Theses supervised by Yrd. Doç. Dr. Deniz Ortaçtepe
18 theses · İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University
Yazma becerisi eğitiminde yeni bir dönüt yöntemi olarak video içerikli portfolyo (VIP)
Feedback provision is an important duty of foreign language writing teachers. Yet, the attitudes of teachers and the feedback channels they use might affect the amount of correction students can incorporate into their written work. For example, learners incorporate more correction when they have the opportunity to have short conferences with their teachers. However, holding conferences with the learners might not always be possible due to crowded classroom settings. Then, writing teachers provide their learners with feedback traditionally, mostly by indicating learners' errors and mistakes, and commenting on their written work. While some learners utilize teacher feedback delivered traditionally, some others cannot benefit from the teacher feedback equally as it either includes too much metalinguistic explanation, learners interpret teacher comments incorrectly, correction symbols are confusing, or etc. Therefore, this study investigated whether a new form of teacher feedback delivered through videos might be an alternative to traditional feedback. To explore whether computer technology might be used as a new method, the researcher formed two groups of learners: an experimental group and a control group. The sample included students in the foundation course at Kadir Has University, the researchers home institution. While the experimental group received video feedback, the control group received traditional feedback for five of their weekly assignments. Since the feedback videos were part of a portfolio writing task, the researcher named the feedback videos "Video Inclusive Portfolio" (VIP). The data were collected and analyzed in three steps. Firstly, the amount of overall correction incorporated by the experimental group and the control group was calculated and analyzed with a Mann-Whitney U test. The findings revealed that video feedback helped learners incorporate more correction into their subsequent drafts. Secondly, the study also investigated whether video feedback helped learners incorporate more correction for feedback from different categories (e.g., explicit feedback, simple mechanical, complex mechanical, and organizational feedback). A second Mann-Whitney U test analyzed how learners of the two groups utilized feedback from different categories. The findings indicated that while the form of feedback (video feedback or traditional feedback) did not exhibit any statistically significant difference for explicit feedback category, video feedback enabled learners to incorporate more correction in terms of simple mechanical, complex mechanical, and organizational feedback. Finally, learners' perceptions were investigated through a questionnaire administered to the experimental group at the end of the study. The findings of the questionnaire also confirmed that video feedback might be an alternative to traditional feedback in teaching writing skill.
Amerikan tv dizileri izlemenin yükseköğrenim düzeyinde yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğrenenlerin kalıp ifadeleri kullanmasına etkileri
This study investigates the effects of watching an American TV Series, How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), on tertiary level English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' use of formulaic language. The participants were 66 Upper Intermediate level students studying at Akdeniz University, School of Foreign Languages, Intensive English Program. The study employed an experimental and a control group. At the beginning of the study, both groups were administered a pre-Discourse Completion Test (DCT) to determine their knowledge of formulaic language. After the pre-test, the experimental group received formulaic language training through watching an American TV Series HIMYM while the control group received a traditional training of formulaic language without watching any American TV Series. At the end of the 3-week training, both groups were given a post-DCT to see if they have developed their use of formulaic language. After a two-week interval, both groups received a recall-DCT to check the long term effects of formulaic language training. The findings revealed that, both the experimental and the control groups have made progress in their use of formulaic language at the end of the formulaic language training. However, the experimental group's development is statistically much higher than that of the control group in the recall-DCTs, which indicates the long-term effects of watching an American TV Series HIMYM. The findings revealed that formulaic language training through watching American TV Series is effective in improving the students' formulaic language use in the long term. This finding confirms the previous literature which emphasizes the influence the use of authentic media tools has on foreign language acquisition. The present study has filled the gap in the literature on formulaic language use by suggesting the use of an American TV Series HIMYM as a source to develop EFL learners' formulaic language use. This study gives the stakeholders; the administrators, curriculum designers, material developers, and teachers the opportunity to draw on the findings in order to shape curricula, create syllabi, develop materials, and conduct classes accordingly. Key words: formulaic language, develop, use, EFL, American TV Series
