Speaking Skills Knowledge Levels of Elementary School Teachers

Abstract

An individual who has the ability to speak from birth continues the development of this skill in education and training environments after the family. In this regard, teachers have great responsibilities for the speaking skills to be acquired in educational environments. Teachers are expected to know about the development of children's speaking skills in order to transfer these skills to students. In addition, having a high level of knowledge about speaking skills is an indispensable element of effective teaching. Elementary school teachers, who spend the most time with students in the classroom, have a key role in helping students develop their speaking skills and easily transfer what they have learned to daily life skills. The study aims to determine the knowledge levels of elementary school teachers regarding speaking skills. The study was carried out with the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. The study group of the research consists of 302 elementary school teachers. The data were collected with the "Knowledge Level Test on Speaking Skills" and analyzed with descriptive statistics, Independent Samples t-Test, One-way ANOVA. According to the results of the research, the arithmetic average of the elementary school teachers' knowledge of speaking skills was found to be 13.74 out of 18 total questions. In addition, while elementary school teachers' knowledge of speaking skills did not differ significantly according to the variables of gender, graduation, and location of the school, it showed a significant difference according to the professional experience variable.