools. Through cluster sampling method, 62 teachers have been selected as the sample. The data have been analyzed through descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that some of the teachers' roles were not congruent with standards of the curriculum, audio-visual materials were not utilized adequately and communicative activities were not applied in accordance with curriculum standards.