Can I Teach English to Very Young Learners? Four Non-Teaching Degree Students’ Reflections from Kindergarten

In the Turkish teacher education context, there have been many alternative pathways to train English language teachers since the graduates of four-year regular teacher education programs fail to meet the demands of English teachers. Today, the need for English language teachers is ever-increasing, primarily since English is taught as a foreign language to young and very young learners in preschool and primary education contexts. Researchers and stakeholders have raised concerns about the teacher competencies of these alternatively certified non-teaching degree graduates, focusing on the challenges and issues these individuals encounter when transitioning into the teaching profession. Yet, there needs to be more attention on how these non-teaching degree students construct, if they do, their language teacher identities, especially for teaching English to young and very young learners. As Wenger (2008) mentions, identity is a complex interplay between participation in events and the process of reification, where our experiences and their social interpretation mutually influence one another. Based on this notion of identity-in-practice, this presentation reports on a qualitative case study that examines four non-teaching degree English language and literature (ELL) students’ emerging language teacher identities in-depth, drawing upon reflective teaching narratives and semi-structured interviews before and after eight-week voluntary teaching practice in a kindergarten setting. The findings suggest that the teaching practice experience significantly shaped the participants’ teacher identities by elevating their self-confidence in teaching young learners. Also, while some imagined identities matched the identities in practice, others realised that teaching young learners was difficult and not something they could do. Their positive and negative identity construction depended on personal and contextual factors. The study points to non-teaching degree students' unique challenges and opportunities in developing their language teacher identities. It highlights the importance of supporting and mentoring these individuals as they transition into teaching.