French Language Teacher Trainees Perception of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in French Language

Abstract

The overall goal of this study was to find out French language teacher trainees perception of pedagogical content knowledge in French language. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population comprised of all 415 French undergraduate students' in the Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education and, the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Arts of a Nigerian University. A total of 108 French students were selected from the population through a simple random sampling technique as the sample for the study. A likert type questionnaire with a four point scale was validated by three experts. Using the Cronbach Alpha statistic, a reliability coefficient of 0.75 was obtained. Data was analyzed using means and standard deviation and a criterion mean of 2.50 was used for acceptance and rejection. The results show that Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is capable of developing French teacher trainees' competences in problem solving skills, erases possible misconceptions and erroneous reasoning, simulates the use of various representations and instruction of knowledge and helps in the development of proactive thinking, attitude and self-confidence. It was therefore, recommended that more methodology courses should be designed and implemented to help the trainees content knowledge as well as pedagogical content knowledge so that they can serve effectively as twenty first century language teachers.