Theses supervised by Doç. Dr. Şehnaz Şahinkarakaş
61 theses · Çağ University
The application of e-portfolio in speaking assessment and its contributions to students' attitudes towards speaking
E-portfolio is used in foreign language teaching and assessment, especially inteaching and assessing writing. E-portfolio improves students writing skills byenabling them to self-assess their own products, to improve their products according to the teacher's feedback, to follow their own progress, and to organize their ownlearning. Speaking and writing are productive skills though they are different in nature. Speaking can be assessed and improved like writing. However, e-portfolio is more often used to assess writing, not speaking. As a result of this, the present study tries to answer the question of whether eportfolio can be used to assess speaking as it is used in writing assessment, whether the application of e-portfolio has an effect on the students attitudes towards speaking, and what kind of contributions e-portfolio can make to the students speaking performance if it has an effect on the students attitudes towards speaking. This study was carried out with 17 students studying in level D in the English Language Preparation Department of Zirve University. It lasted 8 weeks. To collect data, researcher's diary, interview 1, interview 2, self-assessment paper 1, self-assessment paper 2, and cover letters were used. The data was analyzed by using content analysis. The results of the study show that e-portfolio could be used in speaking assessment, it affected the students attitudes towards speaking positively, and it could improve their speaking skills. Also, the results of the study indicate that according to the students, they improved their speaking in terms of grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, they felt more self-confident and less anxious while speaking, and they improved their technology skills, such as recording and arranging video.Keywords: Speaking Assessment, E-portfolio, E-portfolio Assessment
Teachers' and students' conceptions of assessment in a university EFL preparatory school context
The purpose of this study was to study and investigate teachers and students conceptions of assessment in a university EFL Preparatory School context. Using survey instruments designed for each group, teachers and students provided demographic information about themselves and their conceptions of assessment practices. Data were gathered through the short version of Teacher Conceptions of Assessment Scale (TCoA-IIIA), which had 27 items and Student Conceptions of Assessment Scale (SCoA), which was the adapted form of TCoA. A total of 400 students enrolled at Çağ University Preparatory Department and 31 teachers teaching at Çağ University Preparatory Department completed the questionnaires.The Exploratory Factor Analysis results revealed that there were four factors in the scale affecting teachers conceptions of assessment, namely Student Accountability, School Accountability, Improvement, and Irrelevance as in the original scale of TCoA. There were also affecting students conceptions of assessment, specificically Irrelevant, Affect/Social Benefit, External Attributions and Improvement as in the original scale of SCoA.A Multivariate Analysis of Variances with Pillai's Trace test was employed to investigate whether the significant differences among dependent variables across independent variables existed both for teachers and students. The findings of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) with Pillai's Trace test indicated that years of teaching experience did not make any significant difference in teachers conceptions of assessment. However, teachers gender and education level showed a significant difference in the conception of School Accountability. The undergraduate institution teachers graduated from did have a significant difference in their conception of Improvement. When student conceptions of assessment were taken into consideration, it was observed that the type of school they graduated from did not have a significant difference in their conceptions of assessment according to the findings of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). However, there was a significant difference based on gender in students conception of Irrelevance.Key Words: Assessment, Conception, Traditional Assessment, Alternative Assessment,Formative Assessment, Summative Assessment
An analysis of the final speaking exam at an English preparatory school in Turkey
Speaking as a language skill has always been important both for foreign language educators and learners. The reason for this may be the fact that the success in speaking a foreign language is considered as an indicator for success in that language. However, although speaking ability is one of the most important skills, it is also the most difficult skill to assess. Therefore, appropriate ways for assessing speaking skill has been one of the most common research issues in this field.The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not the speaking component of final exam at Zirve University Preparatory School has any problematic areas. In order to reach this aim content validity and inter-rater reliability of the exam are examined. Moreover, the ideas and suggestions about the exam were gained by interviews held with the students and the instructors.The participants of the study are 15 students and 10 teachers of Zirve University Preparatory School. Interviews conducted with the participants are used to gather data for identifying the weak points of the exam and suggesting appropriate and better ways to do the speaking exam. It was found out that although the exam was discovered not to have content validity, the inter-rater reliability of the exam was satisfactory. Furthermore, using the participants? opinions and recommendations gathered from the interviews, ways for a better speaking assessment procedure for Zirve University Preparatory School was suggested.
