VIEWS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS ON THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN OF LANGUAGE TEACHING IN TURKEY

While the characteristics of an effective teacher vary depending on different views, everybody would agree that a teacher who ignores the affective domain cannot be considered effective. Previous studies in the area mainly focused on the cognitive side of the learning process. Although some studies focused on the affect, they studied it from the learners’ perspectives and ignored the teachers’. This study aims to reveal the perceptions of Turkish ELT teachers on the affective domain of language teaching. Teachers’ views were identified considering their teaching experience –expert vs. novice teachers- and teaching context –state vs. private schools-. They were also asked the reasons –if they had any- for not addressing the affect in their classes. The results revealed that Turkish EFL teachers give importance to the affective side and their perceptions do not differ according to their teaching experience or context. School context, students, teachers and environmental factors were reported as the main reasons for not addressing the affective side.