LANGUAGE LEVEL AWARENESS OF TRAINEES IN TEFL MICROTEACHINGS: A CASE STUDY

This case study was designed to increase the language level adjustment awareness of the teacher trainees who were microteaching English as a foreign language in methodology courses conducted in ELT (English Language Teaching) departments. Although there is a predetermined language level during any microteaching, there may be unintended mismatch between the levels of teacher talk and class interlanguage. If such an inequality occurs and persists in a class, the teacher and the students may experience communication problems in the interactive setting of the classroom. In this respect, methodology courses should direct pre-service teachers to pay utmost attention to this subject and offer training. This case study displays a research on microteachings where ELT trainees act as students who are learning Russian, and Russian language trainees act as teachers and perform microteachings. They teach beginners level daily Russian in twenty-five minute sessions. ELT department teacher trainees who are the subject group try to learn Russian and observe the language level adjustment performed by the Russian language teacher trainees. Shortly, this study focuses on the reflections of the interaction between two teacher trainee groups. According to the data gathered in this case study, the level of teacher talk performed by teacher trainees in microteachings must be among the important methodological aspects to be focused on during teacher training. In the preparation, presentation, and assessment stages of microteachings the minor and major factors affecting the adjustment of teacher talk must be handled in an applied manner as well as theoretical.