Theses supervised by Yrd. Doç. Dr. Erol Kahraman
20 theses · Gaziantep University, Çağ University
An analysis of the relationship between learner`s foreign language classroom anxiety and achievement in learning English as a foreign language in the freshman classes at the University of Gaziantep
This study was designed to investigate the relationship between learners' foreign language classroom anxiety and their success in learning English as a foreign language in the Freeshman Section of the University of Gaziantep. Furthermore, the native speaker teachers' influence on students' anxiety levels was examined. The data were gathered by means of three instruments: The Turkish version of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz M. B., & Cope, J., 1986) assessing students' anxiety levels, an English achievement test to determine students' success in learning English as a foreign language and a five point rating scale which was completed by the teachers to evaluate students' oral proficiency in English. The findings of this study indicated that there was a significant moderate negative relationship between students' language anxiety and their achievement in learning English as a foreign language; a significant moderate negative relationship between their language anxiety levels and their achievement in English reading comprehension; and a significant moderate vinegative relationship between students' language anxiety levels and their oral English proficiency. However, the study yielded that there was statistically no significant difference between the anxiety levels of the students taught by native speaker teachers and those who were taught by non-native speaker teachers. Keywords: anxiety, foreign language anxiety, situation specific anxieties, trait anxiety, test anxiety, communication apprehension, affective factors in learning
Vocabulary retention: A collocational study
Teaching young learners has been on the agenda of educationists and researchers for a long time. A lot of investigations have been carried out about techniques for how best to teach young learners. On the other hand, vocabulary that plays an important role in foreign language learning process has been neglected for decades. But recently with raising importance of vocabulary many techniques and approaches related to vocabulary teaching and learning have emerged. Using collocations, which accepts the vocabulary learning as a phrase acquisition, is one of the recent way to teaching vocabulary.The purpose of this study is to investigate whether teaching vocabulary through collocations will increase the learners vocabulary gain. The study was conducted at Mezitli Technical and Vocational High School for Girls. The participants were 33 ninth grade students. They were young language learners at the elementary level of proficiency. At the beginning of the study, 15 target words were selected according to curriculum. A paper, which presents the words via different activities, was prepared by the researcher for each word. The study lasted five weeks. A vocabulary test, which was administered as the pre- and post- test, was used as data collection device. In order to find out if there is a difference between the pre and post tests, t-test was used. At the end of the study interviews were made with the students and they asked what they think about the treatment. The results of the case study indicated that teaching vocabulary through collocations made a significant effect on the learners retention of the words. In other words, the young language learners improved their vocabulary as a result of using collocations.Keywords: Collocation, Vocabulary Retention
The effects of cooperative learning on students' writing performance
This research investigated the effects of cooperative learning in developing students? writing performance and grammar achievement in writing. The purposes of the research were to find the differences between pre-test and post-test results in terms of overall writing quality and grammar development in the control group and the experimental group and to compare the control group and the experimental group considering the scores obtained through pre-test and post-test in terms of overall writing quality and grammar. The sample included two tenth classes comprised of 50 EFL students at a vocational high school located in Tarsus.The study lasted 12 weeks. STAD, a method of cooperative learning was implemented in the experimental group whereas traditional learning was implemented in the control group. In order to assess participants? writing performance and grammar development, they were assigned to write a narrative essay as pre-test and post-test. Considering the mistakes done by students in the pre-test, the syllabus was designed. All essays were analytically rated by two teachers.Scores obtained through pre-test and post-test were statistically analyzed by means of SPSS 17. As a result of the analysis, it was found that there was a significant difference between pre-test and post-test results of the experimental group in terms of overall writing performance and grammar development in writing whereas there was not any significant difference between pre-test and post-test results of the control group in terms of overall writing performance and grammar development. It was found that cooperative learning was effective in developing students? writing performance and grammar achievement.Key Words: Overall Writing Performance, Grammar Development, Cooperative Learning
Promoting learner autonomy to increase self-efficacy through meta-cognitive strategy for effective writing
Writing in a foreign language is found difficult because of including a number of individual differences which directly affect the language learning process and the outcomes of learning. Moreover, writing is a complex and important process of language learning. Some researches on writing have shown the importance of the terms like meta-cognitive strategies, self efficacy, learner autonomy which is accepted essential part of producing new language items. Furthermore; these terms are absolutely effective on developing writing and producing longer and more quality texts. This study aims to meet the need for exploring the effect of self efficacy and meta-cognitive strategies on a foreign language writing in a detailed way.The study was conducted on 40 participants from 8th grade students in Yemişli Primary school in Karataş.Pre-test and post-test design was adopted
Teaching vocabulary to sixth graders through games
This study examines the application of teaching English through vocabulary games to sixth graders and the effects on students? motivation within this method. The resources and games that are used in teaching English vocabulary classes to sixth graders were researched and the effects of these games on teaching English are presented. Research provides a method to effectively implement the use of vocabulary games, which serve to enrich English language classes. The activities and methods that are indicated at this study will enlighten individuals who study this area. In the first chapter, the background and purpose of the study are presented. The statement of the problem and research questions are offered in this chapter, which is associated with the operational definitions and limitations of the study. The second chapter includes the literature review section of the study, including vocabulary definitions and teaching vocabulary. Moreover, this chapter provides information about young learners and games, types of games, as well as the advantages of games. Chapter three provides information about the methodology of the thesis, including: the design, participants, instrumentation and the procedure of the study. In other words, where and when was the research applied and which students and evaluation methods were chosen. The games, tests, questionnaire and reading texts are also included in this chapter. The last chapter provides information about the data analysis and evaluation, with results of the tests. This chapter also includes the conclusions and discussions of the study. This study also has an appendix which consists of the questionnaire, reading texts and the pre/post tests applied in this thesis.
