Teachers’ own readiness to teach ELL

In this final section the teachers’ own readiness to teach early English to young learners will be discussed drawing on the interviews, previously discussed examples and the teachers’ attitude towards ELL. As can be interpreted based on the interviews, teachers mostly had a good understanding of their own readiness and qualities of a competent early language teacher.

Most of the teachers (4/6) were very enthusiastic and excited about early English teaching, which has been defined as one of the major qualities of a successful early language teacher (see Enever 2014, Unsworth et al 2014, Edelenbos et al 2003) as it is crucial in terms of building the language learning base for children. It builds the foundation for successful ELL teaching, and

is also crucial in terms of a teacher’s readiness to teach early languages. This can be seen in example 81 below.

(81) Yes I am interested about it [early language teaching] and like it and have seen the role of it that it’s important and it is great that begins already during first grade … I feel satisfied [with her own level of competence] of course it fluctuates as sometimes it feel like I’ve got no time to prepare and then it’s kind of like left with nothing but then I always think that we will revise and that’s okay (Teacher 2)

Additionally, these four teachers (teacher 2, 3, 5 and 6) recognized the teacher’s own role and responsibility for designing such classes that benefit the children and their language awareness.

They mentioned the key qualities of a successful ELL teacher to be their own willingness to dedicate time and effort into the classes and to put thought into it, in order to create positive experiences about language learning for the children, as illustrated in example 82. These four teachers all recognized the teachers’ responsibility for designing such classes, and thought of ELL as something that the teacher needs to be willing to put effort into.

(82) Well that [own readiness to teach ELL] is a question of whether I’ve put effort into it so that I’ve taken those kinds of means … surely I could have done more and better but then when I think that it’s only calculated to be one hour per week so I guess some criteria needs to be included and sometimes I do more and sometimes less as it’s not like it’s 10 o’clock on Monday morning but more like here and there so in that sense I’d say that I’ve done good things and invented some plays and games and such where English has been present so I’d say pretty good (Teacher 3)

Moreover, these teachers understood the nature of ELL (it being playful, light, fun and suitable for the children’s age and stage of development) and the kind of methodology that this type of teaching requires, as can be seen from example 83. They all thought of ELL as something that needs to be easy for the children to acquire without the pressure of learning (see also section 5.1.3) and that their own methodology needed to fit this purpose. This, too, has been named as one of the key qualities of a successful ELL teacher, which points towards a competent level of readiness to teach languages to young learners.

(83) I try to keep it fun and switch methods so there’s playing singing sometimes we watch some English videoclips and there are fun tasks so that it’s part of this nice and pleasant communication and school day and not like we begin to learn English but more like learning without fully noticing so then their attitude towards it remains positive and there are not many of experiences like I can’t do this and this is difficult and I don’t want to try but like looking at for example colours and you can look and compare with a friend like hey what’s this so it remains playful (Teacher 3)

Finally, these four teachers recognized the need for their own willingness to improve their language skills and to get another perspective from for example language subject teachers or other experts of the language. All of these four teachers, including teacher 5 who was a language subject teacher, named class teacher skills and age-fitted pedagogy as necessary for ELL teachers in order for them to succeed in motivating the children and preserving their joy towards learning new things. On the other hand, teacher 2, 3 and 6 who were class teachers also mentioned the need for themselves to be interested about (English) language(s) and willing to improve their own skills. This is an important notion, which can be seen in example 84.

(84) If you have like good basis [to teach ELL] like I’d say that I have [then you can teach it] and there could be some multiprofessional cooperation and event where you could get the language teacher’s vision (Teacher 6)

As the example above illustrate, these four teachers have a clear understanding of a successful ELL teacher’s nature, qualities and level of competence, and they all expressed their willingness to improve their own skills and qualities for their own professional development, but most importantly, for the children and their learning process. What could be argued to be the most important feature of a suitable ELL teacher is their attitude towards language learning and willingness to constantly develop their own skills and understanding about the concept of early language teaching, as without the eagerness to thrive, no development can ever be achieved.

Naturally, other qualities such as teachers’ own language competence, their knowledge over the children’s cognitive levels and ability to fit their own methods into the needs of the children are also required. Based on these four teachers’ quotations and interviews (see sections 5.1.3, 5.1.4 and 5.4), their readiness to teach ELL seems to be at a level that can benefit the children in the future.

Contrarily, teacher 1 and 4, who had been teaching for longest, felt that they had not been offered enough support nor materials to fully succeed in early language teaching. As teacher 4 already stated in example 76, she did not consider herself as a professional language teacher and did not think that her level of competence would be enough for fruitful instruction at later stages of primary school. She felt that her skills were enough for grades 1 and 2 as she did not think the requirements were as high as in the later stages, but as has already been discussed (see section 5.1.4), a teacher’s own language competence is crucial in order to successfully provide the necessary model for the children. Moreover, both of these teachers thought of early English

classes as very laborious and requiring too much work, which culminated in the need for materials and support. This is seen in example 85.

(85) No I haven’t [gotten any tools] so you have to do a terrible amount of work and to think what to do this week (Teacher 4)

Teacher 1 considered early English to be very laborious and was also somewhat insecure about her own foreign language competence, which led to her choice to not continue with early English teaching the next year. She felt that teachers, who were more oriented towards languages and had more interest in developing their own skills would fit the task better, and she could concentrate on the subjects she felt she had stronger understanding of. She mentioned the lack of materials and suitable education and the laboriousness of the subject as the main reasons for giving up her English classes. As for what could be done better in order to help teacher with ELL and its requirements, she mentioned framework and materials as the most important suggestions for development, as example 86 illustrates.

(86) Like framework so like what are we aiming for with this early language teaching and like some contents and also what materials are we allowed to use what is legal so these three things (Teacher 1)

Both of these teachers were not extensive users of English, which could be the cause for their own insecurity over their language competence. This could also affect their own attitude towards these classes, as it required a great deal of effort from them to design them. It seems that these two teachers needed to put more effort into designing the classes than the other teachers who were more regular users of English and who had also completed their teacher education more recently. This meant that they most likely had been better trained for the use of digital materials, out of book-teaching approach and phenomenon-based learning than the older teacher. This could explain the older teachers’ more reserved attitudes towards the renewal of the language teaching in primary schools.

In sum, the teachers’ level of competence in whatever language they are teaching, their willingness to constantly develop their own skills (by regularly participating in in-service training and educating themselves on the issue) and their education background seem to be the strongest predictors of their readiness to teach early language classes. The more the teachers are interested and excited about language learning and recognize the importance of positive language education for young children, the better they are able to also develop the necessary

skills to deliver these types of classes. The teachers’ own attitudes and previous education play a great role in this, which is strongly in line with previous studies on beneficial early language teacher qualities (see section 2.3). Suggestions for improvements in teacher education and factors increasing teachers’ readiness are discussed in the next chapter.

6 DISCUSSION

This chapter will conclude the current study and offer concrete implications for future work regarding early language learning and teaching and its organization. First, the current study will be evaluated in terms of its validity and reliability in section 6.1. Then, in section 6.2 the implications of this study will be reported. The section is divided into three subcategories: first, general attitudes affecting early language teaching will be discussed and possible improvements for development considered; second, the necessary support for teachers in order to succeed in early language teaching will be examined; and third, some suggestions for future research regarding ELL will be provided.