An Erasmus+ project on the use of the EPOSTL by student teachers of English

Abstract

The European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) is a self-assessment tool developed by the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML). The EPOSTL aims to provide students teachers of languages in Europe with the opportunity to evaluate and reflect their own teaching experiences, academic achievements and professional abilities. This study is based on an Erasmus plus project called ‚Effective Use of the EPOSTL by Student Teachers of English-EFUESTE‛ (Project number: 1-09-14 /31-08-16). It was conducted in Turkey with the participation of five higher education institutions from five different European countries between the dates of December 2014 - June 2016. As one of the outcomes of the project, a digital EPOSTL model (E-EPOSTL) was created and used in the partner universities. In the study, the quantitative and the qualitative data were collected via a questionnaire and personal reports of the participants of the project. The collected data were analyzed via descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean scores or standard deviation as well as a hypothesis test, one way ANOVA. The results of the study showed that the use of the E-EPOSTL was highly appreciated by the prospective English language teachers in all partner institutions, that electronic version was suggested to design in a more user friendly way, and the instructors favored for the effective use of it in their departments.