Teaching English in Unified-Classroom Primary Schools: A Case Study

Abstract

The key aim of this study was to explore the possible ways of integrating generalist primary school teachers who have to teach English in unified-classroom primary schools in Turkey and their in-service training needs. Due to teacher recruitment politics carried out in Turkey, English language teachers cannot be appointed to unified-classroom primary schools and as a consequence the generalist primary school teachers in these schools are abandoned in their struggle with the teaching of English. This paper reports one such case from the South of Turkey. The findings of the study suggest that generalist primary school teachers working in unified-classroom primary schools may actually be effective participants in fostering foreign language skills of young learners on condition that they are provided with sufficient in-service training.