Metot mu metot sonrası mı?: İngilizce öğretmen adaylarının bakış açıları üzerine bir anket çalışması
This descriptive study investigated the awareness level of ELT students regarding postmethod pedagogy, and the teaching methods in Turkey. Having emerged in the early 1990s, postmethod pedagogy has received mixed reactions in the ELT world. Based on the idea that the concept of method has a limiting impact on language teachers, postmethod condition suggests that method is an artificially planted term into the language classrooms; therefore, should no longer be regarded as a viable construct. While postmethod pedagogy calls for a closer inspection of local occurrences, its presence in local curricula among countries outside the European periphery remains questionable in that the innovative condition of postmethod is fairly new, and is still widely overshadowed by Communicative Approaches in educational contexts. By employing a quantitative approach, this study traced the echoes of methods and the postmethod condition in ELT departments in Turkey. Eighty-eight ELT students from six different universities in Turkey participated in the study. An online survey with four sections was employed for the data collection stages of the study. Analyses of the data revealed that the Communicative Approaches are the widely preferred methods among third- and fourth-year ELT students in Turkey. Additionally, these students had negative perceptions towards the earlier methods of teaching English. Regarding the postmethod condition, the results indicated that Turkish ELT students still had strong links with the methods, and they were unwilling to abandon the guidance that ELT methods provided them. However, significant difference was observed between teacher groups regarding the Particularity principle of the postmethod condition. The findings of this descriptive study supported the existing literature in that while Communicative Approaches are the dominant methods of instruction in Turkey, which is an English as a Foreign Language setting, some complications remain among prospective teachers in implementing deep-end ELT methods to local agenda. Keywords: Postmethod pedagogy, methodology, ELT methods, methods and approaches, Communicative Language Teaching, ELT students, prospective teachers
İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen öğrencilerin konuşma sınavlarında kalıp ifadeler kullanımı
This study investigates in what ways EFL learners use formulaic language that is taught in their curriculum through course books when taking oral proficiency exams with multi-task and whether there is a relationship between their formulaic language use and their scores of fluency and overall proficiency. The study was carried out with 190 EFL learners with different proficiency levels at Bülent Ecevit University, the School of Foreign Languages. In order to examine the ways of formulaic language use by the participants, a content analysis of the course book was carried out so as to determine the target formulaic language list with the frequency of occurrence of each expression in the book. After that, a content analysis of the video recordings of oral proficiency exams was performed to see the students' formulaic language use and the results of the two content analyses were compared in order to draw conclusions. In order to relate the students' formulaic language use to their fluency and overall proficiency, the scores that the students have received for fluency and their proficiency scores at the end of the academic year were taken into consideration. The results of the content analyses conducted by counting the number of the occurrence of each expression in the book and their accurate use by the participants revealed that the students mostly used the formulaic expressions in the book accurately while they also used expressions that are not included in the book. The data gained through the analysis of the relationship between formulaic language use and fluency and overall proficiency revealed a statistically significant relationship between the related variables implying that they are interconnected concepts. These findings suggest that the students use formulaic language taught in their curriculum through course books and their formulaic language use is related to their fluency and overall proficiency. In light of these findings, the study sheds light on the future teaching practices for formulaic language and it offers implications for stakeholders such as instructors, administrators, curriculum and material developers in order to design curricula, develop materials and teach classes. Anahtar sözcükler: kalıp ifadeler, akıcılık, dil yeterliliği, konuşma sınavları, ders kitapları, müfredat
