Eastern Mediterranean University
89 theses under this subject heading
Perceived Causes of Culture Shock: A Study on International Students in North Cyprus
Culture shock is an important issue and is the result of movement of individuals from one place to another. The differences between the old environment and the new environment are the major causes of culture shock. The individuals may feel insecurity, disorientation, anxiety and so forth as a result of culture shock. The goal of this research study is to analyze the causes of culture shock and how international students at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) perceive them. In this study, factors were identified and questionnaires were distributed to three-hundred fifty international students in order to measure how culture shock elements vary based on gender, country of origin, educational level, age, length of stay and monthly income. Major causes of culture shock were infrastructure, service quality, weather, and language. Also, the results of this research showed there are significant differences between international students‟ demographic characteristics and culture shock causes. The results of this thesis imply that almost all international students should expect to experience culture shock because they may find the new environment challenging to adjust to. As a result, we suggested that international students should collect enough information about the host culture, education system etc. and try to build relationships with locals in order to understand their society. Keywords: International students, culture shock, culture shock elements, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus.
Evaluating an English Language Course for Nursing Students
This study aims to investigate into the English course for nursing in the faculty of nursing at Shahid-Beheshti University. More specifically, the study aims to identify the students’ and the instructor’s opinions about the course suggestions as regards the improvement of the English course, and the students’ need as perceived by themselves and the course instructor. This study has been designed as a case study which uses a mixed-methods approach to research. In other words, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through the student questionnaire and instructor interview. The participants of the study were seventy nursing students in the third and fourth years of their study and one instructor in the faculty of nursing at Shahid-Beheshti University. The results of this study indicated that both the instructor and the students held positive attitudes toward the English course for nursing in terms of its aims and objectives, content and materials, teaching-learning process, and assessment. Also, the results highlighted the strengths of the English course for nursing as perceived by the participants of the study. Additionally, the results showed that the course had some weaknesses too. Based on the weaknesses, the participants suggested making some changes in the English course for nursing. For example, by extending the time of the class and adding more English courses to teach the students. They mentioned that academic writing skills and listening skills be must emphasize more in this course. Also, they agreed the technology should be integrated into the English course. Finally, the results of the study explained some implications about the English for course for nursing in the faculty of nursing at Shahid-Beheshti University in Tehran. Also, some recommendations are provided for future studies. Keywords: English for specific purposes (ESP), English for Nursing Purposes (ENP), Need analysis (NA).
Evaluating the Quality and Student Satisfaction Towards the Online Education Service Provided by Eastern Mediterranean University during COVID-19 Pandemic
Due to the unfortunate circumstances related to the global health crisis of coronavirus, most of the educational institutions heavily relied on the fully online system to continue the scholastic process. Therefore, this study aimed at evaluating the students’ satisfaction regarding the online education quality service provided by Eastern Mediterranean University. Besides, it examined the major factors that influenced the quality of this program. Additionally, the current study investigated students’ problems in using the online learning and suggested solutions on improving the quality of this service. This study adopted the quantitative approach, which involved a questionnaire based on empirical researches majored in the theme of quality and satisfaction. In regards to the data collection, a pre-testing was used to measure the validity and reliability of the questions. The Google form was distributed via Microsoft teams platform and emails. Following, the data were collected from more than two hundred ten male and female students with different ages and educational levels enrolled in several departments. To analyze the data, the study used the descriptive statistics, t. test, and one-way ANOVA. In respect of the findings, the descriptive analysis showed a number of factors that generally influenced the respondents’ satisfaction towards the distance education such as relevance, authentic learning, course structure, and autonomy. Additionally, one-way AONVA results revealed the insignificant impact of gender, faculty, and educational level on students’ satisfaction considering the virtual learning. However, the age played an important role in this theme. Besides, the students reported problems in using the online learning related to computer skills, Internet access, technical devices, and instructors’ feedback. Moreover, Preparing the academic staff with advanced technical skills, enabling free access to the Internet, providing technical devices, and designing a system guideline for the learners were students’ most suggestions on improving the quality of online learning. The study provided implications for curriculum planners, designers, instructors, and institution regarding the online learning. Also, it reconsidered the study's limitation and recommended for future studies.
