A CORRELATIONAL STUDY ON PRESERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS’ SPECIAL FIELD COMPETENCIES AND POSSIBLE SELVES

: This study aimed to determine the relationship between preservice English teachers’ special field competencies and their possible selves regarding their first year in the profession. The study, adopted by the quantitative research approach, is an example of a relational screening model. The sample of the study consists of a total of 357 preservice teachers studying in the English language teaching department in Turkey in the 2017-2018 academic year. The data of the study were collected by the "English Teacher Special Field Competencies Assessment Scale" and the "New Teacher Possible Selves Questionnaire". Descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and linear regression methods were used to analyze the data. In the study, it was determined that there was a moderate and positive relationship between pre-service teachers' special field competencies and their expected possible selves, and a moderate negative relationship with their feared possible selves scores. It has been determined that there was a moderate and positive relationship between special field competencies and expected possible selves while there was a moderate and negative relationship between the competencies and feared possible selves. Besides, it has been revealed that special field competencies are significant predictors of expected and feared possible selves.


Introduction
The existence of quality education is only possible with the presence of qualified teachers.Parents, politicians, and even teachers agree that the teaching skill is one of the most important factor in education (Leigh & Mead, 2005).In other words, the idea that a school is as good as the teachers working within it is widely accepted (Kavcar, 2002).Therefore, teachers should have some general competencies for quality education and every teacher must continuously improve his/her competencies (Ozdemir, 2016).General teacher competencies can be expressed briefly as knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to perform the profession efficiently and effectively (Ministry of National Education [MONE], 2017a).Teachers with these competencies can be effective teachers, and as a result, the schools improves and student success increases.(Stronge, Ward, & Grant, 2011).
In addition to the general competencies that teachers should have concerning their professions, they are expected to have some specific competencies for their fields.These are expressed as special field competencies.General competencies stipulate the qualifications that all teachers should have, while special field competencies refer to the qualifications that the relevant course's branch teacher should have.Special field competencies of English teachers are determined as (i) "planning and organizing English teaching process", (ii) "using language skills", (iii) "monitoring and evaluating language development", (iv) "cooperating with the school, family and society", and (v) "ensuring professional development in English" in Turkey (MONE, 2017b).
The area of planning and organizing the English teaching process includes planning the English teaching process, organizing the environment, preparing materials, and using resources.The area of using language skills involves using English correctly and effectively and using approaches and techniques to improve language skills.The competency area of monitoring and evaluating language development includes activities identifying, monitoring, and evaluating students' development in the English teaching process.In the field of cooperation with the school, family, and society, there are practices related to cooperation with parents, social leadership, the school being a culture and learning center, ceremonies and organizations at school in order to support the English teaching process.Finally, ensuring professional development in the English competency area includes activities supporting the English language teaching process related to teachers' professional development (MONE, 2017b).