Uluslararası bir okulun içerik tabanlı bir sınıfında matematiksel ve iletişimsel söylemler: Bir etnografik çalışma
The purpose of this ethnographic study was to investigate the culture of a content-based English/Mathematics classroom in terms of mathematical and communicative discourse. The participants of this study were 21 multicultural secondary grade students and an international mathematics teacher in a content-based classroom of an international school in Turkey. The main data instrument was the researcher as a participant observer. The data were the audio-recordings gathered through 17 separate secondary grade lessons consisted of 540 minutes course-time. In the data analysis, two different methods were used: qualitative method to investigate the characteristics of the mathematical discourse and descriptive method to analyze the communicative discourse using a research-based scheme. The results indicated that in this multicultural content-based classroom, mathematical discourse was productive in terms of encouraging students to use the language of mathematics; strategies, solution methods and different perspectives; mathematical reasoning and mathematical justification; and connection between mathematical ideas/concepts and extension in mathematical thinking. As a result, the students in this classroom did and learned mathematics by participating in mathematical discourse. The teacher-students interactions were effective in terms of teaching mathematics but it needed to improve for developing learner's English. As this was a multicultural content-based classroom where English was the only medium of instruction, it carried features of mathematical discourse. Yet, in terms of communication, the teacher tended to ask questions to which she already knew the answers, and that restricted the variety of language forms that students could produce. To conclude, in a multicultural content-based classroom, mathematics instruction should aim to encourage English learner students to participate in communicative discourse more because they are not only learning mathematics but also English. Key Words: Content-based instruction, mathematical discourse, communicativediscourse, content-based English/Mathematics classroom, international school, multicultural classrooms.
Ana dilleri İngilizce olmayan İngilizce öğretmenlerinin ana dilleri olan Türkçe'yi öğretirken kimliklerinin yeniden şekillenmesi
This study aimed to investigate how the changing role from a nonnative English teacher to a native Turkish teacher affects teachers' identity construction in terms of self-image, self-efficacy, and beliefs about teaching and learning. In this respect, the study explored the experiences of five nonnative English teachers who went to the USA on a prestigious scholarship for one year to teach their native language, Turkish, as native teachers. The data were collected mainly through three different instruments: a personal data questionnaire, ongoing controlled journals along with follow-up questions, and interviews. All the qualitative data were analyzed according to Boyatzis' (1998) thematic analysis. Initially, each participant's data were examined on paper copies to discover the themes that naturally emerged. After that, the emerging themes in the initial analysis were color-coded and related to three sensitizing concepts, which were a) self-image b) self-efficacy c) beliefs about teaching and learning. The findings of this study revealed that a) being a native teacher contributed to the participants' self-images, b) being trained in ELT and being experienced in teaching English were more influential in the participants' perceptions of their teaching abilities, c) being a native speaker and knowing a language were not enough to be able to teach a language, d) knowing how to teach a language could also facilitate teaching another language, and e) students, colleagues, and the socialization process had effect on teachers' identity. The changes in their self-image, self-efficacy and beliefs about teaching and learning indicated the identity reconstruction of nonnative English teachers who shifted their roles to native Turkish teachers. Considering these results, this study supported the existing literature in that a) teacher identity is multiple and has a shifting nature, and b) teacher identity is in conflict and flux. It was also concluded that the way the participants were raised as English teachers shape their identities, and the participants' identities are more rooted in English language teaching because of being trained in that. Key words: teacher identity, self-image, self-efficacy, beliefs about teaching and learning, nonnative English speaking teachers, native Turkish teachers.
İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen öğrencilerin yazma sınavlarında kalıp ifadeler kullanımı
This study investigates the ways EFL learners use formulaic language that is taught in their curriculum through course books when taking writing proficiency exams and whether there is a relationship between their formulaic language use and their scores of coherence, total writing and overall proficiency. Key words: formulaic language, meta-discourse markers, coherence, overall proficiency, writing proficiency exams, course book
Post metot pedagoji ve yansıtıcı uygulama: İngilizce'yi yabancı dil olarak öğreten Türk öğretmelerin güncel bakış açıları
Current discussions about the methods in English language teaching show the dissatisfaction with the outcomes of the implementations of the conventional teaching methods. The postmethod pedagogy argues that traditional methods have limiting and limited effects on both language learners and teachers. In this sense, postmethod pedagogy, which highlights the importance of location specific, context-sensitive and teacher-generated educational settings, values teachers' decisions during teaching and highlights the importance of actual practices of teachers. One of the overarching features of postmethod pedagogy is that it highly emphasizes the role of the teachers as decision-makers. Teacher reflection is seen as a major component as teachers with the help of self-observation, self-analysis and self-evaluation can shape and reshape classroom learning and teaching. This process can only occur with teachers who have a sense of plausibility, which means subjective understanding of the teaching they do". It is claimed that one of the consequences of the postmethod era can be regarded as the rise of reflective practice in language teaching. In this sense, a reflective teacher is defined as a critical examiner of classroom practices who comes up with different ideas to enhance students' learning and be able to put these ideas into practice. This quantitative study, with the participation of 347 Turkish EFL teachers, investigated their perceptions of postmethod pedagogy and reflective practices. The data was collected in Turkey via a nation-wide online survey consisting of two separate sets of questionnaires focusing on postmethod pedagogy and reflective practice. The survey also includes a set of questions to obtain demographic data. The data gathered via this survey was also analyzed to see whether there is a relationship between teachers' perceptions of postmethod pedagogy and their reflective practices. The results of the quantitative data revealed that Turkish EFL teachers do not have resistant attitudes towards the postmethod condition and they also seem to be open to changes with regard to altering the current methods in line with the needs of the students. Moreover, when Turkish EFL teachers' responses to the five elements of reflective practice were considered, it was seen that most of the reflective activities are sometimes engaged in. The analysis of the relationship between postmethod pedagogy and reflective practice revealed that the principles of postmethod pedagogy and elements of reflective practice interrelated with each other specifically with regards to local needs, critical reflections on teaching and socio-political issues in teaching/learning environment. Key words: Postmethod pedagogy, methodology, reflective practice, teacher reflection, EFL teachers
İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğreten öğretmenlerin online platformlar vasıtasıyla yansıtıcı düşünme etkinliği
June, 2015 This study investigated EFL teachers' participation in reflective practice oriented (RP-oriented) online discussion forums. More specifically, it explored the reflection types (reflection-in, reflection-on and reflection-for-action) instructors engaged in. To this end, the study explored RP-oriented online discussions utilized in a methodology course by nine experienced English as a foreign language teachers who were students in a master's program in teaching English as a foreign language at a foundation university in Ankara, Turkey. The data were collected through three different instruments: a background information questionnaire, RP-oriented discussions and interviews. All the qualitative data were analyzed according to Boyatzis' (1998) thematic analysis. Initially, each participant's data were printed out and examined to discover the themes that naturally emerged. After that, the emerging themes in the initial analysis were color-coded and related to three sensitizing concepts, specifically a) reflection-on-action b) reflection-in-action and c) reflection-for-action. The findings of the study revealed that in RP-oriented discussion platforms participants engaged in a) reflection-on-action by considering their past experiences both as learners and teachers, b) reflection-in-action by sharing their beliefs and teaching practices c) reflection-on-action by defining their intentions on reshaping their future practices as well as providing suggestions for their institutions. Considering these results, this study challenged the results of studies that have investigated the use of reflective practices in online-asynchronous discussion platforms and provided further directions in identifying successful utilization of RP-oriented online discussions in in-service teacher education. Key words: Reflective practice, reflection-on-action, reflection-in-action, reflection-for-action, reflective practice oriented discussions (RP-oriented), online / asynchronous discussion platforms, EFL.
