The Problems with English Language Teaching in High Schools and Possible Suggestions to Solve Them

The English language curriculum prepared by the Ministry of National Education (MONE) for high-schools in Turkey seems to be satisfactory in theory, but the related studies about the attitudes of actual practitioners towards English classes in high-schools are so rare.This study aims to fill this gap.To do so, a qualitative research study was conducted with 13 English language teachers and 55 high-school students from different parts of Turkey. They were asked for their opinions, applications, observations, and problems about the English language teaching system in their high-schools and some suggestions for the problematic issues were requested from them via open ended questions. The data were analyzed descriptively and the results showed that mostly teachers are not satisfied with the course books, crowded classes, quite limited class-hours and unmotivated students. Their main suggestions cover the privatization of education, having language libraries and labs, speaking clubs, more lesson hours for English and decreasing the number of students in each classroom. Additionally, teachers want to attend international seminars to become aware of the latest methods/sources. Students have some valuable suggestions for the improvements as well. Nearly all the students are unhappy about the course books as they are quite boring and repetitive; thus, they suggest them to be revised. They also want to join international projects and improve their language skills. As a result of the study, a model covering many issues such as course books, assessment, pre-service and in-service teacher training, European projects was proposed with an aim to diminish the gap between the theories and the applications in real classes