Possible Selves
Self is a structure acquired by the experiences of the person and develops with these experiences (Kenc & Oktay, 2002).Self is about how the individuals see themselves and, how they represent themselves in their mind.The individual's previous experiences, their purpose for the future, the representation of his social personality in the inner world and his perceptions about themselves constitute self (Aydin, 1996).The possible selves are about how people think about their potential and their future.Possible selves expressed as cognitive reflection sourcing of people's goals, fears, hopes and perceived threats can also be expressed in the form of future-oriented self-perceptions.Possible selves are the ideal selves we want to be and also the ones we fear to be.Possible selves include "successful me", "creative me", "rich me", "loved me" etc. as well as feared selves "alone me", "depressed me", "clumsy me", "alcoholic me" and "unemployed me" (Markus & Nurius, 1986).Possible selves create an image of desired or undesired situations related to the future.This image is then compared to the sedentary self.If there is a conflict between these two images, new plans are made, current behaviors are changed or goals are revised (Dark-Freudeman & West, 2016).Individuals strive to approach or avoid one of the desired and undesired possible selves (Oyserman & Markus, 1990).Possible selves are defined as how the person imagines himself/herself in the future, what he/she hopes to be, what he/she fears to be and what he/she expects to happen.Possible selves represent the distant self, like "the self I will become as an adult," and the more recent self, such as "the self I will become next year" Possible selves can be caused by personal experiences, past lives, and behaviors (Leondari, Syngollitou & Kiosseoglou, 1998, cited in Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006).Possible selves can arise from personal experiences, past experiences, and behaviors.These are affected by past and current social, cultural and environmental personal experiences (Hamman, Gosselin, Romano & Bunuan, 2010).Markus and Nurius (1986) theorized the possible selves and mentioned three different types of selves: expected self, hoped-for self and feared self.While the expected self is defined as the one that the person believes can achieve realistically, the hoped-for self will come to the desired possible future and may not be realistic.The feared self is the person who is afraid to be in the future and therefore wants to prevent it (Markus & Nurius, 1986).The hoped possible selves are expressed as positive ones, while the feared ones are expressed as negative ones (Hoyle & Sherrill, 2006).Negative possible selves arise as a result of doubt, insecurity, and anxiety (Ruvolo & Markus, 1992).Possible Self Theory includes the self-concepts of individuals regarding present and future It reflects the expectations, hopes, desires and threats of individuals in the near or far future.(Hamman, Wang & Burley, 2013).An individual's possible selves repertoire can be seen as a cognitive manifestation of lasting motives, purposes, desires, fears, and dangers.Possible selves represent what individuals fear, what they want to be and what they might ensure a conceptual relationship between motivation and cognition.Possible selves are cognitive components of purposes, hopes, fears, and dangers and give these dynamics their own meaning, form, direction, and organization.Possible selves with encouraging functions for future behaviors are very important because they provide an assessment and procedure on one's views (Markus & Nurius, 1986).They play a motivational and self-regulatory role in shaping future behaviors (Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006).Markus and Nurius (1986) expressed that possible selves are important because they both encourage future behavior (avoided or approached) and also provide a possible context for assessing and interpreting the current situation.
Teachers and preservice teachers who have the necessary professional competencies will be confident and will perform their profession better.In parallel with this, among the preservice teachers, those with strong self-sufficient beliefs in the profession have fewer fears about their first years in the profession and have higher expectations (Tatli-Dalioglu, 2016).Similarly, teachers and preservice teachers having special field competencies are expected to be more successful in their professions, their expectations for their profession surge more positively and their fears about their professions will be fewer.Although this is the general expectation, testing this hypothesis, in other words, revealing the relationship between special field competencies and possible selves with empirical studies will contribute to the relevant literature.In this context, the current research aimed to determine preservice English teachers' possible selves for their first year in the profession and special field competencies and to examine the relationship between these variables.For this purpose, answers to the following questions have been sought: 1.What is the level of preservice English teachers' special field competencies?2. What is the level of preservice English teachers' possible selves?3. Is there a significant relationship between preservice English teachers' special field competencies and possible selves?4. Do the special field competencies of preservice English teachers significantly predict their possible selves?

Research Model
The relational screening model was used in this study.The relationships and the level of these relationships between different variables are investigated in this model (Karasar, 2005).It can be said that this model was suitable for investigating the relationship between the pre-service teachers' special field competencies and their possible selves.

Population and Sample
The population of the research consisted of the last grade preservice English teachers in the 2017-2018 academic year in Turkey.In determining the number of preservice English teachers in the population, the quota booklet for the 2014 Undergraduate Placement Exam was taken as a basis.It was determined after examinations that 2959 preservice English teachers constituted the number of the population.
In the selection of the sample, the stratified sampling method was used.The purpose of stratified sampling is to represent the subgroups in the universe (Buyukozturk, Cakmak, Akgun, Karadeniz & Demirel, 2016).In this study, universities were divided into three different stratifies based on the university entrance exam scores.Universities with the highest score made the first stratify, while other universities formed the second stratify and third stratify according to the score height.The sampling of the study was chosen from 10 educational faculties (Bogazici University, Hacettepe University, Istanbul University [High score entry universities)], Ondokuz Mayis University, Karadeniz Technical University, Mugla Sitki Kocman University [Medium score entry universities), Ataturk University, Dicle University, Hakkari University, Van Yuzuncu Yil University [Low score entry universities]) constituted 357 preservice teachers.265 of the preservice teachers in the sample group were female and 92 were male.Of the participants, 109 studied at high-score entry universities, 135 studied at medium-score entry universities and 113 studied at low-score-entry universities.

