Theses supervised by Prof. Dr. Cem Can
10 theses · Çukurova University
A corpus-based study on noun and verb agreement errors by Turkish learners of English as a foreign language
In this study, Turkish EFL learner`s interlanguage noun and verb agreement errors has been investigated. The study has made used of Error Analysis in analyzing the data for noun and verb agreement errors. The present study has made used of the corpus-based techniques to analyze the use of noun and verb agreement in the Turkish EFL learner`s written performance across A1 – A2, B1 – B2, and C1 – C2 CEFR levels of proficiency available in the related corpora of the Cambridge Learner Corpora. Two different research methods were used in this study, both descriptive and experimental method. Two different groups were involved in this study, experimental and the control group. Experimental group were taught noun and verb using the corpus data-driventechniques; and the control group were taught in a traditional way of teaching noun and verb agreement. The result of the experiment was determined by the test on noun and verb agreement taken by the participants after the experiment. In addition, the overuse, underuse and the errors made in using noun and verb agreement by the Turkish EFL learners were analyzed using Log-Likelihood and Log-Dice in investigating and finding out the statistic evidence upon the possible errors committed by the Turkish EFL leaners. In thıs study Turkısh EFL learner's use of noun and verb agreement in their academic writing has been checked and comparison of the result have been made between the control and the experimental group, however the result has revealed that Turkish EFL learner overuse noun and verb agreement in their writings. In addition corpus-based implantation on noun and verb agreement errors has been done to see if the participants could master the rules or not. the result have shown that the both group have improved, but the experimental group overused noun and verb agreement more than their counterpart control group. Firstly Overall frequencies have been identified and analyzed in a tabular form both CLC and the Corpora compiled by the researcher across A1 – C2 proficiency band of CEF. The data were analyzed using the soft wares called Sketch Engine, AntConc, Log-dice and Log-likelihood in order to compare the result. Secondly, the frequencies of all the categories A1 – C2 of the CLC data as well as the corpus compiled by the researcher during his implementation were analyzed respectively, and each proficiency level frequency is shown respectively.
The Turkish EFL learners' use of determiners: A learner corpus-based study
This study intends to find out the Turkish EFL learners' use of determiners. The study will make use of the corpus-based techniques to analyse the use of determiners in the Turkish EFL learner written performance between A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2 Common European Framework (CEFR) levels of proficiency available in the related corpora of the Cambridge Learner Corpora. The participants of the study are Turkish EFL learners from A1-C2 CEFR proficiency level, the sub-corpora consist of data from 1993 – 2012 written in different genres such as argumentative essay, letters, story, advice, application, et cetera. Moreover, in the present study, descriptive and quantitative methods are used as the study dwells on analysing the frequency of the English determiner used and errors made in the Turkish EFL learners' sub-corpus and seeks to obtain reasons behind those errors. English determiners are words that accompany nouns or, in other words, are nouns modifiers which usually appear before noun phrases to specify or to serve as a reference of a noun. In addition, McGregor (1997), states that the term article is used for the special subcategory of determinatives that provide the most basic expression of definiteness and indefiniteness. In this study, the Turkish EFL learners' corpora were analysed, the use of English determiner (articles) frequency was determined, as the study dwelled on the over-/-underuse of English determiners (articles), through the use of Log-likelihood ratio and Type-token ratio, it is found that C1-C2 proficiency levels overused the English determiner (articles) compared to A1-A2 and B1-B2 CEFR proficiency levels. Moreover, regarding the error typologies found in the corpus, Missing Determiner (MD) is found to be more persistent than the other three determiner error typologies, these are, (UD, FD, and RD). At last, in the overall analysis of the English determiners (articles), the presents that the use of 'the' is more frequent the corpus. Also, the main reason behind the learners' overuse and overuse of the determiners was the influence of the o the learners' native language. Furthermore, in the implementation of corpus driving activities in teaching and learning English determiners (articles), it should experiment was carried out, the participants in the study were divided into two groups, and experimental group (corpus-driven techniques) and a control group (traditional method). A pre-test was done before the research process, after four weeks of teaching English determiners (articles) a post-test was conducted. it is realized that corpus-driven activities in teaching English determiners to Turkish EFL learners have a vital role in improving the learners' comprehension and the activities trigger them to produce more sentences to prove their understanding and use the target language beyond the classroom context.