Teachers' perceptions of classroom based language assessment in tertiary level English language programs in Turkey
This study aims to explore teachers? beliefs and their application with relating to classroom based language assessment. It examines the teachers? current operational principles of assessment and their practices in higher education in Turkey.The first part of the study discusses concerning the theories of language assessment; then it considers how closely classroom based language assessment in higher education matches up to those theoretical principles.The second part of the study presents the findings of a questionnaire. Four stages in teachers? classroom based language assessment were discussed; planning, implementation, monitoring, and recording and dissemination. The findings of the questionnaire were analyzed statically and qualitatively. Extra qualitative data was additionally collected and analyzed through interviews with volunteer participants.The results of the study showed that usually the teachers hold and exercise their own firm beliefs concerning classroom based language assessment.Beside this, there has been variety of issues that arose from their assessment beliefs and their application. The results of the questionnaire showed that they did not put a number of their principles into application. Throughout the interview, they mentioned that in some cases they do not have chance to put their beliefs into application like central assessment system of the institution, intensive syllabus that they have to finish in a very restricted time and students? educational background that they brought from primary and secondary schools? education system.
Developing an effective learning environment in an EFL classroom
Assessment has always been a very crucial part of language education, for both teaching and learning. Summative and formative assessments are the two major kinds of assessment used in EFL classrooms and serve different purposes. Although they are used for different purposes, the main focus of assessment is effective teaching and effective learning. There have been various studies on both summative and formative assessments such as; the affects of summative and formative assessment, students' and teachers' perceptions on assessment, using feedback, and the affects of feedback. Unfortunately, although both assessment forms are used in Preparatory Schools in Turkey; there have not been any studies on creating an effective learning environment using both formative and summative assessments as a tool at a Preparatory School of a university. Therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate general attitudes and feelings of the students on assessment and how to create an effective learning environment using the conditions that were suggested in the literature while using both summative and formative assessments as a tool. The participants of this study were the students of Çağ University Preparatory School. The study was conducted with 20 students, 11 females and 9 males. The study has been designed as a case study in which action research and qualitative research designs were used. Interviews, students' diaries, researcher's observations and notes were used as a tool to collect the data. Before starting the action research, students were not motivated; they were stressed and had negative attitudes and feelings towards assessment. With the help of the conducted study, they became aware of their weaknesses and strengths, motivated, and gained some positive attitudes towards assessment.
Automated essay scoring system: A reliability study
New materials have continuously been added to the assessment instruments in ELT day by day. The question of whether writing assessment in ELT can be done via e-raters was first addressed in 1996, and this system, which is commonly called ?Automated Essay Scoring Systems? in especially America and Europe in recent years, has taken part in the field of assessment instruments of ELT with steady development. The purpose of this study is to find out whether AES can supercede the writing assessment system that is used at The School of Foreign Languages at Zirve University. It is performed at The School of Foreign Languages at Zirve University. The participants of the study were a group of 50 students in level C which is the equivalent of B1. The beginning of the quantitative study includes the assessment of essays written by C level students at The School of Foreign Languages at Zirve University by three human raters and e-rater. After the study it was found that the writing assessment has been currently used at The School of Foreign Languages at Zirve University costs more energy, more time and it is more expensive. Thus, AES was suggested for use at The School of Foreign Languages at Zirve University which has proven to be more practicable.
