PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES AND THEIR CONCEPTIONS OF RESEARCH

With the recent addition of courses, revolving around scientific research in the curriculums of ELT (English Language Teaching) classes in Turkish institutions of higher education, it was noticed that the ideals of lectures were highly focusing on the structures of investigation and how to fully participate in it. There is the need to take into account the existing perceptions of the teacher candidates to make informed choices about the planning of the research methods education. Such research could delineate teacher candidates’ views on what research is and find out to which extent they think they are research-engaged. This study examines English language pre-service teachers’ attitudes and conceptions of research. The participants were students from a state university in Turkey. They were delivered a questionnaire to determine their attitudes and conceptions. The results showed that the participants held positive attitudes towards research and that their understanding of research was in line with conventional conceptions of scientific inquiry