English teacher special field competencies assessment scale
The first data collection tool used in the study was "English Teacher Special Field Competencies Assessment Scale" developed by Odabas-Kararmaz (2013).The scale consisted of five factors following the special field competencies prepared by the MONE for English teachers and 26 items.
The reliability coefficients were calculated as .873for the dimension of "planning and organizing English teaching process", .907for the dimension of "using language skills", .897for the dimension of "monitoring and evaluating language development", .852for the dimension of "collaborating with the school, family and society" and it was found as .896for the dimension of "ensuring professional development in English" (Odabas-Kararmaz, 2013).
Since this study was carried out with preservice English teachers, the scale was adapted to preservice English teachers.The adaptation study was carried out with a total of 164 preservice teachers studying at Van Yuzuncu Yil University and Mugla Sitki Kocman University.Before factor analysis, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's Test were applied.Based on the fact that the KMO value was .849and Bartlett's test result was meaningful (p=.000), it was decided that the data set was suitable for the factor analysis and the Principal Component Analysis was carried out.As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the scale consisted of five factors in keeping with the original scale and that these factors explained 58.58% of the total variance.Besides, three items that appear in different factors have been removed from the adapted scale.Finally, a scale composed of five factors and 23 items was achieved.The reliability coefficients were calculated as .892for the sum of the scale in the adaptation study, while .785for the "planning and organizing English teaching process", .792for the "using language skills", .745for "monitoring and evaluating language development", .785for the "collaborating with the school, family and society", and .785for the "ensuring professional development in English".The reliability coefficients reached as .845,.820,.857,.813,and .834,respectively, for dimensions, and .930for the sum of the scale in the actual application.

New teacher possible selves questionnaire
The questionnaire was developed by Hamman et al. (2013) and adapted to Turkish by Tatli-Dalioglu and Adiguzel (2015).The six-point Likert scale consists of two sub-scales: "Expected Teacher Possible Selves" and "Feared Teacher Possible Selves".Expected Teacher Possible Selves Scale consists of "professionalism" and "learning to teach" dimensions, while the Feared Teacher Possible Selves Scale consists of "uninspired instruction", "loss of control" and "uncaring teacher" dimensions.In the adapting study, the reliability coefficients were calculated as .79for the "professionalism" dimension, .68 for "learning to teach", .86 for "uninspired instruction", .81 for "loss of control" and it was found as .76for "uncaring teacher".In the present study, the reliability coefficients were calculated as .791,.775,.914,.853and .662,respectively.

Data Analysis
In the analysis of data, descriptive statistics were used to determine the level of preservice teachers' possible selves and special field competencies.Pearson correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between preservice teachers' possible selves of their special field competencies.In evaluating the level of the correlation, the ranges of ".00-.30=lowrelationship, .31-.70=moderate relationship, .71-1.00=high relationship" intervals were taken into account (Buyukozturk, 2012).Finally, simple linear regression analysis was used to determine whether the possible selves were significantly predicted by special field competencies.

Results
The first research question of the study was "What is the level of preservice English teachers' special field competencies?".The mean and standard deviation scores obtained from the scale are given in Table 1.Table 1 shows that preservice English teachers had special field competencies at a high level (M=4.13).When the competency levels of sub-scales were examined, it was seen that the level of planning and organizing the English teaching process and ensuring professional development in English was very high, and in others, high.Accordingly, it can be said that the levels of competency for planning and organizing the English teaching process and ensuring professional development in English of preservice teachers were higher than others.
The second research question was "What is the level of preservice English teachers' possible selves?.
The results of the descriptive statistics obtained to answer this question are presented in Table 2.As seen in Table 2, the mean of expected teacher possible selves was 5.30 (definitely expecting).
When examining the sub-scales of the expected teacher possible selves, it was revealed that the mean of professionalism was 5.45 (definitely expecting), while it was 5.11 (expecting) for learning to teach dimension.According to these findings, preservice English teachers had a lower level of expectation slated to learn to teach according to professionalism.The mean of feared teacher possible selves was found as 2.94 (partially not fearing).In the sub-scales, it was seen that the mean of uncaring teacher dimension was 2.62 (not fearing), the mean of uninspired instruction dimension was 2.86 (partially not fearing) and the mean of loss of control dimension found as 3.34 (partially not fearing).
The third question of the research was "Is there a significant relationship between preservice English teachers' special field competencies and possible selves?".Pearson correlation analysis results are presented in Table 3 to find answers to this question.According to Table 3, there was a moderate and positive relationship between the expected possible selves and special field competencies (r=.46, p<.01).It was determined that there was a moderate and negative relationship between the feared possible selves and special field competencies (r= -.32, p<.01).Additionally, moderate and positive significant relationships were found between the expected possible selves and the scores obtained from the subscales of the special field competencies, and generally weak and negative significant relationships were found between the feared possible selves and the subscales of the special field competencies.
The last research question of the research was "Do the special field competencies of preservice English teachers significantly predict their possible selves?".Regression analysis results to determine whether the expected possible selves of the preservice teachers were significantly predicted by the special field competencies are presented in Table 4.As seen in Table 4, special field competencies were a significant predictor of expected possible selves (r= .46,r 2 = .21,F(1,355) = 95.50,p <.05).The special field competencies of preservice teachers could explain 21% of the variance in expected teacher possible selves.The mathematical equation obtained from this relationship is presented below.
(Expected teacher possible selves= .54xSpecialfield competencies+3.05) Regression analysis results to determine whether the feared possible selves of the preservice teachers were significantly predicted by the special field competencies are presented in Table 5.Table 5 shows special field competencies were a significant predictor of feared teacher possible selves (r = .32,r 2 = .10,F(1,355) = 40.90,p <.00).10% of the total variant of the feared possible selves of the preservice teachers were predicted by special field competencies.The mathematical model of this relationship is included below.