Developing the reading skill objectives in accordance with Common European Framework
This study was conducted considering The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) which was published by Council of Europe in order to enable the language education to run in the standardized conditions. CEFR was adopted by the member countries of the European Union as a leading source through which the language programs set their curriculum studies, course objectives, and criteria for testing and evaluation. In the study, it was aimed that the course instructors could evaluate the current objectives of Reading course at English Preparatory Program in The School of Foreign Languages at Zirve University in accordance with the illustrative descriptor scales of CEFR in two different steps, the data obtained from two implementations could be reanalyzed within the focus group discussions and the recommendations of the focus group could be reported in the end. The course objectives play a significant role for education programs in planning the course, how it is run, which methods are used and determining the needs of learning. The students at Zirve University English Preparatory Program are supposed to complete four levels of proficiency which are listed from elementary level to upper-intermediate level: A, B, C, and D. In the first stage, the Reading course instructors were interviewed about the course objectives through the questions prepared before. In the second stage, four different checklists were used by the same group of instructors so that they could compare the course objectives with the illustrative descriptor scales of CEFR. In this stage, the instructors marked four different columns of the checklist showing the according rate of the two lists. The data obtained from the first and second implementations were examined in consideration of qualitative research principles. Those findings were explained by applying the method of content analysis, which provides categorizing mostly stressed parts by the course instructors. In the last stage of the study, the categorized data obtained from the two implementations were discussed by the focus group. The group?s recommendations over developing the course objectives were presented in the end. As to the recommendations, the list of the objectives should be updated with clearer descriptions, which give details on practical uses. Also, they should address the usages of every-day-life with authentic variations. Finally, the list needs to contain more communicative action verbs, which define both academic and social confrontations.
The English proficiency exam in EFL context: A validation study
The aim of the English Proficiency Exam at Çağ University is to assess whether the students have the ability and skills to follow the education program and academic studies in the undergraduate program. The purpose of this study was to investigate and study the validity and the reliability of the English Proficiency Exam conducted at Çağ University Preparatory School. To this end, the Model for language ability by Bachman (1990) was utilized. 133 students? proficiency exam results in the 2011-2012 academic year were taken as samples in the study. The data were gathered through the exam results of the students who had taken the exam English Proficiency Exam in the related term. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and content analysis. Cronbach?s Alpha co efficiency was calculated to investigate the reliability of the exam and descriptive statistics were calculated for each components of the English Proficiency Exam. Results of the study indicated that the English Proficiency Exam partially served for its purpose. The findings revealed that some improvements in the content, materials and assessment dimensions of the program were required to make the Exam more valid and reliable.
An action research on e-mentoring: A supplemental tool for professional development of EFL teachers working at MNE schools
This paper reports on findings from an online action research project conducting e-mentoring on eight EFL teachers working at MNE schools in Turkey. The study may raise some interesting ideas about how EFL teachers working at MNE schools with locational disadvantages can enhance their FA strategies in the context professional development through the use of e-mentoring. These schools are situated in mostly locational disadvantaged areas. In this study, the author plays the role of researcher and mentor, i.e. he acts as an e-mentor with teachers online, conducts e-mentoring. He reports findings related to the impact of e-mentoring on EFL teachers working at MNE schools with locational disadvantages. EFL teachers who voluntarily work in collaboration with other teachers have improved their formative assessment strategies through e-mentoring support. This thesis also inquires how a professional development program can be designed and implemented online for EFL teachers in Turkey; using an action research perspective, reporting on the results, reflecting on the process, and developing a framework for future online EFL teacher professional development programs. This paper may reach the conclusions in the context of online collaborative platform regarding the support that MNE may provide in order for their EFL teachers? development to be more economic and effective.