An Assessment of Nomophobia Situation of IT Students: An Example of Eastern Mediterranean University
The rapid improvement of technology among technical devices such as smart phone, provide more learning opportunities beyond the classroom in educational environment. However, beside these advantages and effects of smartphone use on educational setting, there are disadvantages, which have negative effect on learners. One of which is a phenomenon known as nomophobia. This is a psychological condition regarded as fear of being without mobile phone or not being able to access the Internet on mobile phone. The aim of this study is to investigate an assessment of nomophobia situation among IT students in Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU). The research method of the study was quantitative survey approach using Nomohpobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q). To reach this aim, 205 questionnaires were gathering among Information and Technology (IT) students from four different age group and two diverse genders. The gathered data of the study is analyzed with descriptive statistics, mean, frequency standard deviation, percentage, t-Test and Anova. The Findings revealed that participants have almost high-level nomophobic behavior and female participants have more predisposed to nomophobic situations in comparison with male participants and the students between ages 21-25 struggled more with the effects of nomophobia when compared to the other age groups. Additionally, according to t-Test analysis, nomophobia is significant on gender of IT students. Moreover, consistent with Anova analysis, nomophobia has significance on age of participants.
Developing of Pavement Management System (PMS) for EMU Campus Pavement in GIS Environment
ABSTRACT: Systematic processes such as a pavement management system (PMS) are commonly utilized for assisting the decision making process in terms of finding a proper maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) treatment for the pavement network. This kind of process usually can make sure of the effectiveness for funds that allocated for the treatment action. In this study PMS has been established for Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) campus pavement network for both roadways and parking lots, which can be considered as a first step that carried out to establish this system for the campus. In this research, pavement evaluation study was undertaken in the context of phase a pavement condition survey producing pavement condition index (PCI) according to ASTM D6433 standard. PCI has been determined for every campus pavement section according to the existing pavement distress type, severity and quantity. MicroPAVER PMS software was utilized for computing PCI and for demonstrating when and which section of pavement network required (M&R) action. A total of 79 sections of the campus network were inspected and assessed in June 2012, it can be remarked that 37sections are in Excellent condition, 15 sections are classed as Very Good, 21 are classed as Good, 4 of sections are in Fair condition and 2 sections are classed as Poor. Moreover, there is no section observed in Very Poor or Failed condition, and also the average PCI for the whole pavement network is 79. Therefore, the entire campus pavement health can be classified as Very Good. The proposed plan was conducted for the coming 5 years which starts from 2013 to 2017. Additionally, the determined analytical results in PMS have been stored and displayed in Geographic Information System (GIS). This system is one of the latest techniques followed by using computers to save huge amount of data with large areas of the maps that cannot be saved properly on a paper. In this research ArcGIS10 was integrated with EMU campus PMS, GIS was utilized to assist in the preparation of a suitable database for the campus pavement network. For this reason a shapefile was created and an attribute table has been established. This table includes collected and computed pavement data such as: inventory, present and future condition, suggested treatments alongside costs for each individual section that required a treatment action. Finally, several reports, charts and thematic maps are produced. Keywords: Pavement Management System, Campus Pavement Network, Pavement Condition Index, Pavement Distress, MicroPAVER, Geographic Information System. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Use of Facebook’s Translation Tool by Tertiary Students
Ever since Facebook has become the most popular Social Network Site all over the world, translating posts into other languages have become a must. Facebook now uses translation function between different languages. The present study seeks to explore the use of Facebook’s translation function by the Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) students. EMU is an international university where there are students from 106 countries. These students are in contact with each other and are in need of translation from one language to another during their studies. In this study, quantitative research methodology has been used. In total, 350 questionnaires have been distributed and 336 are completed by the participants. The questionnaire has a total of 36 questions, 18 of which are demographic questions while the remaining are 5-point Likert scale questions. The results obtained from the study show that students who are studying in an international university, prefer to use Facebook’s translation tool even though they are not satisfied by the quality of the translations they receive. The findings of the study indicate that, there are 8 different languages that EMU students mainly use. To better improve this study, a study can be carried out with a larger population to get more accurate results. Furthermore, a similar study can be performed in other international universities to observe where the findings show similarities or differences
Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Facade Design and Performance in Terms of User Satisfaction for Architecture Office Building, EMU
The building construction industry is developing significantly and the development is decreasing the design and construction time. The necessity of achieving user satisfaction and feedbacks became more important compared to history. One of the most important parts of the building is a facade. The design and performance of the facade have an important effect to achieve user satisfaction at an indoor environment. Facade can play a big role in balancing different aspects of indoor environment quality such as view to outdoor, privacy level, air quality, thermal comfort, and natural lighting. Facades that designed according to contextual features can promise for achieving high satisfaction and comfort for building occupants. Consequently, it is important to take into account in designing facade and developing according to occupant’s needs. In order to understand the user satisfaction and collect feedbacks, post-occupancy evaluation (POE) method is developed. It is an essential method to evaluate the design success of the building and the performance after an occupancy. The different type of POE is applied to several buildings to examine various parts of the building in terms of user satisfaction but there are few numbers of POE that applied to examine facade design and performance for user satisfaction. This study focused on evaluation of facade design and performance of the selected office building by POE. The indicative POE method applied with questionnaire and observations of users and author. The study evaluated the facade of Architecture Office Building in EMU Campus, Famagusta, North Cyprus. The results were discussed and possible solutions for the case and recommendations for future projects are provided. Keywords: Office Building, Facade Design, Facade Performance, User Satisfaction, Post Occupancy Evaluation.
The Impact of Brand Image on Customers’ Purchase Intention of Apparel (Koton Products): Evidence from Eastern Mediterranean University
This study empirically investigates “The Impact of Brand Image on Consumers’ Purchase Intention of Apparel (Clothing Products) in the case of Koton Clothing Company in North Cyprus”. A total number of 415 questionnaires were distributed among students of Eastern Mediterranean University and 300 were filled by the participants. Frequency, Descriptive Statistics, Independent sample T-test, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Regression Analysis were conducted to investigate the case. Independent T-test results revealed 21 statistically significant differences among men and women participants’ perceptions regarding the research items. To investigate the possibility of existing any potential differences between the perceptions of our respondents’ subset groups, “Age Group”, Analyses of Variance (ANOVA Test) was carried out. Based on the relevant analysis, 18 statistically significant differences were observed among the age groups. Finally, the regression analysis results demonstrate 6 statistically significant factors effecting customers’ purchase intention.
Yükseköğretimde Tanıtım Faaliyet ve Araçlarının Üniversite Öğrenci Tercihlerindeki Rolü: Doğu Akdeniz Üniversitesi Örneği
ÖZ: Değişen çevre koşulları ve gelişen teknoloji hızlı tüketim ve rekabet ortamını beraberinde getirmektedir. Tüketim toplumu dinamikleri kurumsal refleksleri bu doğrultuda yönlendirmektedir. Bilgi çağında iletişim kendini eğitim disiplinlerinde gösterdiği gibi uygulama olarak eğitim pazarlamasında da hissettirmektedir. Üniversitelerin rekabet ortamında hedeflerine ulaşmalarında tanıtım çalışmaları önemsenmektedir. Tanıtım faaliyetleri üniversitelerde merkezi birimlere dönüşürken uygulamalar çeşitlenmektedir. Fark yaratmak ve farkındalık oluşturmak açısından kurum imajı için belirleyici çalışmaların ne kadar yarar sağladığı tercih döneminde öğrenci tercih ve kayıt rakamlarıyla ilişkilendirilmektedir. Bu araştırma yükseköğretim sistemi çerçevesinde KKTC yükseköğretim bileşenleri ve üniversite yapılanmasını içermekte olup öncelikli olarak literatüre kaynak yaratmaya yöneliktir. Tez çalışmasında üniversite tercih dönemlerinde adayların farkındalığını arttırmak doğrultusunda yürütülen tanıtım faaliyetleri araştırılmaktadır. Doğu Akdeniz Üniversitesine 2017-2018 yılında kayıt yaptıran öğrencilerin yararlandığı tanıtım araçları ve mecralar değerlendirilmiş olup sonuç olarak üniversitenin tanıtım konusundaki iletişim etkileşimi irdelenmiştir. Burada KKTC için içeriksel ve biçimsel olarak tanıtım ve pazarlama iletişimi kapsamında bilgi ve veri üretmek amaçlanarak iletişim stratejisine katkı sunmak hedeflenmiştir. Bu bağlamda Doğu Akdeniz Üniversitesi’nin süregelen tanıtım faaliyetleri doğrultusunda yeni öğrenci alımını arttırmak amacıyla uyguladığı iletişim pratikleri, anket yöntemiyle nicel bir araştırma üzerinden değerlendirilmiştir. Anket çalışması Doğu Akdeniz Üniversitesi’ne 2017-2018 yılında kayıt yaptıran 11 farklı fakültede bulunan 40’ar toplamda 440 öğrenciyle gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışmada basit olasılıklı (rastgele) örnekleme yöntemi kullanılmıştır.
