Theses supervised by Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Şebnem Yalçın
10 theses · Boğaziçi University
The role of strategy training and individual learner differences on L2 reading comprehension and strategy use
The present quasi-experimental study investigates if explicit reading strategy instruction improves the L2 reading comprehension skill and strategy use of participants in EFL context. It also explores the effect of individual learner differences on L2 reading comprehension. The participants were 46 EFL university students. Three intact classes were randomly assigned to two experimental (28) and one control group (18). Four-hour explicit reading strategy instruction was given to the experimental group over 2 weeks integrated into their English classes. The instruction was based on CALLA (Chamot & O'Malley, 1994). The participants completed English reading comprehension tests, Survey of Reading Strategies-SORS (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002) and Foreign Language Reading Motivation Questionnaire (Mori, 2002). Lastly, I conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the views of participants about the effectiveness of strategy instruction. To analyze the data Mixed design ANOVA and multiple regression analyses were conducted. Mixed design ANOVA results demonstrated that no significant difference was found in reading comprehension and strategy use between the experimental group and control group upon the instruction, indicating that the instruction did not contribute significantly to the improvement of students' L2 reading comprehension. Regression analysis indicated that individual learner differences were not significant predictors of English reading comprehension. Interviews demonstrated that students in the experimental group held positive attitudes toward the strategy instruction.
The comparative effects of meaning-focused and form-focused instruction on L2 collocation learning
This study investigates differential effects of Meaning-Focused (MFI) and Form-Focused Instruction (FFI) on learning of L2 collocations. Ninety-three university students with elementary level of proficiency in three intact classes participated in the study and they were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions, namely MFI, FFI and Control. MFI and FFI groups took part in three 40-minute instructional sessions in line with the assigned treatment. In these sessions, MFI group read passages which contained and recycled the target collocations and answered comprehension questions without help of a dictionary. FFI group, on the other hand, read the same passages and answered the same questions but dictionary use was allowed and target collocations were bold-faced in their passages to draw attention to form. Control group took only pretests and posttests. Adopting a corpus-based approach in the selection of target collocations, 20 verb-noun collocations were selected according to Node Frequency, Mutual Information and Log Dice scores. Pretests and posttests measured collocation gains at form recognition, meaning recall and form recall levels of mastery. Overall results showed that experimental groups improved significantly whereas there were no significant differences in Control group's scores from pretest to posttests. Moreover, FFI group had a significant advantage over MFI group in the mastery levels of form recognition and form recall highlighting importance of attention to form to master formal aspects of collocations.
Strategy training and individual differences in L2 Listening Comprehension: Evidence from an EFL classroom-based study
This present study examines whether explicit strategy-based listening instruction makes a difference on L2 academic listening skill of the participants in EFL context. This study also explores the respective contributions of strategy training, listening strategies awareness, working memory and aptitude on listening comprehension. The participants were 40 EFL students mainly speaking Turkish (21 experimental, 19 control). The experimental group received strategy-based listening instruction for 12 hours in 4 weeks. This study differentiates itself from the previous research in that several measures were used to measure learners' gain in L2 listening. The participants completed pre- and post- listening comprehension tests in English, and they completed Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (Vandergrift et al., 2006). In order to explore individual learner factors, a computerized working memory test (Foster et al., 2005) a pen and paper aptitude test (Peter Skehan, personal communication) were administered. Lastly, focus group interviews were conducted to learn about opinions of the participants related to the effectiveness of the treatment. The results revealed that even though learners started similarly, the experimental group benefitted from the instruction more than the control group. Regression analysis indicated that strategy training significantly predicted L2 listening comprehension more than awareness, working memory and aptitude. Interviews revealed that their listening skill improved mostly due to the strategy instruction and more exposure to the listening activities and tasks in the class.