A study on the evaluation and the development of computerized essay scoring rubrics in terms of reliability and validity
This study investigated the validity and the reliability of essay scoring rubrics used for intermediate and upper-intermediate levels at Zirve University English preparatory school. The rubrics were examined in terms of content validity and inter-rater reliability. In order to determine the content validity of the rubrics, a focus group interview was held with the participation of five writing skill instructors as the first research question. The aim was to what extent the writing class objectives and the descriptors of essay scoring rubrics matched each other. The focus group concluded that the rubrics were compatible with the writing class objectives of the preparatory school, but the descriptors of the rubrics needed to be re-designed. For the second research question, totally 351 C (intermediate) level and D (upper- intermediate) level students' essays were analyzed by using Pearson r correlation coefficient in order to see the inter-rater reliability between graders of the rubrics. The analysis results showed that the correlation between graders was low as Pearson r results for total scores of the students? essays were r= .623 for C level and r= .552 for D level at the 0.01 level. As the third research question, one more focus group interview was held with the same participants in order to develop a new institutional essay scoring rubric for Zirve University English preparatory school. The focus group developed a new essay-scoring rubric by taking the results of the first two research questions into consideration. The newly developed rubric was also analyzed by Pearson r correlation coefficient in order to see the inter-rater reliability between graders. 59 C (intermediate) level and D (upper-intermediate) level students' essays were used for that analysis. The analysis results showed that the correlation between graders was higher than the present rubrics as Pearson r results for total scores of the students? essays were r= .848 at the 0.01 level. As a result, the newly developed essay-scoring rubric provided more reliable results than the present rubrics used at the preparatory school. It may be concluded that having an institutional rubric, which is compatible with the needs and the objectives of the institution, meets the expectations and provides more consistent grading results.
Washback effect of KET Exam in learning English as a foreign language
As learning a foreign language has become one of the necessities in our daily life, tests to assess the learner during the learning process take the major role in this period. The influence of tests on teaching and learning practices is called "washback".This washback effect whether positive or negative has an important place in the language learning period. During the preparation process for a test, this washback effect either positive or negative occurs. There are different types of tests in the English language as it is one of the most used lingua francas in the world. Therefore, washback effect varies according to the type of the tests. The study was conducted on an English teacher and 20 participants from 7th grade students in Çukurova Bilfen College in Adana. Video recordings of the KET exam preparation classes and general English classes, interviews with the teachers and a questionnaire with the students were done to collect the data. The results of this study aimed to show the nature and the scope of washback effects of the KET preparation program on classroom practices and interactions including the teachers? and students? thoughts about this preparation process. Keywords: Washback, KET Exam, Test Preparation
Success and failure attributions of academic staff studying for foreign language achievement tests
In this paper, how the academic staff who study for YDS exam conceptualize their success and failure attributions is studied. Academic staff who studied for YDS examination took part in this study. This study refers to 2 different subjects:
Student anxiety and the identification of its effect in the speaking compenent of a proficiency test
The aim of the current study is to investigate whether the preparatory school students at a university may have speaking test anxiety. Additionally, it was examined whether there are differences in anxiety levels among students according to gender and the students' departments. To collect data, 126 preparatory school students were given a GEPT (General English Proficiency Test) Scale consisting 3 categories. The 36 items in the questionnaire were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to determine the sub-categories of the scale. Moreover, 33 students were interviewed to get their opinions on how to overcome speaking test anxiety. Both quantitative and qualitative method design was applied to be able to answer the research questions. The data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS), version 17.0. The results showed that, preparatory school students were anxious during the speaking test. Also, it was found out that male students were much more relaxed during the speaking test comparing to female students. As for the departments, students in law department were more worried comparing to others. Students also believe they can overcome the speaking anxiety by doing speaking activities, making foreign friends, talking to their native teachers and going abroad. Those results were discussed within the context of relevant literature. Key words: English speaking anxiety, English speaking test anxiety
Students' and teachers' attitudes towards interactive whiteboards used in english courses via Fatih Project and the effects of iwbs on speaking skill
Today many countries increase the level of using technology in their education systems as technology plays an important role on the quality of education. In this sense, Ministry of National Education has initiated Fatih Project which aims to deliver technological equipments to state schools across Turkey. This study aims to explore students' and teachers' attitudes towards interactive whiteboards (IWBs) used in English courses via Fatih Project. The study also investigates the effects of the use of IWBs on teaching and learning English speaking skill.The study conducted in eight state schools in Muş and 183 students and 19 teachers participated in the study. Data about students' and teachers' attitudes towards use of IWBs were collected through questionnaires. The questionnaires also contained open-ended questions for gathering information about teachers' and students' ideas on the effects of the use of IWBs on English speaking skill. The results of questionnaires indicated that both students and teachers have positive attitudes towards the use of IWBs. Responses given to open-ended questions indicated that both teachers and students believe the use IWBs have a lot of positive effects on teaching and learning English speaking skill. Key Words: Interactive Whiteboard (IWB), Attitude, Fatih Project.
