engleski

Pre-Primary Foreign Language Teacher Competences

Pre-primary foreign language (FL) teaching in Croatia extends as far as the 1960s. This sets a solid foundation for implementing FL learning from the earliest age, i.e. the mother tongue plus two additional languages recommendation (European Council, 2002). However, despite the FLL tradition, to date there has been no systematic education of pre-primary (early childhood education and care) FL educators at the national level even though preschool teachers have been recognized as the key quality service providers (OECD, 2006). The paper will present the results of the needs analysis conducted in 2017 among 117 in-service preschool teachers. The analysis focused on the existing FL programs in preschool institutions, teacher education, the need for further education, self-assessment of English language competences (CEFR), and their estimate of the importance of generic and specific competences for early childhood FL teaching. Based on the obtained results, it may be proposed that a study program for pre-primary FL teachers would provide a standardization of the required competences and raise the standard of EFL teaching in early childhood and preschool age throughout the country. Such a program would offer an opportunity to gain new qualifications for carrying out FL programs in early childhood education, meet the needs of preschool institutions for professionals in the area of FL, enhance and expand possibilities of vertical mobility of students towards doctoral programs and other forms of lifelong education, and provide competent answers to the contemporary demands of the labor market.

needs analysis ; study program ; teacher training ; teaching English as a foreign language

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