Mesleğe yeni başlayan ve ana dili İngilizce olan İngilizce öğretmenlerinin duygu ve gerginliklerine ilişkin profesyonel öğretmen kimlik oluşumu
This longitudinal, case study aimed to examine the professional teacher identity construction of novice native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) working in an EFL setting. Thus, this study explored two American novice NESTs' experiences and reflections in terms of their emotions and tensions throughout their professional teacher identity construction in the preparatory school of a foundation university in Turkey. Data were collected over a six-month-period through three qualitative data collection instruments: journal entries, semi-structured follow-up interviews and field notes. As for the data analysis procedure, open-coding was first employed to separately identify the emergent codes in two datasets coming from two participants' narratives and the field notes and to construct categories and themes, and then axial coding was applied to the all categories and themes on hand to obtain overall findings. The study revealed three major findings: a) Novice NESTs' educational background in the field of English language teaching (ELT), local language competence and professional support services in the institution may lower NESTs' tension and yield less negative emotions, which can make novice NESTs' process of professional identity construction more positive and easier in return, b) Tensions can be more manageable in EFL contexts when novice NESTs set career goals to realize themselves as professional teachers of English, and c) Emotions seem to be in a state of flux, however; too many lived experiences of negative emotions might hinder novice NESTs' professional identity construction and their imagined identities as language teachers. To conclude, the aforementioned findings suggested that novice NESTs' tensions and emotions may facilitate or hinder their investment within community of practice and accordingly shape their professional teacher identity construction. In line with this conclusion, the study presented several suggestions for future research and pedagogical implications for novice NESTs, administrators and local non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in EFL contexts.
İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğreten üniversitelerin hazırlık öğretmenlerinin kültürlerarası iletişimsel yeterlilik algıları ve sınıf içi etkinlikleri
This study investigated tertiary level EFL teachers' intercultural communicative competence (ICC) perceptions and their classroom practices to describe the current position of teachers. In order to inquire about their perceptions and practices further, their cross-cultural experiences, and perception towards ICC according to age, gender, undergraduate degree, last degree earned and teaching experience factors were examined. The study sampled 81 tertiary level EFL teachers working at Department of Basic English, Middle East Technical University. The data were gathered through a questionnaire. This instrument was additionally used as a guidance to select teachers with high perception of ICC to be observed for three weeks. The data analysis from the questionnaire revealed that teachers' cross-cultural experiences were limited to touristic purposes. Moreover, teachers who graduated from ELT departments had more positive perception of ICC compared to instructors with degrees from non-ELT departments regarding culture-teaching activities. Additionally, novice teachers reported to have more positive perception of ICC in terms of how often they employ culture teaching activities. Finally, although teachers reported to have a positive perception of ICC, classroom observations during which instances of ICC were noted; however, it was not consistent throughout the observed lessons. The overall picture of the results indicated that although perceptions play a crucial role in shaping teachers' classroom practices, this was not the case in this study.
Yabancı dil olarak ingilizce öğrenen Türk öğrencilerin kavramsal sosyalleşmesi: Rica söz edimleri üzerine bir araştırma
This study aimed to investigate Turkish EFL learners' development of conceptual socialization in terms of their speech acts realization. More specifically, the study examined if the development of conceptual socialization is possible in EFL contexts by analyzing the similarities and differences between native speakers of English and Turkish learners of English in their request, refusal and acceptance speech acts realization in terms of the level of formality, politeness, directness and appropriateness in written and oral activities. In this respect, 25 higher level Turkish learners of English studying in a preparatory school and 10 native speakers of English working as language instructors in the same school took part in the study. In this mixed-methods approach study, the qualitative data were collected through written Discourse Completion Tasks (DCT) in English and Turkish including requests, refusing and accepting requests and audio recordings of role plays as oral discourse completion tasks. Qualitative data gained from the native speakers' and Turkish EFL learners' responses to DCTs and role plays were graded by using a criterion and the results were quantified to analyze descriptively by using the native speaker responses as a baseline.The findings revealed that although Turkish EFL learners could perform similar to native speakers in terms of realizing appropriate acceptance speech acts, the learners could not produce appropriate request and refusal speech acts in different social situations. That was mostly because their level of formality and politeness was lower than the level of formality and politeness in native speaker responses. When their responses in Turkish were analyzed, linguistic and socio-pragmatic transfer from their mother tongue was observed. Additionally, Turkish EFL learners overused similar structures in each social interaction while native speakers used various linguistic structures. These findings helped draw the conclusion that learners' development of conceptual socialization in EFL context might be affected by classroom instruction and their L1 socialization in Turkish. Considering the results above, this study implied the importance of learner experiences in classroom teaching in EFL context, where there is no authentic interaction, and raising learners' awareness about the cultural differences reflected on the language use in different social encounters to help them develop conceptual socialization.
