Becoming a junior teacher

This study presents a programme in which eight grade students were provided to have teaching experiences with third grade students in a state school in Istanbul, Turkey. The aim of the study is to give the students a place in the community service programme and through this programme to help them overcome their fears towards English language in the classroom. This paper describes how students can overcome second language classroom anxiety by becoming the teachers of younger students. Changing their roles provide them opportunities to develop their speaking skills and classroom performances. The results indicate that there is an obvious difference between the questionnaires given to the students at the beginning and at the end of the study. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.