Training attitudes of primary school foreign language teachers

Abstract

Schooling practices founded upon the principles of Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA) do not appear to have attained widespread adoption among teachers, consequently hindering the implementation of didactic measures that foster foreign language acquisition. These measures are closely entwined with the classroom climate, wherein the fundamental element often hinges upon the attitude of the teacher. For the most part, foreign language teachers are better equipped to embrace this attitude after having personally experienced it as learners themselves. To explore this matter further, the present study adopts a mixed-methods research design to gather insights from participants (n = 74) who attended the Didactics of Foreign Language in Primary Education – German course within the Bachelor Degree in Primary Education at the University of Cádiz (Spain) during the last nine editions; that is, from 2014/15 to 2022/23. The research findings reveal a near-unanimous consensus among all participants, regardless of nationality, teaching experience, or age, on the influential role of a classroom climate in shaping their teaching attitude. Based on the results, pre-service foreign language teachers must be allowed to acquaint themselves with effective didactic measures, together with a well-defined classroom climate wherein the significance of teaching attitude is accordingly recognized as one of the most influential factors in motivating learners.