Teachers’ views on primary school English language teaching curriculum for the 4th grade

Abstract

This study investigates teachers’ views on primary school English language teaching curriculum for the 4^th grade. For this aim, objectives, content, activities, materials and equipment and assessment which are the basic  components of the curriculum are taken as the criterion. Besides this, the study investigates teachers’ level of information about the curriculum, the difficulties that were experienced by teachers in implementing the curriculum, the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum and teachers’ suggestions for improving the curriculum. This is a qualitative research and employs interview techniques. Data were collected through interviews of 15 primary school English teachers who taught 4^th grade students at state schools. In the data analysis procedure descriptive analysis techniques were applied.The results of the research indicated that the participants had negative views about some aspects of the curriculum due to challenges that they encountered during the implementation. It was determined that teachers thought that the level they informed about the program was not sufficient. Teachers emphasized that crowded classrooms, lack of sources and supplementary materials caused problems in implementing the curriculum. It was pointed out that the strongest feature of the curriculum  was that it made the students active during the learning process. The weakest feature of the curriculum was that it was overloaded and time allocated to the curriculum was not sufficient. In order to make the curriculum more efficient teachers suggested that more qualified learning materials should be prepared, alloted time for the lesson should be increased, the number of students in the classroom should be reduced and assessment tools should be provided for the teachers.