Exploring Non-Native-English-Speaking Preservice EFL Teachers’ Cognitions: What Teaching Philosophy Statements Can Tell Us

Abstract

This study investigates the content and characteristics of the cognitions of 30 Turkish English-as-a-foreign-language preservice teachers as manifested in their teaching philosophy statements. The study showed that the preservice teachers’ cognition was focused on both the pedagogical (teaching-learning and language teaching methods) and the personal and interpersonal (learners’ and teachers’ roles and the relationship between them) aspects of teaching and was characterized by high idealism and naïveté, but they also demonstrated a certain level of awareness of the future contexts in which they would be teaching. Although their past experiences significantly shaped their cognition, they found that their current teacher education program helped them develop a critical view of these experiences.