The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
This thesis is an evaluation of the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction with a specific focus on Eastern Mediterranean university of North Cyprus. This study examined the academic such as the teaching system, course curriculum and non-academic factors such as Accounts office, Registrar s office, Transportation system and lastly the Library system, these factors were examined in order to find out if they had an effect on the student s satisfaction. The methodology used in the study is the Descriptive research. The questionnaire that was administered in the field survey was the abbreviated version of. The results of the analysis showed that: the respondents s response according to the program level had enough evidence that students believed that the university management was not giving enough attention on prompt/dealing with the students s complaints this affects the students s satisfaction because they are not helped to their expectations and their complaints are not given attention.: the results also showed that there is a positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. The recommendations made in the study are that university: must carry out training and seminars for the staff in order to improve on promptly dealing with complaints with the help of the seminars the staff will be able to give good and enough information on the students s complaints and install confidence: should also continue improving the academic and non-academic factors because they have a positive relationship with the students s satisfaction. Keywords:Student Satisfaction , Service Quality, Eastern Medıterenean Unıversıty
An Analysis of Student Perceptions on Communication Barriers in Distance Education: A Case Study of Sakarya University Online Programs
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions and experiences of university students about communication barriers in online learning as a contemporary form of distance education. Because the study was descriptive in nature, the general survey model was employed. The population of the study was defined as students enrolled to the online courses at Sakarya University in Turkey. The sample consisted of 115 students who have taken online courses in various degree programs in Adapazarı Vocational High School at Sakarya University. All the students individually volunteered to participate in the study. Data were gathered through a Likert- type scale developed specifically for the study. The scale included 40 items, each with 5 options. Data were analyzed by using techniques of factor analysis, correlation, analysis of variance, and multiple regression. The results showed that students did not experience high levels of technical barriers or communicational problems. Most of the barriers and problems that the students experienced were communicational rather than technical. There was no significant difference in terms of gender. On the other hand, relatively older students had less communication problems compared to their younger counterparts. The students studying industrial electronics as a major faced less problems than those students in other fields of study did. Barriers and problems did not show considerable difference according to the amount of online lessons taken. However, those who have taken online courses as mandatory, experienced more problems than those taking at least some of the online courses as elective. When perceptions and experiences of students were positive about online courses, they usually reported less barriers and problems. Consistent with this, the students who encountered less difficulty in online learning reported more willingness to take additional online courses in the future, and this willingness was the most powerful predictor of the students’ general perceptions of online learning. Keywords: Communication barriers, distance education, online learning ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of an Effective English Language Teacher
The present study mainly aimed to investigate the students‟, instructors‟ and alumni‟s perceptions of an effective English language teacher in the English Language Teaching (ELT) Department at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU). To this aim, personal qualities, professional qualities, pedagogical skills and classroom behaviors of effective English language teachers as perceived by the students, instructors and alumni were identified. The study was designed as a qualitative and quantitative (i.e. a mixed-type) case study. The participants included 82 undergraduate ELT students (student teachers), 10 instructors and 20 alumni. The data was collected through questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews from three groups of participants. The results of the study showed that the perceptions of each group of participants generally differed from another although some similarities were identified. According to the students and alumni, in order to be an effective English language teacher, professional qualities, pedagogical skills and classroom behaviors are more important than personal qualities. On the other hand, the instructors believed that the combination