The attitudes of elt instructors toward blended learning at Zirve University
The aim of this study is to find the attitudes of instructors toward blended learning at School of Foreign Languages, Zirve University, and to find out the nature of Schoology, a learning management system, for blended learning puproses. The participants who participated in this study were 35 English language instructors working at Zirve University. A questionnaire developed by Moukali (2012) was used as a data collection tool in this study. The findings revealed that the English language instructors working at Zirve University have a positive attitude toward blended learning. On the other hand, the opinions of the participants to make blended learning more successful in language teaching and learning environments were reflected comprehensively in the study. Keywords: Blended Learning, Teaching/Learning Methods, Learning Management Systems, Attitudes of Teachers.
The effects of formative assessment on students' participation in an English language program
Formative assessment has a vital impact on student learning and both the students and teachers systematically gather the evidence of learning with the aim of furthering students' learning. Black and Wiliam (1998a) state that assessment refers to all the activities undertaken both by teachers and students in assessing themselves. The data are used as feedback to make necessary adjustments. Such kind of assessment is formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet students' needs. Being a part of their learning, students participates in this teaching and learning process. They can keep trace of their progress, close the gap, assess their own learning and understand their needs and skills. Furthermore, this type of assessment helps students participate in their own learning and it increases their participatory involvement in lessons. Thus, this study was conducted to find out the effects of formative assessment on students' participation in an English language program. Semi-structured interview, teacher journal and teacher notes and weekly reflection sheets were used to collect the data. The results of the study showed that formative assessment had positive effects on students' participatory involvement in the lessons. Keywords: Formative Assessment, Fixed Curriculum, Participation
EFL instructors' causal attributions of student success and failure and their relationship to classroom practices
Within the field of foreign language learning, the significance of Attribution Theory has been well documented by most of the language researchers. Its significant place in foreign language learning and teaching is due to the search for causality's being functional in that knowing why one has succeeded or failed at the stages of learning a foreign language may increase later chances of success by taking appropriate instrumental action. Thus, based upon the analyses teachers make about their own beliefs about students and why they succeed or fail in achivement contexts, teachers can make changes where necessary. In the light of such knowledge, they can change the way they interact with their students, the tasks they assign, the way they teach, the learning environments they create together, or even their students' beliefs about their success and failure (Dörnyei, 2001). In this study, it was aimed to gain insights about English Language instructors' causal attributions for their students' success and failure in English exams, and how instructors' perceptions regarding their students' success or failure and classroom practices are related. The data were collected through the questionnaire, classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that the instructors attributed their students' success and failure in English exams to multiple causes and the instructors' classroom practices were to some extent in consistent with their causal attributions. Keywords: Attribution, Attribution Theory, Teacher Factor
A case study of EFL instructors' perceptions and practices of feedback in a university EFL preparatory school
This study aims to investigate the perceptions of EFL instructors about the use of feedback and their feedback practices at a preparatory school. For the purpose of the study, a qualitative research was carried out. The study utilized purposeful sampling. Three EFL instructors participated in this study. Data were collected by means of checklists, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The study results reveal that EFL instructors' perceptions about the use of feedback are strongly related to growth of learning rather than students' well being and grading construction, and EFL instructors' feedback practices gathered under the teacher formative feedback practices are congruent with their perceptions in preparatory classes at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University School of Foreign Languages (KSUSFL). Key Words: Feedback, Perceptions of Feedback, Feedback Practices