Take+noun sequences in Turkish efl learner's interlanguage: A corpus based study
Availability of electronic data enables learner corpus to be the focus of the language learners and teachers since it enables to search for interlanguage characteristics of learners. The purpose of this corpus-based study is to compare the use of the high-frequency verb take by both English language native speakers and Turkish EFL learners' multiword sequences, mainly on collocations. The Turkish EFL learner's performances will be analyzed from the perspective of what sequences they prefer to use significantly more or less than native speakers within the framework of Contrastive Analysis. This study aims at finding out the use of the high-frequency verb take by comparing English language native speakers and Turkish EFL learners across four proficiency levels, B1-B2; C1-C2, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for language (CEFR) (Council of Europe 2001). Collocations are a crucial part of language usage, which enable learners to be authentic, according to Barnbrook et al. (2013). Having collocational knowledge is crucial in achieving native-like fluency (Bahn, 1993; Lewis, 2000; Nesselhauf, 2003). Collocations are challenging to produce for foreign language learners, and the nature of collocations causes learners to make errors in their productions (Lewis,2000; Peters, 2015; Yamashita and Jiang, 2011; Li,2017). To investigate take+noun sequences of Turkish learners, TICLE, which includes argumentative essays of Turkish learners, is used as the non-native corpus in this study. This corpus is comparable to the reference Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS). Keywords: learner corpus, contrastive interlanguage analysis, collocations.
Multiword units in academic writings by native speakers of English and Turkish EFL learners: A lexical bundles approach
Corpus linguistics has clearly demonstrated that authentic language use consists of repeated expressions, namely formulaic expressions (Byrd & Coxhead, 2010). These expressions, which can also be described as multiword units, serve as essential "building blocks of discourse in both spoken and written registers" (Biber & Barbieri, 2007, p. 263). Formulaic sequences constitute a large portion of oral and written language production (Schmitt & Carter, 2004) and "provide a steppingstone into language development" (Chenu & Jisa, 2009, p. 27). Being an important type of formulaic sequences, lexical bundles are "recurrent expressions, regardless of their idiomaticity, and regardless of their structural status" (Biber et al., 1999, p. 990). The current study investigates the use of the most frequent 3- and 4-word lexical bundles in the Turkish International Corpus of Learner English (TICLE) which is sub-corpus of the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE) and Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS). The TICLE corpus contains written argumentative essays by Turkish EFL learners, while the LOCNESS corpus comprises American students' written essays (Granger et al., 2009). The study employs the corpus-driven approach (Sinclair, 1987), also referred to as frequency-based approach (Nesselhauf, 2004). The most frequent expressions have been classified according to their structures and functions in the discourse using Biber et al.'s (2003; 2004) structural and functional taxonomy of lexical bundles framework. An interpretative contrastive analysis of these expressions has been conducted between Turkish EFL learners and native English speakers. And lastly, semantic domains of the multiword expressions in both corpora have been revealed using UCREL Semantic Analysis System (USAS) semantic tag sets utilizing Wmatrix (Version 4) semantic analysis platform (Rayson, 2008) to identify the most salient features of the multiword choices of learners. The study concludes that Turkish EFL learners overuse verb phrase fragments while they underuse the noun phrase and prepositional phrase fragments in relation to the native speakers of English. In terms of the functional classification, even though Turkish EFL learners produce less functional bundles, they overuse a limited set of repetitive bundles. Log-likelihood results also indicate a lack of lexical variety and richness in TICLE corpus in relative to the LOCNESS corpus. Additionally, semantic analysis of these phrases uncovers both common and specific domains uniquely used in both corpora. Current study adds our understanding of the use of English lexical bundles by Turkish EFL learners and offers valuable insights for SLA researchers, English language teachers, instructors and material developers and publishers.
