An Intended or Alternative Profession?: ELL Undergraduates’ Attitudes towards Being an English Teacher

Abstract

Purpose: Prospective teachers are trained with essential knowledge and skills in teacher education programs of all teaching fields at education faculties of universities in Turkiye. In addition, graduates of specific departments at faculties also have a chance to become a teacher by successfully completing pedagogical formation certificate programs. Thus, it is a matter of question what the main purpose of undergraduate students when beginning to study or studying at these departments is: becoming a teacher or not. Along with this inquiry, this paper presents a quantitative study focusing on reasons for department choice of undergraduates studying at English Language and Literature (ELL) department and their attitudes towards being a language teacher within the scope of teacher self-efficacy beliefs. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data of this quantitative study were collected from 220 undergraduates studying at English Language and Literature department of a state university in Turkiye by administering scales on the research purpose. Findings: The findings suggested that the primary reason reported was an interest in the department with knowledge and skills to be gained, which was followed by becoming an English language teacher with high level of teacher self-efficacy. Highlights: Even though there is no explicit focus on becoming an English teacher as part of curricula of non-ELT departments, undergraduates studying at these programs consider being an English teacher as the primary career option, which could lead to a need to evaluate curricula of these programs and teacher education.