ABSTRACT
In many countries in Western Europe and East Asia, pre-service English language teacher education lacks specialized training programs in English for young learners. Turkey had its share in this trend with consecutive attempts to lower the age of English as a foreign language (EFL) introduction in about a decade apart without necessary preparation including teacher qualifications to effectively serve EFL learning young learners in Turkey. In this rather complicated picture, the voices of pre-service English language teachers are unheard and the present chapter provides the pre-service English teachers to young learners' perspectives.
The present chapter aims to fill in this gap in the current literature by initiating pre-service English language teacher training in English for young learners (EYL), a shortfall in emerging nations' EFL education systems via early English classroom observations (field experience) and reflection. Data comprise pre-service English language teacher trainees' reflections on early English classroom observations and the qualitative data analyses reveal emerging themes of pre-service reflections shedding light onto English for young learners-related theory, practice, and policy.