Evaluating speech acts elements in english as a foreign language textbooks published in Turkey
Pragmatic elements are an essential part of communication in a foreign language. EFL learners must be aware of pragmatic elements to communicate effectively in English. Therefore, teaching English as a foreign language should include pragmatic teaching. As textbooks are considered an indispensable guide to teaching English in EFL classes, pragmatic elements should be presented in EFL textbooks. To this end, this study investigates the use of pragmatic elements in A2-level textbooks used in public schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education. Specifically, speech acts presentation in the textbooks for the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades and the contributions and relations as language functions were investigated. Searle's (1979) taxonomy and Celce-Murcia and Dörnyei's (1995) organizational framework for functional language instruction were employed. While page-by-page analyses were conducted to collect qualitative data, log-likelihood calculations were conducted to reveal statistically significant differences in the use of speech acts across the textbooks taught in these different grades and proficiency levels. Page-by-page analysis for the overall frequency distribution of speech acts revealed that representative speech acts have a higher frequency in all of the textbooks, followed by directive, expressive, and commissive speech acts respectively. The declarative speech act was not included in any of the chosen textbooks. Log-likelihood calculations were conducted by assessing the ratio of speech acts in each book relative to the total number of sentences and conducting pairwise comparisons. Each pair that is compared revealed statistically significant differences or no differences at all. 5th and 6th grade textbooks show significant differences in expressive and commissive speech acts. 5th and 7th grade textbooks show no significant difference. 5th and 8th grade textbooks show significant differences in the use of directive speech acts. 6th and 7th grade textbooks show a significant difference in expressive speech acts, while 6th and 8th grade textbooks show a significant difference in the use of commissive speech acts. 7th and 8th grade textbooks show more significant differences as they reveal that commissive, expressive, and directive speech acts show statistically significant differences. Based on all of the findings, implications for teachers, material designers, and researchers for further studies were proposed.
A study on teachers' opinions on the implementation of task-based teaching at science and art centers
This study was conducted to investigate the opinions and thoughts of English language teachers working at Science and Art Centers in Adana, Mersin, Konya, Karaman, Niğde, Kayseri, Nevşehir, and Aksaray regarding task-based language teaching and to find out whether these teachers use the Task-Based Language Teaching method in their classrooms. To achieve these aims, a questionnaire consisting of four parts, which collected both qualitative and quantitative data, was applied to 28 teachers participating in the study. Participants were selected based on voluntary participation and convenience sampling methods. The results of the online questionnaire applied to 28 teachers were analyzed using thematic analysis. According to the results obtained from the qualitative and quantitative data, it was revealed that the majority of the teachers participating in the study had positive opinions about task-based language teaching and applied it in their classrooms. Other information obtained from the analysis indicated that the most common factors hindering the implementation of task-based language teaching in classrooms included difficulties in classroom management, student participation and motivation, challenges in instructional design and implementation, individual differences among students, and cultural and psychological factors. This study emphasizes the need for increased teacher training, the adaptation of materials to the cultural and linguistic context, and the use of differentiated instructional methods tailored to the individual needs of students for the effective implementation of task-based language teaching. Keywords: Task, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), English Language Teaching, Approach
A corpus based analysis of collocations in english coursebooks used in Turkish public high schools
This research provides a detailed corpus-based analysis of the linguistic content in English coursebooks used in Turkish public high schools, with a focus on the treatment of verbs, nouns, and collocations. The study explores the representation and frequency of these linguistic elements, which are fundamental to second language acquisition, within the context of materials provided by the Turkish Ministry of National Education. By assessing how these components align with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of these coursebooks in facilitating language learning. The analysis involved the creation of a specialized corpus from selected coursebooks, enabling a systematic examination of the presence and distribution of verbs, nouns, and their collocational patterns. The study found that while these elements are present, their representation is often insufficient to promote deep language proficiency. Verbs and nouns are foundational to sentence structure and meaning, yet their usage in the coursebooks lacks the necessary variety and contextual richness. Similarly, collocations, which are crucial for fluency and natural language use, are underrepresented, limiting students' ability to develop effective communicative skills. The findings suggest that the current coursebooks do not fully support the linguistic needs of learners, particularly in preparing them for real-world language use. This research underscores the need for a more robust inclusion of verbs, nouns, and collocations in English language teaching materials to enhance vocabulary acquisition and overall language proficiency. The study's insights are intended to inform future revisions of educational resources, advocating for a curriculum that better aligns with the CEFR and meets the demands of modern language education. Keywords: Corpus Linguistics, collocations, English coursebooks
