The Metaphoric Perceptions of the Prospective Turkish Language and Literature Teachers, Taking Pedagogical Formation Education about “Bilingualism”

Abstract

The concept of bilingualism is gaining prominence in our daily lives due to political and social reasons. The fact that bilingualism has become an undeniable fact requires investigation of it in educational sciences. How prospective teachers perceive the concept of bilingualism will fill a gap in the literature in terms of understanding educational practices. In this context, the purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of the Turkish language and literature teacher candidates who have received formation education about the concept of "bilingualism" through metaphors. About 92 Turkish language and literature teacher candidates, studying at Çukurova University, form the research group of the study, for which qualitative research design is adopted. As a data collection tool, each student was given a guidance note with the expression of “bilingualism is like… because…” and the blanks in this guidance note were asked to be filled in. The metaphors obtained in the study were collected in different categories. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the data. According to the results of the research, it was determined that Turkish language and literature teacher candidates who received formation education had positive perceptions about the concept of bilingualism in a total of 12 concept categories.