Conclusion and Discussion
It was aimed to determine preservice English teachers' special field competencies, their possible selves and the relationship between the special field competencies and possible selves in this study.
When the special field competencies of preservice English teachers were examined, it was concluded that preservice English teachers have special field competencies at a high level.When the scores obtained from the sub-scales were examined, it was found that the pre-service teachers consider themselves less competent in terms of cooperating with the family and the society compared to the other dimensions.The reason for this may be the lack of courses in preservice teacher education.Also, it has been revealed that preservice teachers have higher competencies for "professional development" and "planning and organizing the teaching process".In his study, Gorkas (2017) found that preservice English teachers had special field competencies at a moderate level.Uygur (2010) revealed that the self-efficacy perceptions of preservice English teachers were high.In another study conducted with preservice English teachers by Komur (2010), it was determined that the participants were above the average in terms of teacher competencies.On the other hand, in the same study, it was emphasized that qualitative data showed that these means did not reflect real practice in the classroom.In the study conducted by Sengul (2012), it was concluded that the perceptions of Turkish language teachers regarding their special field were "partially efficient".
In terms of sub-scales, it has emerged that preservice teachers' perceptions of proficiency in planning and organizing the English teaching processes are quite high.In the study conducted by Odabas-Kararmaz (2013), which was found in line with the results reached in this study, the perceptions of proficiency in planning and editing the teaching processes of English teachers were high.In this study, it was found that the special field competency scores for preservice English teachers to improve their language skills were quite high.This conclusion shows that preservice teachers consider themselves efficient to improve their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.Additionally, this result shows that the preservice teachers learned the language well during their education and that they were efficient to pass on their achievements to their students after becoming teachers.This result is promising in terms of English education.Because when the studies in the literature are examined, it is seen that various researchers (Buyukduman, 2005;Er, 2006;Guven, 2007;Karatas & Fer, 2009) concluded that students' language skills were not developed enough.
During the teaching process, appropriate evaluation about the relationship between preservice English teachers' special field competencies and their possible selves should be made in English courses as well as in all courses.In this context, English teachers are expected to carry out different measurement and assessment activities to provide feedback to their students by interpreting the evaluation results and to reflect the evaluation results to their applications (MONE, 2017b).In the study, it was revealed that the special field competency scores of participants to monitor and evaluate language development were at a high level.This result can show that prospective teachers have a good education about monitoring and evaluating language development and they are selfconfident at the point that they will serve well in this field while performing the teaching profession.
In the study conducted by Odabas-Kararmaz (2013), it was determined that the perceptions of competency monitor and evaluate the language development of English teachers were similar to this study.In the study conducted by Sengul and Alkaya (2016), it was found that the proficiency in monitoring and evaluating language development was a moderate level.
It was concluded that the special field competency scores of preservice teachers to cooperate with schools, families and the community were at a high level.Considering that education does not only consist of classroom practices and education has other important factors such as family, school atmosphere and environment, it is a very optimistic picture for a healthy education that preservice teachers see themselves at the point of cooperation with the school, family, and society.Based on this result, it can be said that preservice teachers felt competent in communicating with their stakeholders (colleagues, administrators, parents, etc.) and working in a coordinated manner with those people while teaching.Similarly, Odabas-Kararmaz (2013) determined that the scores of cooperation with the school, family and social dimension were at a high-level.In another study conducted by Sengul (2012), Turkish teachers were found to be "partially efficient" in collaborating with schools, families, and the community.
In this study, it was revealed that the preservice teachers' ensuring professional development was at a quite high level.Based on this result, it is hoped that preservice English teachers will follow the developments that may occur in the field of English after they begin their profession.They will not fall behind the developments in this field and they can reflect their developments in their students.It is very essential to have teachers who constantly develop themselves to study English at the targeted level.In parallel with the current results, Odabas-Kararmaz (2013) concluded that the perceptions of English teachers in ensuring professional development dimension were quite high.