Attitudes towards learning English and English language
The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of the students towards learning English. This research was conducted at Niğde University. A questionnaire consisting of four parts for the students was used as the data collecting instruments for the research. The first part of the questionnaire indicates attitudes toward learning English. The second part describes attitudes and feelings when using English. The third part explains participants' attitudes to people who are native speakers of English and carrying their culture. The last part endeavors to explain family and social encouragement learn English. 222 engineering students? questionnaires were taken into evaluation. The significance of differences between means was analyzed using function analysis tests and the data related to the opinions of the students were analyzed by utilizing frequency distribution on percentages. The validity was assured by means of factor analysis procedure. All of these statistical procedures were carried out using SPSS v20.0 software in windows for IBM platform. Key Words: Social Attitudes, University, English Learning as a Foreign Language
A study on using videos for vocabulary learning
It is accepted by educationalists that the earlier language learning starts, the better it is. Although language learning comprises many areas, we may say that the basic area is vocabulary learning. Lately, the importance of vocabulary knowledge raised and many approaches and techniques have been adapted for vocabulary learning. Using videos for vocabulary learning is one of the techniques. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of using videos for vocabulary learning. The study was conducted at Osmaniye Kırıklı Kanlıgeçit Primary School and Çardak Primary School. 50 students, whose language level is elementary, participated in the study. There are 30 students in the experimental group from Kırıklı Kanlıgeçit Primary School and 20 students in the control group from Çardak Primary School. The students in the experimental group were presented the new words with ten different videos. A course book and a workbook were used for the control group. The treatment longed for 8 hours for both groups. At the end of the treatment sessions, a post-test was administered to the both groups. An attitude questionnaire was applied to the experimental group after the treatment session is over. The analysis of the study showed a significant difference for the experimental group and they have positive attitudes towards videos.
A case study examining the impact of scaffolding on the summary writing of 6th grade students
This case study explores the implementation of scaffolding in foreign language writing in a sixth grade classroom setting. In this study, Vygotsky's (1978, 1986) socio-cultural framework of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding writing (Ross,1976) are used as the theoretical basis to study the development of foreign language writing. The study aims at investigating the impact of scaffolding on sixth grades level of students' writing, the students' attitude towards teacher scaffolding and peer review. The main purpose of the study is to determine if the students who received teacher's scaffold on their writing and peer checked themselves would score better on writing summary or not. For this purpose, 20 primary students (in the sixth grade) at TED Gaziantep College participated in the study. The data were collected through quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments. The pre-test and post-test were given and the results provided the quantitative data along with the teacher scaffold on the students' writing summaries for eight weeks. The qualitative data came from the interview made at the end of the study. During eight weeks' period, students wrote summaries of short stories and the summaries were corrected and evaluated using rubrics. The analysis of the quantitative data indicated that the students who received scaffolding improved in writing after six weeks' implementation. The analysis of the questionnaire showed that the students enjoyed writing learning with the guidance of teacher scaffold and studying with their peers during the process. Key Words: Scaffolding, Zone of Proximal Development, Writing Development
An investigation of the relationship between test anxiety and test performance of 8th grade students
The aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship between test anxiety and test performance of students at the 8th grade level. Additionally, the opinions of the students about factors affecting anxiety reduction were investigated by the interviews with students. A mixed method design was applied to answer the research questions. The number of participants is 40 8th graders. To collect the data, the test anxiety inventory was downloaded from the website of Ministry of National Education. The data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS), version 17.0. The relation between the test anxiety and test performance was investigated by using Pearson correlation. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between the test performance and one's self image and under-preparation. The gender factor was also analyzed to see if there was a difference between males and females in terms of anxiety. The results were discussed within the context of relevant literature. Key Words: Test Anxiety, Anxiety
A study on foreign language teaching anxiety of non-native speakers