First-language use in learning the ser/estar distinction in spanish as a third language
This study examines the effect of L1 use as a possible aid in L3 Ser-Estar grammar instruction, the learners' L1 use as a cognitive tool in a collaborative writing task, their perspectives about L1 use in language teaching and their multilingual language learning awareness. The participants are L1 Turkish, L2 English and L3 Spanish multilinguals who are expected to have better cognitive development and language awareness than monolinguals and bilinguals (Cenoz & Genesee, 1998). Two groups (Spanish-only and Turkish-aided) received pre-emptive FFI type of Ser-Estar grammar instruction for four hours. In Spanish-only group, grammar instruction for 10 minutes was in Spanish while input in Turkish-aided group was provided in Spanish accompanied with Turkish. To measure L3 learning, Ser-Estar language tests were used. Besides, the learners' use of L1 as a cognitive tool (LREs) was investigated in a collaborative L3 writing task. In addition, qualitative data was also collected through interviews to explore the participants' perceptions regarding the L1 use in the L3 instruction and to investigate the multilingual language awareness of the participants. The results showed that FFI has an effect on the target structure learning. TL-only group improved more than L1-aided group. It reveals that L1 use in FFI does not offer an additional useful benefit. In line with literature, the results did not reveal any significant difference in the amount and categories of LREs between the groups nor any significant difference between the OPT and WPT scores of the groups.
The effects of planning time on English language learners' complexity, accuracy, and fluency in writing
The aim of study is to find out if elementary level English as a foreign language students` written accuracy, fluency, and syntactic complexity levels are affected by planning condition of a task. Secondarily, the relationship between writing anxiety and the three language dimensions is examined. The results of study are reported by following two influential task complexity hypotheses: the Cognition and the Limited Attentional Capacity. The former claims that increasing complexity level of a task leads to an increase in accuracy and complexity thanks to multiple attentional capacity of human brain. The latter supports limited attentional capacity models and states that paying simultaneous attention to both accuracy and syntactic complexity is not probable. In the study, twenty university students studying English produced two different narratives based on two sets of pictures under two different task conditions: pre-task planning (PTP) and no pre-task planning (NP). Accuracy of written language production was measured by ratio of errors per T-unit and errors per 100 words. On the other hand, written fluency was measured by counting words and syllables per minute. Syntactic complexity was measured by mean length of T-units and clauses per T-units. Moreover, writing anxiety was measured by Second Language Writing Apprehension Inventory. As a result of the analysis, it was found out that students produced more error free narratives under simpler task condition (PTP) but the planning type did not impact either fluency or syntactic complexity levels. Regarding writing anxiety, correlation was only found with accuracy.
The role of captioning and focused practice in vocabulary learning through video viewing
This study examines the effects of watching captioned and non-captioned five successive episodes of a TV show and the pre-teaching of vocabulary on L2 (foreign language) vocabulary acquisition by young EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in Turkey. The participants were L1 Turkish and L2 English 6th graders studying in a state school. Four whole classes were randomly assigned to one control group and three different experimental groups: (1) captions with pre-teaching, (2) captions with no-pre-teaching, (3) no caption, and no pre-teaching. A pre-/post-/delayed-posttest design was used. Following the delayed-post-tests, a questionnaire investigating exposure to English outside the classroom was administered to the same group of participants. The results of the study showed that there was no significant difference between the groups in relative and raw vocabulary gains in the meaning recognition tests. The results of both post- and delayed-post-tests revealed that there was a significant difference between groups in terms of meaning and from recall tests. The group that was pre-taught the target items (TIs) and watched the videos with captions performed better than the other groups. Relative and raw vocabulary gains were retained as there was no decrease in overall vocabulary gains of the three experimental groups based on the delayed-post-test scores. Furthermore, the English exposure survey revealed English TV watching behaviors of the participants in relation to the use of L1 and L2 subtitles.