In the study conducted by Duman (2012), it was found that teachers had a high-level self-efficient for professional development, while in the study conducted by Sengul (2012), teachers considered themselves "partially efficient" to provide professional development.
Possible selves provide a rich and detailed description of future self-presentations and are associated with motivation and behavior through the self-regulation process (Hoyle & Sherrill, 2006).In the present study, it was revealed that the expected possible selves of the preservice English teachers were high while their feared possible selves were low, so the result is positive.When the scores from the dimensions of expected possible selves scale were examined, it was determined that the expectation of professionalism was higher than learning to teach.In the dimensions of feared possible selves scale, it was seen that preservice teachers had the most fear about classroom management (loss of control) and this fear was followed by uninspired instruction and uncaring teacher.These results are consistent with the results of the studies.(Babanoglu, 2017;Demirezena & Ozonder, 2016;Gun & Turabik, 2019;Karali, 2018;Tatli-Dalioglu, 2016;Terzi, Uyangor & Dukler, 2018) carried out in the field.In these studies, it was revealed that the expected possible selves of preservice teachers were mostly at a high level, while feared possible selves were mostly at a low level.The scores obtained from these studies show that preservice teachers had a very positive perception regarding their first years in the profession.Besides, these results show the effectiveness of preservice teacher education on possible selves.Tatli-Dalioglu and Adiguzel (2016) concluded that teaching practice course in educational faculties had a positive effect on feared possible selves.Shoyer and Leshem (2016) showed that prospective teachers expressed their hopes rather than fears in their study.The study by Hong and Greene (2011), which aimed to investigate the hopes and fears of preservice science teachers, revealed that prospective teachers expressed their fears when their feared and hoped selves were not balanced.As stated by Ruvolo and Markus (1992), negative possible selves can be motivationally useful and important sometimes for performance.In some cases, various actions can be avoided, thanks to possible negative selves.However, they cannot regulate task-specific performance on their own.The effective fulfillment of the task requires the accessibility of the positive possible selves and knowledge on how to accomplish them.In the study by Barnett, Hernandez and Melugin (2018), it was concluded that the results expectations of students who created a message from a possible self to the present from a successful future to the current self were low.
In the study, it was concluded that there was a moderate and positive significant relationship between the expected possible teacher selves and the special field competencies and there was a moderate and negative relationship between the feared possible selves and the special field competencies.In line with these results, in the studies conducted by Tatli-Dalioglu (2016) and Tatli-Dalioglu and Adiguzel (2016) moderately positive and significant relationships were found between the expected possible selves and self-efficacy beliefs and moderately negative relationships were found between the feared possible selves and self-efficacy beliefs.Similarly, Eren and Yesilbursa (2019) found meaningful relationships between self-efficiency and possible selves of preservice teachers.In another study conducted with university students by Chow (2016), the relationship between self-esteem and possible selves was examined and it was concluded that there was no relationship between the two variables.
Simple regression analysis was performed on the relevant scores in order to explain the relationship that emerged as a result of the third research problem in more detail.As a result, it has been revealed that special field competencies were significant predictors of possible selves.While the special field competencies explained 21% of the expected possible selves, it explained 10% of the feared possible selves.Accordingly, it can be said that the change in the preservice teachers' special field competencies caused similar changes in the expected and feared possible selves.When preservice teachers increase their special field competency levels, possible selves will increase and the feared possible selves will decrease.In this case, it is necessary to increase the level of special field competencies in order to increase the expectations and reduce the fears of preservice teachers.In the study conducted by Dark-Freudeman and West (2016), it was concluded that health efficiency was a significant predictor of both positive and negative psychological well-being.
In summary, in the present study, it was concluded that preservice English teachers had high special field competencies, high expected possible selves and low feared possible selves.In addition, it was revealed that the special field competencies of the preservice teachers and their possible selves were related and that the special field competencies were significant predictors of possible selves.Some recommendations have been developed considering the results achieved in the research.These recommendations are listed below.

Table 1 .
Descriptive statistics for preservice English teachers' special field competencies

Table 2 .
Descriptive statistics for preservice English teachers' possible selves

Table 3 .
The results of Pearson correlation analysis to determine the relationship between preservice English teachers' possible selves and special field competencies **p<.01

Table 4 .
Regression analysis on predicting expected teacher possible selves

Table 5 .
Regression analysis on predicting feared teacher possible selves