of all qualities is necessary for being an effective English language teacher. The overall findings of the study revealed that the highly important qualities of an effective English language teacher as perceived by the participants were: being fair, reducing students‟ anxiety, being good at classroom management, knowing students‟ names, correcting students without offending, being encouraging, approachable and patient, teaching speaking skills well, having good knowledge of vocabulary and having correct pronunciation, respectively. Although most of the qualities were perceived important, three qualities which are gender, being young and having lived in an English speaking country, were been perceived slightly important. In the light of the results of the study, some implications for pedagogy and further research are suggested. Keywords: effective teacher, English language, teacher qualities, perceptions
Examining Teachers’ Self-efficiency Regarding Web Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework
Technology has been always important for all industries and due to the dramatically increase and its influence of it in education, in the last decades there has been a crucial need for teachers to learn how to adopt, integrate and apply new technologies in their instruction. Accordingly, this study investigated the level of teachers’ knowledge in Web Pedagogical Content Knowledge (WPCK) framework with respect to some of their personal characteristics such as age-range, gender, years of experience in teaching, division of teaching, and access to the internet outside the school. To fulfill this, a survey implemented in Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) targeting all teachers in foreign language and English Preparatory School including (FLPS) total number of 167 instructors. A questionnaire called Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-Web (TPCK-W) developed by Lee and Tsai (2010) has been applied by this study as a survey instrument. As a result of measuring coefficient, mean, standard deviation, and probability value (P-value), this study found high level of knowledge in WPCK framework as well as notable positive attitude toward the Web-based instruction. Furthermore, some significant correlations have been found in some different factors of Web-general (WG), Web-communicative (WC), Web pedagogical content knowledge (WPCK). Keywords: TPCK-W, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-Web
Preference of Social Network Sites for Uncertainty Reduction among International Students
International students are distant from their homes and seek for an appropriate platform which they can relate with home, North Cyprus and others. This research considers the preference of Social Networking Sites (SNS), particularly Facebook and Instagram by the international tertiary students. The various strategies employed by the students when they would like to reduce their levels of uncertainty have been also considered. 499 international students who study at the Eastern Mediterranean University participated in the study. The study made use of quantitative methodology and administered questionnaire as a means of data collection, in order to ascertain students’ preference of SNS. Findings revealed that although Facebook seems to be the most popular, Instagram seems to be significant in communicating with people in North Cyprus, and others than the use of Facebook. Also, the three uncertainty reduction strategies (URS) passive, active and interactive strategies have positive influence when SNS was used in inferential statistics to ascertain the influence when use as the mediating variable. Students are active in the selection of their media to reduce their uncertainty thus; they have positive relationship. The two theories used (Uses and Gratification and Uncertainty Reduction Theories) affirmed that youth are selective and active when selecting a medium for communication thus their suitability for the research. Keywords: Preference, Social Networking Sites (SNSs), Uncertainty Reduction Theory, International students, Eastern Mediterranean University.
Palestine Technical University Students’ Perceptions on Educational Use of ICT Tools
Technology is very important for todays‟ education. The main purpose of this study is to explore the students‟ perception of Palestine Technical University toward educational use of ICT tools. The selected sample was students for Palestine Technical University, Palestine. Quantitative method was applied on PTU students and questionnaire collected to conduct survey of 137 participants. The study data was analyzed by quantitative method, questionnaire published and the sample collected randomly from all PTU faculties. The data were analyzed using frequencies; Anova test using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Finding showed that there is positive attitude toward using ICT tools; however the result showed that there are no significant differences according to academic year and gender while there are significant differences with regard to CGPA, faculties, having computer at home, having internet at home, using computer in classrooms per week. Keywords: ICT tools, perceptions, technology, learning system.
