DO EFL TEACHING AND MONITORING PRACTICES MATCH THE CURRICULAR PRINCIPLES? INSIGHTS INTO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELT CURRICULUM IN THE 2ND GRADES

The implementation of macro-level language education policies in the field of teaching English to young learners (TEYL) plays a decisive role in designing and administering micro-level instructional practices. Bearing this in mind, the present study aims to describe English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching and monitoring practices in the 2 nd grade, which is the starting level for English learning at state primary schools in Turkey. Following that, it attempts to display the match between EFL practices and the English language teaching (ELT) curriculum. To achieve these aims, qualitative data were collected from 13 EFL teachers through open-ended written surveys. Overall, the findings point out that the 2 nd grade TEYL practices largely reflect the curricular underpinnings in terms of teaching and monitoring methodology, language skills and materials; however, there are slight mismatches in some issues such as teaching literacy skills, error correction and the implementation of projects. In line with these findings, this research elaborates on the importance of TEYL course content and principles in pre-service language teacher education. Also, it draws attention to teacher training on language assessment within the framework of continuing professional development.