İngiliz dili öğretimi müfredatında karşılıklı konuşma stratejileri ve İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen öğrencilerin sözlü yeterlilik sınavı üzerindeki etkisi
This study aims to explore whether teachers' reported practices of teaching conversation strategies show any difference from students' perceptions on teaching these strategies in in-class activities. The study also investigates the extent to which explicit conversation strategy teaching affects the use of the strategies in oral proficiency exam context and the relationship between conversational strategy use and the scores candidates receive from speaking exams in terms of task completion and overall proficiency. The study was carried out with 261 tertiary level EFL learners and 19 English Language instructors at Bülent Ecevit University, School of Foreign Languages. To see the similarities and differences between teachers' reported practices of covering conversation strategy instruction and students' perceptions on strategy instruction in class, a content analysis of the course books was carried out to identify the conversation strategies presented by the teaching material. After that, student and teacher participants were administered questionnaires designed by the researcher on the basis of the result of the content analysis. In order to reveal the effect of conversational strategy use on oral proficiency exam performances, a content analysis of the video recordings of students' oral proficiency exam performances were examined to see evidence for successful execution of conversation strategies. The frequency of successful conversation strategy use and the scores students received from the task completion and overall proficiency band of the rubric was used to explore the effect of strategy use on oral exam scores. The results coming from the questionnaires showed that in 41 out of 50 items, teachers reported practices of and students' perceptions on in-class strategy training matched whereas in 9 items there was a mismatch between teacher and students responses. The results of the study also revealed that there was a moderate relationship between the use of conversation strategies and oral proficiency exam performances in terms of task completion and overall proficiency. In the light of the findings, the study provides insights with regards to conversational strategy instruction for future teaching practices. Stakeholders like curriculum developers, material designers, instructors and administrators can benefit from the results of the present study.
Yabancı dil olarak İngilizce sınıflarında ortak zemin oluşturma ve konumlandırma: Ana dili İngilizce olan öğretmenlerle ana dili İngilizce olmayan öğretmenlerin karşılaştırılması
This study aimed to investigate how native (NEST) and non-native English-speaking (NNEST) teachers find common ground with their students and the ways they position themselves while establishing common ground in their social interactions. The purpose of the study was to investigate NESTs' and NNESTs' ways of establishing common ground with their students and positioning through common ground in their social interactions in tertiary level language classrooms in an English as a Foreign Language setting. The researcher collected data through classroom observations. Three NEST and three NNEST teaching partners who teach the same classes in turn were observed and audio recorded during the first and fifth weeks of a new course. Data were transcribed and then analyzed using an analytical framework adapted from Kecskés and Zhang's (2009) socio-cognitive perspective on common ground and Davies and Harré's (1990) positioning theory through discourse analysis. The findings revealed several differences in terms of the ways NESTs and NNESTs established common ground and positioned themselves in their social iv interactions. More specifically, NESTs' lack of shared background with their students led to more establishment of core common ground (i.e. building new common knowledge between themselves and their students), which also positioned them as outsiders in a foreign country while NNESTs maintained the already existing core common ground with their students (i.e. activating the common knowledge they shared with their students) by positioning themselves as insiders. Moreover, the real life purpose of NESTs' common ground building acts through L2 made their teacher-student interactions good opportunities for the use of target language to the leaners' benefit. NNESTs' conversations involving the activation of their shared linguistic and cultural background, however, aimed to facilitate classroom instruction. These findings helped draw the conclusion that NESTs and NNESTs differed in relation to their social interactions involving common ground and positioning. NESTs created meaningful contexts that enabled opportunities for language socialization through which students not only practiced language but also negotiated meaning. On the other hand, NNESTs activated the common knowledge they shared with their students to facilitate classroom instruction. Considering the results above, this study contributed to the literature by providing insights into the differences and similarities NESTs and NNESTs have in terms of their language socialization.
