PREPARATORY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE SOCIAL- EMOTIONAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING IN A UNIVERSITY CONTEXT

Abstract

With the 21st century, the understanding of education is being reshaped, and it is aimed to provide students with 21st century skills. In this direction, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has appeared in education world as a necessity of the 21st century education understanding. However, at this point, it is seen that the inclusion of SEL in education at the university level has not received remarkable attention. To this end, this study was conducted to explore preparatory school students’ perceptions of the Social- Emotional Foreign Language Learning (SEFLL). In addition, in this mixed methods study, the factors underlying the perceptions of students as well as their SEFLL perceptions and competences were investigated. In the quantitative part of the study, data were collected by using Social-Emotional Foreign Language Learning Scale (SEFLLS) developed by Zaimoğlu (2018) and in the qualitative part by means of semi- structured interview questions. In this study, data were obtained from 222 English preparatory students studying at the School of Foreign Languages of a state university in Turkey. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that the students had high level of SEL perception and Social Emotional Competence (SEC), but they did not have in-depth knowledge about SEL. However, it is clear that preparatory school students need support from their teachers and social environments in the first years of their university life. In conclusion, the findings of this study will shed light on the inclusion of SEL in university-level language education programs and its integration into courses.