The main objective of this study is to investigate if non-native EFL instructors have foreign language listening and speaking anxiety. At the same time, if there is a relationship between these anxieties and self-efficacy of the instructors and if these anxieties differ according to years of teaching experience were investigated. Research data was collected from 100 instructors working at three different universities by means of three different questionnaires. The study was conducted at Adıyaman University, Hasan Kalyoncu University and Gaziantep University. The results revealed that the instructors had a moderate level of foreign language listening and speaking anxiety and there was a moderate positive correlation between self-efficacy and foreign language listening and speaking anxiety. It was also found that foreign language listening and speaking anxiety of the instructors didn't differ according to years of teaching experience. Key words: Foreign Language Listening Anxiety, Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety, Communication Apprehension, Self-Efficacy, Years Of Teaching Experience
Mesleki̇ İngi̇li̇zce alan öğrenci̇leri̇n konuşma beceri̇leri̇ni̇ ti̇yatro i̇le geli̇şti̇rme vaka çalışması
Bu çalışmanın amacı mesleki ingilizce eğitimi alan Fizyoterapi ve Beslenme Diyetetik bölümü üçüncü sınıf öğrencilerinin konuşma becerilerini incelemek ve tiyatro yöntemi kullanarak bu öğrencilerin konuşma becerilerini artırmaya yardımcı olmaktır. Bu çalışma Hasan Kalyoncu Universitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Yüksekokulu'da mesleki ingilizce alan öğrencilerin konuşma becerileri ve stratejilerini tiyatro süreci ile birlikte etksini incelemek için yapılmıştır. Bu çalışma hem nitel hem nicel veriler olarak tasarlanmıştır. Veriler yüzdelik alınarak, doğru orantı ve rubrik/ özdeğerlendirme formları ile içerik analizi yapılarak toplanmıştır. Bu araçlar sayesinde tiyatronun mesleki ingilizce alan öğrencilerin konuşma stratejilerini geliştirme üzerindeki etkisi test edilmiştir. Bu çalışmanın diğer bir amacı mesleki inglizce alan öğrencilerin konuşma becerilerinin tiyatro ile geliştirilebileceği ve mesleki ingilizce alan öğrencilerin konuşma stratejilerini artırmak için farklı yöntemleri denemek ve son olarak öğrencilerin tiyatroya karşı tutumunu incelemektir. Veri analizlerinin ışığında, özdeğerlendirme formlarının ve tiyatro performans rubriklerinin sonuçları ve analizleri öğrencilerin konuşma becerilerini ve stratejilerini artırmada başarılı oldugunu ortaya çıkarmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Konuşma Stratejileri, Mesleki İngilizce, Tiyatro
The relationship between English language teachers' critical thinking dispositions levels and their levels of utilizing critical thinking strategies
This study investigates the relationship between High School English language teachers' critical thinking dispositions levels and their levels of exploiting strategies to enhance learners' critical thinking skills. Seventy two English language teachers employed in the city centre of Adıyaman in the education year 2013-2014 have participated in the study. In order to determine their critical thinking dispositions levels, California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI) whose items had been reduced to 51 by Kökdemir (2003) has been used and in order to determine their level of using strategies, a scale of cognitive domain based on Bloom's taxonomy has been used. SPSS 21.0 has been used for the analysis of the data. The correlational analysis has revealed that there is a positive, significant but medium level of relationship between the two variables (r=,357). In accordance with the findings obtained recommendations have been made, including the training on how to incorporate critical thinking skills into subject areas. Keywords: Critical Thinking, English as a Foreign Language, Bloom's Taxonomy, Cognitive Domain
The relationship between speaking anxiety and the motivation of anatolian high school students in english language classes
This study investigated the relationship between language speaking anxiety and the motivation. The study also investigated the correlation between the motivational orientations and speaking anxiety in terms of gender and department. The study was conducted at Zühtü Günaştı Anatolian High School (in Mersin), with the participation of 110 students, 50 of whom from the Language Department and 60 from the other Departments at the school. Two questionnaires and interviews were the data collection tools. The Motivation / Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ) is an adapted version of Dörnyei (1990), which was adapted by Mendi (2009) to determine the motivational orientations, has thirty items in total. The other questionnaire was Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (FLSAS) of Horwitz et al(1986), which was developed by Saltan (2003) to measure the speaking anxiety in her study and found to be reliable. After the questionnaires were administered, ten students were selected randomly for the interviews. Seven interview questions were asked to the participants to get in-debt data for the analysis. The analysis of the quantitative data which revealed that the participants had a moderate level of foreign language speaking anxiety, and a moderate level of motivation. And when the data were analyzed more in detail, it was found that female students have higher integrative orientation while males have a high instrumental orientation. The difference and relationship between motivational orientations and speaking anxiety got more significant when the difference between the motivational orientations and departments were analyzed. It was found out in the study that speaking anxiety and motivational orientations are negatively correlated and this correlation is the highest and the most significant with the participants of language department when the participants are female and have a high level of integrative orientation.