Task repetition and Turkish EFL learners' engagement in L2 use through speaking tasks
While engagement is widely acknowledged to enhance learning outcomes, its impact on students' task performance has not been thoroughly explored, particularly in the context of task-based language teaching (TBLT). Addressing this gap, this study investigates whether and how repeating the same oral task with the same procedure affects Turkish EFL learners' task engagement in L2 use. Thirty-six first-year ELT students at Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli University, Turkey, voluntarily participated in the study. To examine whether, how, and why task repetition affects second language learners' engagement differently in individual and small-group activities, the participants completed two opinion-gap tasks four times at different intervals. Behavioral engagement was measured by calculating the number of words produced and the amount of time spent on the task. Cognitive engagement was assessed by counting the occurrences of self-repairs, private speech, and exploratory talk per 100 words. Social and affective engagement were analyzed through post-task, semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data were examined using thematic analysis, while quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS for descriptive and inferential statistics. This mixed-methods study integrates both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The findings revealed that students demonstrated greater behavioral engagement during their second individual task performances, with a significant increase in both time spent on task and the number of words produced. However, no statistically significant differences were observed in cognitive engagement during individual performances. When repeating tasks as a group, participants collaborated more but exhibited lower overall engagement. Nevertheless, post-task interviews indicated that participants found group tasks to be easier and much more enjoyable. Key words: Task repetition, task-based approach, L2 engagement
Causative constructions in Turkish International Corpus of Learner English (TICLE)
This study investigated the usage of English periphrastic causative constructions by Turkish learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The grammatical area of causative constructions was chosen due to the significant differences between how Turkish and English encode causation. Furthermore, English periphrastic causative verbs possess a rich array of syntactic and semantic nuances that can be particularly challenging for non-native speakers. Given these reasons, it was believed that Turkish learners of English would struggle with this area of grammar. For the purposes of this analysis, the four most frequently used periphrastic causative verbs of "make," "have," "get," and "cause" were chosen and using corpus analysis methods, data from Turkish International Corpus of Learner English (TICLE) and Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS) were compared. This comparison was a twofold process. First, in order to see any potential over or underuse, a quantitative analysis was conducted to compare the overall frequencies of the four verbs across both corpora. Second, the learner corpus TICLE was analysed to identify and categorize any syntactic and semantic misuses of the four periphrastic causative constructions. This was done to assess the extent of the learners' grasp of these constructions and to determine if there were any systematic error patterns. To further contextualize the findings, the results from the Turkish learner data were then compared to those of two other learner groups, namely the German and Japanese subcorpora of International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE). The purpose of this interlanguage comparison was to ascertain whether the characteristics identified in the Turkish learner data were a common property of interlanguage development in general, or if they were specific to the Turkish learners' linguistic background. Our analysis has found that there was a high number of both syntactic and semantic errors in Turkish learners' usage of English causative constructions, indicating a serious struggle with these structures. When contrasted with the German and Japanese learner groups, it was apparent that Turkish learners were more prone to errors. Moreover, it was found that Turkish learners used the cause causative significantly more than both natives and other learner groups who, in stark contrast, significantly underused the same verb. This finding, also coupled with the fact that Turkish learners exhibited a high rate of overuse of the "be" verb complement with cause strongly suggests that they are transferring the equivalent of the Turkish "neden olmak" (to cause to be) structure from their L1 to their L2. The findings and their significant pedagogical implications for English language instruction are discussed in detail. Keywords: Corpus linguistics, Turkish EFL learners, causative constructions, periphrastic causatives
A study on secondary school EFL students' digital literacy levels
This study explored the digital literacy levels of middle school EFL learners based on various factors. The study involved a quantitative research model. 173 lower secondary school students studying in a public school participated in the study during the spring semester of the 2024-25 academic year. A five point Likert type digital literacy scale developed by Pala (2019) and demographic information form developed by the researcher were used as data collection tools. T-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation tests were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that digital literacy levels of middle school students are generally moderate-to-high. While there was not a significant relationship between students' digital literacy levels and economic status, parental education status, internet access, and device used, certain factors such as gender, age, grade level, daily internet usage and frequency of doing homework using digital technologies had a significant effect on digital literacy. Keywords: Secondary school students, digital literacy level, educational technologies, digital skills, English language teaching