Linguistic complexity in EFL teaching materials: A grade level comparison of EFL textbooks in Turkey
The present study aimed to measure text difficulty of the L2 English textbooks used in the state schools in Turkey in terms of their readability and linguistic complexity (i.e., syntactic and lexical complexity). It further compared two locally published textbooks to two internationally published comparable textbooks to check the similarity of the texts in terms of their readability and linguistic complexity. A corpus of 765 texts, more specifically 329 reading texts and 436 listening texts, were extracted from one series of L2 English textbooks currently used in Turkish state schools from Grade 2 to 12 and two internationally published textbooks (i.e., Interchange3 and Passages1). Overall, 3 readability formulas, 12 syntactic complexity measures and 8 measures of lexical complexity were used to analyze the texts through three online computational tools (i.e., Coh-Metrix, L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) and Lexical Complexity Analyzer (LCA)). The results indicated that linguistic complexity of both reading and listening texts showed a gradual increase along with the increase in the grade levels while, with some exceptions, many measures stabilized across adjacent grades or clusters of grade levels. Although the results of the comparisons among locally and internationally published textbooks were mixed, they supported the findings of the comparisons of the textbooks used in state schools. The results of the study may have implications for the design and evaluation of L2 English teaching materials.
Exploring the role of task modality and task complexity in L2 performance in EFL classes
Task-based language learning and teaching (TBLT) research has shown that task design can be cognitively manipulated to impact second language (L2) performance and create unique opportunities for exploiting different aspects of L2 performance. There are two influential hypotheses on this matter: the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2001a, 2011a) and the Limited Attentional Capacity Hypothesis (Skehan, 1998, 2009). While the former account predicts a concurrent increase in L2 complexity and accuracy during complex tasks, the latter model suggests a competition over attentional resources leading to the prioritization of certain aspects of L2 performance. Both accounts offer a valuable contribution to cognitively driven task-based research. However, it remains an open empirical question whether these predictions can be applied to written performance and how L2 performance is affected by the interplay of task complexity and modality (speaking versus writing). Therefore, this study examines separate and combined effects of task complexity and task modality on learners' syntactic and lexical complexity, and accuracy. The results revealed significant differences between writing and speaking in the aspects of phrasal complexity and lexical complexity. Further, a significant interaction was found between modality and task complexity for unit accuracy. The findings indicate that the effects of task complexity differ in writing and speaking, providing insights into the discussion of whether current task complexity models can account for both writing and speaking. Further, combining task complexity and modality can offer learners excellent opportunities for exploiting different aspects of L2 performance.
Advanced learners' retention of low-frequency vocabulary: The effects of task type
This study aimed to investigate task type effects on advanced level English language learners' early and long-term retention of low-frequency vocabulary. Two reading+replacing tasks which varied in their involvement load indexes (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) were created (i.e., LowText = index of 2 vs. HighText = index of 1). Advanced level university students were randomly assigned to one of the tasks which required them to read a text and replace the ten words embedded in it with their synonyms from the opposite word-frequency family (i.e., low- or high-frequency) provided in a word list. Immediate and delayed posttests measured the retention of the target words two weeks apart. The results showed that the tasks with different involvement load indexes did not lead to significantly different retention of the target words, neither in the short term nor in the long term. Participants' knowledge of the target words did not show a significant increase after completing the tasks, and their long-term retention of the target words was significantly lower than their previous knowledge. The results are discussed in relation to target word characteristics, task design, participant performance, and tests used to measure target word knowledge.
Exploring the role of writing approaches training in teacher education in non-English dominant contexts
Previous research and teaching about writing in English as a foreign language have primarily focused on students' writing performance and the role of corrective feedback. How teachers accumulate knowledge about writing instruction and whether they can utilize this knowledge in real classrooms in EFL contexts need further investigation. Therefore, this thesis research presents a multiple case study to examine five pre-service EFL teachers' awareness of different writing approaches in a teacher preparation program at a public university in Turkey and whether they benefit from training on writing approaches, specifically genre-based pedagogy. The study also includes an analysis of four leading universities' teacher education curricula. Data and the findings of the study mainly generate from document analysis, semi-structured interviews, pre-service teachers' visual reflections, teaching philosophy texts, and sample lesson plans. The findings can empower teachers and teacher educators with implications for teaching writing in non-English dominant contexts.