The effects of drama on students' self-confidence and motivation in language learning process
In modern education system, the most effective ways of teaching English have been researched. Motivation, self-reliance and the methods that are used in language classroom are closely related to each other. Drama can be an alternative way to integrate into the language learning process to make language learning more effective. In this respect this study aims to find out if drama effects the motivation and self-confidence of students in learning English. To achieve this, an 8-week lesson plan was designed. The study was carried out with 100 elementary level students at the Preparatory school of Hasan KALYONCU University. The aim was to find the answers for the following research questions which are (1) Is using drama activities effective for developing students' self confidence and motivation? (2) What are the students' perceptions towards using drama activities? Regarding these questions, three different data collection tools were used; the teacher kept weekly diaries after the drama classes for 8 weeks. Also students answered questionnaires. Lastly, at the end of the term, an interview was conducted with 10 students. The results from the interviews were analyzed by content analysis and the questionnaire data was calculated based on a five-point Likert scale. The findings showed that using drama in language learning was quite effective. Also students reflected positively about the drama lessons in terms of improving their motivation, and developing their self-confidence.
The effect of listening to spoken reading exercises on pronunciation in English as a foreign language classes for state secondary school students
This study first gives the brief summary of pronunciation, reading aloud and listening in Teaching English as a Second Language. It clarifies the interrelation between them and describes potential sources of difficulties in pronunciation of English. The aim of the study was to find out the error types and the reasons of pronunciation errors of English in secondary schools of Turkey. The potential effect of listening and reading aloud activities on pronunciation of English was also aimed to reveal by this study. The study focused on the errors that originating from the phonemes while allophones, suprasegmentals and other aspects were generally ignored. The study was carried out at Atışalanı Anatolian High school with a total of 30 participants, 15 of whom are males and 15 females. They were 10th grade students and their ages were between 15 and 17. They used Yes You Can A1.2 as textbook constituted by the Ministry of National Education. The data was collected with 5 different reading texts chosen from 3 units of the book with a total of 32 words to be examined. Voices of 30 students were recorded for each activity. The sound recordings were also examined by the three teachers of English who were the researcher's colleagues. Mispronounced words were discussed and they were determined mutually. Six listening activities containing the mispronounced words were put into practice to reveal the effect of these activities on pronunciation of the students. Listening and reading aloud techniques were used during these practices. After these activities, the participants performed the reading texts again and their developments were observed with the help of the recorded performances. The analysis of the results revealed that more than half of the participants could pronounce most of the words that they had mispronounced before the listening activities although all of the participants could pronounce the words correctly during the repeat after and reading aloud activities. The positive effect of listening and reading aloud activities on pronunciation was evident from the results. The results also revealed the types and reasons of the errors of pronunciation in most of the words as the errors were similar for most of the participants. In conclusion, it is expected that this study will contribute as a guide to further studies of English language especially in the matter of English pronunciation teaching in Turkey and will help English teachers to determine the source of the pronunciation errors and to fix them.