New vs Traditional Social Environments: Usage of Social Networks by Digital Natives for Interpersonal Communication
Social Network Sites (SNS), particularly Facebook, have become extremely popular among digital natives, especially university-level students. Moreover, they sometimes may see the SNS as the new communication platform for interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication skill levels both in the social and e social environment of digital natives are measured in order to figure out whether there is any statistically significant difference between two environments in terms of sending clear messages, listening, giving and getting feedback, and handling emotional interactions. Based on the Social Information Processing and Uses and Gratifications Theories, this study explores attitudes of English speaking tertiary students who study at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at the Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus in 2018. Interpersonal Communication Skills Inventory has been used to find out the IPCS scores of students in order to have an idea about the IPCS profiles of the students both in “social” and “e-social” environments. This study also aims to explore whether there is a difference between the four dimensions (sending clear messages, listening, giving and getting feedback, and handling emotional interactions) of interpersonal communication skills (IPCS) on social and e-social environments. The results of this study indicate that tertiary students need to improve their IPCS in both environments. Also, there is merely statistically significant difference between sending clear messages section on social and e-social environments. Keywords: Social Information Processing Theory, Uses and Gratifications Theory, Social Network Sites, Facebook, Interpersonal Communication Skills
Factors Influencing the Loyalty of Eastern Mediterranean University Graduates
ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to determine factors affecting the overall perceptions and experiences of the Eastern Mediterranean University alumni. The objective of this study was to measure how satisfied the graduates were with the level of communication and education they experienced their studies on a demographic and attitudinal basis. This study is based on the case study conducted through the quantitative research methodology by using the survey method with new EMU graduates. One of the most prominent issue was that of fairness among the issues raised from this research. Students believe that occasionally, their course instructors may not be fair or treat their students as ‘equal’ when grading. This may lead to the lack of self-esteem in students, affect their sense of belonging and directly impact their studies. The results of this study also indicate that students require additional support and that the necessary facilities should be in place from the very beginning of their studies, ensuring they have the support and facilities, they require in place for them to achieve a sense of belonging and the channels to voice their needs. It indirectly indicates that instructors also require additional support when it comes to interpersonal communication and some teaching skills. Keywords: Loyalty, Alumni Satisfaction, Sense of Belonging, Perception, University Graduate.
Influence of Social Networking Sites on Academic Performance of University Students
Social Networking Sites (SNS) continue to play a significant role in the daily lives of humans most especially among university students. The platforms have affected university students in various ways including their academic performance. As such, this research seeks to find out how use of SNS platforms affect the academic performance of university students. Using quantitative methodology, the study samples university students who use SNS while carrying out a comparison between students of two Faculties (Communication and Media Studies Faculty and Engineering Faculty). Questionnaires were randomly distributed to 410 students of the Faculty of Engineering and Communication & Media Studies. The research was carried out in the Fall semester of 2018/2019 academic session. Findings indicate that using SNS increased students’ productivity in their academics however, when they use SNS for non-academic activities there is usually no improvement in their grades. Findings also show that the almost all the SNS platforms are being used by these university students. Findings also indicate that there is a statistical significant relationship between students of Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Communications and Media Studies, of who are affected by SNS use in their academic performance. Keywords: SNS, Academic Performance, SNS Use, University Students
Investigating Oral Communication Strategies Used by Registrar’s Office Employees in an International University Context: A Case Study
The global spread of English has led to both the use of English as a lingua franca and as well as the emergence of new diversities of spoken English acknowledged as „World Englishes‟. This enlarging use of English in all domains of life including the higher education contexts necessitates mutual intelligibility among second language (L2) users for effective communication. In the pursuance of this aim, L2 users need to employ some oral communication strategies (OCSs). Given the fact that Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) is an English-medium university which accommodates international students from 106 different countries, English is used as a lingua franca within the campus including the Registrar‟s Office (RO). However, there is no study conducted to investigate the strategies used by the employees to communicate with the non-Turkish speaking international students successfully. This study, then, aims to explore the oral communication strategies used by the RO employees to overcome oral communication breakdowns with the international non-Turkish speaking students at EMU. To achieve this goal, a mixed methods approach was followed to elicit data from 40 RO employee participants through Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI). In addition, 12 participants were interviewed to triangulate the findings obtained via the survey. After analyzing the collected data, the major findings of this study showed that RO employees mostly negotiated for meaning while speaking and listening. Findings of the study are justifiable as the RO employees have no other choice but maintaining successful communication with international non-Turkish speaking students in order to fulfill their needs. This study aims to fill the gap in the literature about oral communication breakdown in the English language taking place between the RO employees and the students in an international university context. The findings of this study can inform both the university administrators and syllabus designers to work in collaboration for designing an ESP course for the employees to improve their oral communication skills and strategies in English. Keywords: Oral communication strategies (OCSs), English as a lingua franca (EFL), oral communication breakdowns (OCBs), Registrar‟s Office (RO), English at workplace
