Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/51-1/5
EFL teaching competences for working with preschool-aged children
Manuela Karlak
orcid.org/0000-0001-8782-7876
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek
Rahaela Varga
orcid.org/0000-0002-8402-2578
; Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek
Ivana Ćosić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9718-8430
; Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to take a closer look at the competences of foreign-language instructors teaching English to preschool-aged children. More precisely, the goal was to investigate the professional and teaching competences of EFL instructors in the Osijek Kindergarten (Dječji vrtić Osijek) a city-wide institution consisting 26 preschools. The results shed light on the following issues: the different qualifications with which EFL instructors certify their professional competence, the extent to which the instructors are language models to the children, the extent to which the subject-specific organization of teaching is adapted to the young age of the children, and the use of teaching materials and aids. The results show that there are four different profiles of EFL instructors in the Osijek Kindergarten: preschool teachers, primary-school teachers with an integrated EFL program, bachelors of English language and literature, and EFL teachers with MAs in English language and literature. It was also established that the approach to teaching differed somewhat between preschool teachers and other profiles of EFL instructors – i.e., preschool teachers choose activities and materials that are more suitable to the abilities and personal interests of preschool-aged children.
Keywords
instructors’ qualifications; teaching competences; subject-specific competences; English as a foreign language; preschool-aged children
Hrčak ID:
278831
URI
Publication date:
3.6.2022.
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