The attitudes of english language teachers towards first and foreign language use in English classes
The attitudes of the teachers towards first and foreign language use in English courses have been a matter of discussion for over a long time and a variety of studies having revealed different results have been carried out in this field. Furthermore, this study examines the frequency of the first and the foreign language use of English language teachers. To set forth in which circumstances the first language is commonly used and to illustrate the relation between the curriculum and the first language use are the other objectives of this study. This study was carried out in 19 state schools chosen randomly in Muş and 50 English language teachers attended to this study. The data regarding the attitudes of the teachers was obtained via a questionnaire. With reference to the outcomes of this study, it is found out that the English language teachers have positive attitudes towards the first language use. In spite of the fact that a great majority of the teachers often use English, it is observed that they sometimes use the first language and they also believe that the other English language teachers should occasionally use the first language during the English lessons.
Error analysis in writings of English language teaching prep students: A study on bilinguals of Kurdish and Turkish majoring in English
This study aims to find answers on what type of errors do bilingual students (speaking Kurdish and Turkish, and learning English as a target language) make in their writings, what are the sources of these errors, and how these errors can be classified and what potential reasons lie behind these errors. 16 Turkish-Kurdish speaking learners of English selected from preparatory class, English Department, Hakkari University in the academic year 2013-2014. They come from different parts of Turkey where they acquired Kurdish as mother tongue and Turkish in academic life as second language. Besides the written task, a questionnaire will be given to assess the level of source language one and source language two. It also questions the skills' levels in detail and assess the attitude to source languages in learning process. Data collection procedure of this study took approximately 5 months. The first drafts of paragraphs and essays were chosen to analyze. Corder's algorithm was used here to identify errors. SPSS was used to analyze the questionnaire. Thus this study has highlighted the situation in bilinguals. It has shown that even though Kurdish is the mother tongue of all students, Turkish, which is their second language, has more effect on their errors, and learning process. It has been foreseen before the study that SL1 would possibly have more effect on errors and learning process. However, at the end of the study it is understood that SL2 has a higher effect on errors and learning process.
Student and teacher attitudes towardrs the use of the mother tongue in English language classes
Along with the globalized world the interest in foreign language education is increasing day by day. No doubt, this interest is also valid for our country which has an important place in many respects. Turkish education system, adopts the principle of teaching at least a foreign language to all students. For a long time people have been trying many methods to teach and learn foreign languages. The English teachers also deal with all aspects influencing effective language teaching and learning. This study includes the findings regarding in what cases do English teachers use L1 in English classes and what are the students' opinions about using L1 in English classes. The study conducted in eight different departments in Muş Alparslan University and 173 students and 15 teachers participated in the study. The datas about in what cases do English teachers and students use mother tongue in English classes and students' opinions about using mother tongue in English classes were collected through questionnaires, observations in the classrooms and teachers' interviews. This study revealed that in many cases both teachers' and students' use of mother tongue in L2 classes at a reasonable level has a favorable effect on foreign language teaching learning. Key Words: Mother Tongue, Foreign Language, Method.
Non-compulsory preparatory students' attitudes towards learning English
This study investigated attitudes of Alanya faculty of business preparatory students' towards learning English in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. It also explored whether there is any significant difference in the students' attitudes towards English language based on their demographic profiles i.e., gender, field of study and education type. A total of 217 participants' questionnaires were taken into evaluation. On the demographic profile, there were statistically significant attitudinal differences regarding gender and field of study and education type. The results of the study show that participants were quite positive toward English and English learning. The results also show that participants' main goal for EFL and the most motivating reason is speaking English. As a measuring instrument, a questionnaire was used. The data obtained for this study was both quantitative and a qualitative. SPSS 20.0 (Statistical Programming For Social Science) was used to analyze questionnaire.
What are the students' perceptions about English language learning
Today, it is admitted that the discussion on using students' first language (L1) in the foreign language classes derive from the teaching of a second language (L2). There have always been contradicting views for a long time. The monolingual approach suggests that the target language should be the unique means of communication, implying that the prohibition of the L1 to be the best way of maximizing L2 acquisition. Meanwhile, the bilingual approach suggests that appropriate use of L1 can play a significant role in successful L2 acquisition. Keeping all these approaches in mind, what do the learners think about the issue? To investigate, this paper is prepared to explore the problem and find solutions for beginner students in Computer Engineering Department English Preparatory Class at Muş Alparslan University. In this paper, it is argued that in the foreign language classrooms as and when requires, certain amount of time can be allocated for the use of mother tongue to enable students ask certain questions, to clarify and verify what the sophisticated concepts in which the students are stuck in L2 and are unable to move further, to practice certain skills, to remove uncertainties between L1 and L2. In various stages of foreign language learning process, the use of native language in the language classrooms may be more appropriate and beneficial if it is controlled and referred when and/ or where necessary.