Önceden belirlenmiş video klipleri izlemenin düşük seviyeli sınıflarda İngilizce öğrenen Türk öğrencilerin söz edimlerini kullanımına etkileri
This study aimed to investigate the effects of video clips on low-level Turkish EFL learners' pragmatic competence in using speech acts. The pre-test in a DCT format was administered in low-intermediate level classes at the Department of Basic English (DBE) at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey. After the analysis of it, the speech acts in which the participants had difficulty in using were determined to be explicitly taught. The treatment sessions included the tasks during which the participants watched the video clips and discussed the relationship between the characters. Then, some other appropriate structures were covered to improve the participants' pragmatic competence in speech acts. The analysis of the DCT items in the mid-test revealed that participants formed more appropriate responses in the post-test. Four weeks later, a post-test which included DCT items was administered. The participants were able to write mostly appropriate responses in the post-test, which also revealed the effectiveness of the integration of the video clips while teaching English speech act to low level Turkish EFL learners. The semi-structured interviews with the teachers also indicated the importance of instruction while teaching speech acts. The findings related to the perception questionnaire revealed the importance of providing input via the use of video clips which offer conceptualized input and facilitate learning by having students get more motivated and pay attention during treatment sessions for a longer period. The analysis of the index cards showed that watching videos outside the class can contribute to learning speech acts to some extent because the participants who did not watch videos a lot outside the class performed well because of the treatment sessions. Key words: Speech acts, low-level EFL learners, video clips, pragmatic competence
Yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğrenen Türk öğrencilerin metafor yorumlaması: Kavramsal sosyalleşme üzerine bir araştırma
The aim of this study was to investigate the conceptual socialization of Turkish EFL learners in terms of their interpretation of English metaphors. In this respect, the similarities and differences between native English speakers and Turkish EFL learners in their interpretation of metaphors were analyzed by looking at their performance in three categories of metaphors; a) conceptually and linguistically similar, b) conceptually similar, but linguistically different, and c) conceptually and linguistically different metaphors. The role of two other variables (presenting the situational context and EFL learners' familiarity with the metaphors) on their interpretation of metaphors were also examined. The participants consisted of two groups; 38 Turkish advanced level EFL learners and seven native English speakers. In this mixed-methods study, data were collected through a familiarity scale (FAMscale) and two metaphor tests called sentence level test (SLT) and situation-based test (SBT) including all three categories of metaphors. Data analysis was accomplished by scoring the EFL learners' responses to metaphor tests according to the baseline of correct response by the native English speakers and analyzing the results according to the research questions. The results of the analyses showed that presenting the metaphors in context did not have a significant role in Turkish EFL learners' interpretation of metaphors. However, conceptual and linguistic similarities and differences played a significant role in their interpretation. Familiarity with the metaphors did not play a significant role in their interpretation of metaphors as well. Moreover, Turkish EFL learners differed very much from native English speakers regarding correct metaphor interpretation although they are advanced level learners. These findings indicated that Turkish EFL learners' conceptual socialization into English was not sufficient due to lack of exposure to the English conceptual system and enough interaction with native speakers. Based on the findings mentioned above, this study suggested that, in order to promote conceptual socialization in EFL context, teachers can emphasize cultural differences to raise awareness, and conceptual and linguistic similarities and differences between the L1 and the TL, and they can draw explicit attention to metaphors in class by creating opportunities for the students to practice the language as a good source of the target language conceptual system.