Role of portfolio technique in young learners' writing skills and their attitudes towards portfolio
In this study we implemented portfolio technique to see the role of this technique on the development of young learners' second language writing skills and to discovered students' attitudes towards portfolio. In this respect, this study aimed to search the improvements of the writing skill of the fifth grade students in a private school by using portfolio technique in Process Approach. The study also attempted to explore students' attitudes of the change they underwent as a result of the implementation. The study was conducted on 26 participants from 5th grade students studying in a private primary school in the academic year of 2013-2014. Data were obtained from a set of attitude questionnaire, portfolio questionnaires (section A and B) and teacher's field notes. The data obtained in this study were both quantitative and qualitative in nature. In this study qualitative data was obtained through the open-ended questions in the attitude questionnaire, portfolio questionnaire, section B, and field notes. By the help of field notes, the researcher was able to express her ideas about the students clearly on the paper. The quantitative data was primarily obtained through portfolio questionnaire, section A because the students marked the strength of their agreement of the usefulness of the items on a 5-point scale. In order to achieve the aim of the study, the students' beliefs about writing in L2 were elicited at the beginning of the implementation and at the end of the implementation. To see the role of portfolio technique we applied autonomy enhancing activities and through the data collection tools we made a tremendous effort in order to focus on the improvement in students' writing skills and their attitudes towards portfolio. The results of this study aimed to reveal that portfolio technique in process approach helps students to develop their writing skill in a foreign language. Furthermore, the findings of the study may have important implications for the use of portfolio to enhance writing skill in L2 and develop students' attitudes towards portfolio technique in middle school. Key Words: Portfolio Technique, Metacognitive Skills, Learner Autonomy, Writing Ability In Foreign Language
The influence of peer feedback on students' writing performance and their attitudes towards writing
This study investigated the influence of peer feedback on students' writing performance and attitudes towards writing. The sample of the study consisted of 20 male and female students from preparatory school students writing course offered by the English Department at Toros University in the academic year 2013/2014. A pre- ,mid-, and a post-tests were applied to check the students' performance before and after the feedback sessions also, a pre-attitude paragraph and a post-attitude paragraph were asked students to write to see whether the students' attitudes change or stay same after the study. At the end of the study, the number of the students who had positive attitude towards writing skill increased significantly also, students' grades improved significantly, too.
A case study of the reasons for anxiety and its reduction in english as a foreign language classroom
This study contributes to literature by examining how anxiety reveals itself in language learning and by revealing possible causes of anxiety. This study aims at helping teachers investigate in details the students who experience the speaking anxiety problem. This study also gives teachers some suggestions about helping the students overcome their problem. As this study is a collective case study, the researcher has found the chance of investigating the anxious students and their common problems. The participants in this study were four students at Gaziantep X Medical Vocational High School. In this study, two of the students were female and the other two of the students were male. They were all ninth graders, and all of these students were afraid of speaking a foreign language as well as they are lack of self- confidence.
Perceptions of language teachers about their teaching competences
Teachers are one of the key elements in education, and their teaching competences are directly affect students' success in EFL classes. The purpose of this study is to find out perceptions and desired competences of the EFL teachers defined in Common European Principles for Teacher Competences and Qualifications. The study will provide information for EFL teachers about their current and desired teaching competences. 75 EFL teachers participated in this study and responded the scale, 13 of the participants attended unstructured interview. The data collected through two research tools a Likert type scale and unstructured interviews and processed with a statistical package and with the content analysis procedure. The main result of the study revealed that EFL teachers perceived themselves as very competent in teaching competence and they would like to expert in this competence.
