PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ VIEWS ABOUT ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSES THROUGH DISTANCE EDUCATION

Abstract

Awareness about possible contributions and drawbacks of English as a foreign language courses through distance and traditional face-to-face education may contribute to improving the efficiency of the process of teaching and learning a foreign language. The aim of this study is to investigate pre-service teachers’ views related to English as a foreign language courses through distance education compared to the traditional face-to-face education. The study intended to reveal the pros and cons of English as a foreign language courses not only through distance education but also face-to-face education and provide some suggestions to overcome possible problems encountered with the distant and/or face-to-face learning/teaching of English. Moreover, the study aimed to explore pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards learning English as a foreign language and the impact of learning English through distance education compared to face-to-face education on their grades. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The participants were 91 pre-service teachers from different majors for the quantitative part of the present study while 14 pre-service teachers participated in the qualitative part. The findings highlight the importance of pre-service teachers’ views regarding learning English as a foreign language through distance education compared to the traditional face-to-face education considering the perceived strengths and weaknesses of each. Likewise, the study provided implications to improve their effectiveness in the process of learning English as a foreign language, which is considered one of the top priorities in the Turkish education system.