Eşli konuşma sınavlarında çift taraflı etkileşimi etkileyen faktörler: Yeterlilik seviyesi ve aşinalık
This study investigated whether familiarity and proficiency factors play a role in EFL learners' use of interactional resources (i.e., turn-taking, topic management, repair and task management) and the emergence of interactional patterns (i.e., collaborative, parallel, asymmetric and blend) in paired speaking tests. The study was carried out with 100 EFL learners paired as low-low, high-high and low-high and with 36 EFL learners matched as unfamiliar and familiar in the oral proficiency exam at a state university in Turkey. In order to place the participants for low-low, high-high and low-high groups, their scores in the proficiency exam which measured their reading, writing and listening skills as well as their vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and their scores in the oral proficiency exam were examined by the researcher. While 15 pairs were selected for the low-low and high-high groups separately, 20 pairs were selected for the low-high group. Then all 100 students (50 pairs) in the first cohort were asked whether their partners were their classmates or their friends in the exam and nine pairs out of 50 were detected as familiar. After that, nine unfamiliar pairs were selected in order to compare them with the familiar ones. In total, 50 videos were listened to and transcribed by using the conventions suggested by Jefferson (2004). Forthwith, all transcriptions were analyzed in order to identify the interactional resources such as turn-taking, repair, topic management and task management employed by the test-takers during the test discourse. Following this process, the researcher drew upon the interactional resources in order to assign the interactional patterns such as collaborative, asymmetric, parallel and blend which took place during test-takers' interaction with each other. The results indicated that pairing two different proficiency level students is disadvantageous for the high level test-takers in terms of topic management, task management and repair. In contrast, while the low levels are advantageous in terms of topic and task management in particular, they are disadvantageous in terms of turn-taking. What is more, while high-high pairs create a collaborative pattern which is the most favorable one, low-low pairs usually create a parallel pattern. On the other hand, low-high pairs usually generate an asymmetric pattern due to the dominance of the high levels. Furthermore, the findings suggested that pairing two unfamiliar peer interlocutors seem more advantageous for the test-takers because unfamiliar pairs usually generate a collaborative pattern whereas familiar pairs usually create an asymmetric pattern during the test discourse. In light of these findings, this study provided insights into how test-takers should be matched in paired speaking tests for the test administrators.
Asya ve Avrupa'da ortak dil olarak konuşulan İngilizce'de kalıp ifadelerin kullanımı: Korpusa dayalı çalışma
This study aimed to examine the lexicogrammatical features of ELF spoken in two different contexts, namely Europe and Asia. More specifically, the study investigated the use of formulaic language in Asian and European ELF interactions by gathering data from two ELF corpora; the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) and Asian Corpus of English (ACE). Selecting conversations from both academic and social domains, a subset of data comprising around 160.000 words was created. Kecskes' (2007) formulaic continuum was used as an analytical framework to determine the high-frequency and low frequency formulaic expressions in academic and social ELF interactions in both ELF contexts. The formulaic expressions occurring in the dataset were recorded in six categories; grammatical units, fixed and semi-fixed semantic units, phrasal verbs, speech formulas, situation-bound utterances, and idioms. Employing tokenization and frequency analysis, frequency of occurrence of each type of formulaic language as well as individual expressions within each category was identified paying close attention to the non-standard forms as well. Data were analyzed descriptively to identify similarities and differences in the frequency of formulaic language in Asian and European ELF interactions. The findings revealed that, European ELF was slightly more formulaic than Asian ELF overall. Furthermore, social ELF interactions were found to be a little more formulaic than academic interactions in both ELF contexts. Among the six categories of formulaic language, speech formulas and fixed and semi-fixed semantic units were found to be the most frequent groups while situation-bound utterances and idioms were used least frequently in both Asian and European ELF irrespective of the speech domain. As for the non-standard forms of formulaic expressions, they were found to be slightly more frequent in Asian ELF than in European ELF. Among the most common sources of such unconventional forms were problems with the use of copula 'be', and the third person present tense marker '-s', use of lexis, overuse or omission of prepositions, article use and pluralization. Concerning the results above, the study implied that the lexicogrammatical features of English as a lingua franca, from a formulaic language perspective, showed a great degree of similarity in Asian and European contexts. The study also implied that the teaching of speech formulas and semantic units must be prioritized as those were used more often than the other types of formulaic language in intercultural communication.