The effect of peer feedback on writing anxiety in english as a foreign language students
It is obvious that language is a tool for communication and social interaction, so it is logical that learning and teaching a language is based on this philosophy. This view can be applied to all skills as well as writing because writing has a plethora of students who show how much they have learned. That is why it has an important place in Zirve University's English teaching program. The changes in teaching a second language and the needs of the learners have affected the way writing is taught. The product-based approach that only focuses on the last product has been replaced by the process-based approach, which requires multiple drafting, lots of collaboration with the teacher, and getting feedback from an outsider during revision stage. Gradually, collaboration among students and peer feedback have been used. Peer feedback is used in foreign language teaching and assessment, especially in teaching and assessing writing. Peer feedback improves students' writing skills by enabling them to assess their peer's products, to see their own weaknesses and strengths, to improve their own learning, and let them write in a stress-free environment. As a result of this, the present study aims to investigate the effects of using peer feedback on EFL students' writing anxiety and their perceptions towards the use of peer feedback in writing class at Zirve University. This study was carried out with 16 students studying in level C in the English Language Preparation Department of Zirve University. It lasted 8 weeks. To collect data, researcher's diary in which she wrote down her observations, interview 1, interview 2, and Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) were used. SLWAI was used as both pre- and post-test. Interviews were analyzed by using content analysis. Teacher diary was narrated. SLWAI results were analyzed by using descriptive statistics means and paired samples t-test. The content analysis of interviews and narration of teacher diary results show that the students had positive perceptions towards the use of peer feedback in writing classes. Also, the results of the study indicate that the students believed using peer feedback in writing classes decreased their writing anxiety, increased their confidence, and improved their writing by collaborating with and learning from each other. The quantitative results of the study indicate that the use of peer feedback in writing classes reduced their writing anxiety in terms of cognitive, somatic, and avoidance anxiety.
Assessing YDS test takers' metacognitive awareness levels of reading strategies and their attitudes towards reading
In our country if someone wants to be an academician or a state employee, to get language allowance or take expertness in his/her professional occupation he/she has to pass Foreign Language Examination (YDS) which is officially recognized as a national language proficiency tests in Turkey and, preferred by the vast majority of people due to many reasons. The sections of the test, known to evaluate the reading skills of the test takers, cover the considerable part and effect the test result significantly. YDS test takers generally complain about the failure in these sections of the test, which include difficult reading passages mostly taken from academic articles to assess test takers' reading comprehension, attention, and coherence knowledge with a number of inferential and explicit questions. Reading and the ability to comprehend a written text have been one of the most complicated issues to understand its process considering its requirement for cognitive skills. This study aimed at finding out whether the difficulties that YDS test takers face in reading comprehension arise from the lack of the usage (cognitive strategies) and awareness (metacognitive strategies) of reading strategies in FL reading. Two different surveys were administered to randomly selected participants 30 graduate EFL learners in different professional fields, and undergraduates in different majors. The data were analyzed quantitatively with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), to develop descriptive statistics and, both surveys were analyzed for internal consistency by using Cronbach's alpha. The relationship between the participants' attitudes and their metacognitive skills was also measured with the assistance of Pearson correlation analysis to build up a clear picture of the correlation. The findings of the instruments demonstrated that YDS test takers are metacognitively skilled FL readers and, the problem solving strategies were reported as reading strategies employed by YDS test takers most frequently, indicating that the participants were generally aware of their comprehension process and were able to use the focused techniques when they come across problems in comprehending textual information. It was also found that YDS test takers have positive attitudes towards reading and, the degree of YDS test takers' metacognitive awareness of reading strategies does not have a strong relationship with their reading attitude. It has provided an evidence that YDS test takers' lack of metacognitive strategy use is not a reason why YDS test takers have difficulties in FL reading during the test.