Investigating teachers’ awareness and use of neuroscience findings to improve their teaching practices of English with early multilingual children

Abstract

Algerian primary schools have recently embarked on the teaching of English as a foreign language. This study attempts to evaluate this situation of early multilingualism through the lens of neuroscience findings, as English is taught alongside with French, Arabic and Tamazight in some regions of Algeria. This descriptive research aims primarily to collect the different teachers’ views about their awareness and use of neuroscience findings to improve their teaching practices of English with children.Therefore, a questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 67 teachers who are concerned with teaching English at primary school during the (2023- 2024) academic year . The data collected, using close-ended and open-ended questions were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively as a way to establish a link between neuroscience and teaching practices. The findings revealed that while participants demonstrated a solid understanding of the field and expressed positive views about the application of neuroscience to their teaching several crucial core areas remain frequently neglected making their integration into academic professional development programmes a necessity. This knowledge will help teachers to effectively address the challenges they encounter during their teaching experiences within this multilingual environment.