Teaching Speaking Skills in an English Language Teaching Department
The present study evaluates the Oral Communication Skills II course (ELTE 108) offered in the undergraduate program of the Department of English Language Teaching (ELT) at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) in terms of teaching speaking skills. In this evaluation study, a mixed method approach was used; both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used. The participants of the study were twenty – six undergraduate students who were enrolled in ELTE 108 course and the two instructors who were teaching the course. The data were collected through a student questionnaire, teacher interviews and classroom observations. The results of the study show that the Oral Communication Skills II course is effective in improving the students’ speaking skills as perceived by the students and their instructors. In other words, the students and instructors have positive attitudes towards the course, but at the same time they suggest some changes to make the course more effective. More specifically, the results of the study revealed that the course has some strengths and weaknesses as perceived by the instructors and the students. From the students’ perspective, the results show that the main strength of the course is that it has helped them to learn how to give presentations, impromptu speeches and engage in a discussion, while one of the main weak points is that visual aids were not used sufficiently in the class. In relation to the teachers’ perspective, they stated that the strong points of the course are that it provided the students with the theoretical knowledge of delivering presentations, impromptu speeches and also it helped the students to develop inter-cultural and inter-personal skills. One of the major findings of this study is that listening activities were very limited. The findings of this study may provide feedback to the instructors as regards the effectiveness of the course so that they can make the necessary improvements.
Design and Implementation of an Automated Class Attendance System for Educational Purposes
This research was conducted in order to easily get the attendance of the students at the Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The research technique used in the project is Design Base Implementation Research (DBIR) and it is a combination of hardware and software system. The main purpose of this research is to reduce the time taken by the existing student attendance system on a paper or via calling the name of the students and to increase the efficiency of the attendance system. Thus, it aims that the time spent by the lecturer for the attendance taking to be effectively acquired in teaching and the taking attendance to be more accurate. The developed system uses a microprocessor called Raspberry Pi. For the project, RC 522, which is a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, and liquid crystal display (LCD) used. In addition, the application code for the Raspberry Pi is written with Python 2.7 programming language. This project contains five different phases. The first one is that the student read his/her card to the system. The second operation is the person's information which is processed by the system and the message is displayed on the LCD screen either as an error message or success message. The third operation is the transfer between Raspberry Pi and the server. The fourth operation is the server process where the database is available. With the information read from the card, attendance is also recorded to the Relational database management system (RDBMS) if it meets the requirements. Finally, the fifth process is web based management application that is available to student, teacher and administrators. The web-based application is developed using the HTML, PHP and JavaScript programming languages. This project offers an automated attendance system, which is faster and reliable, alternative to the current traditional methods of taking attendance at EMU.
Analysis of International Students’ Consumption Behavior：Evidence from EMU/TRNC
This study investigates the international students’ purchasing behavior in Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU), applying Chan’s (2005), the consumer behavior model. Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It has sociological, psychological and economic dimensions and elements. It attempts to understand the consumer decision-making process, both individually and in groups (Jayaraj, 2017). Consumer behavior research is based on consumer buying behavior, with consumers playing the role of users, payers and buyers (Jayaraj, 2017). This study employed the constructs of demographic characteristics including age, gender, educational level, monthly income, length of residency in TRNC and nationality. This study also aimed to understand the international students’ consumer behavior in relation to promotion, product, price, quality, environmental characteristics, logistics, as well as, considering the online shopping behavior. For the purpose of this research, a survey questionnaire was administered to about 201 international students. The survey instrument contained demographic information and 31 measurement items. For the purpose of data analysis, SPSS (version 20.0.0) was utilized. The study revealed that international students’ consumer behavior is influenced by environmental characteristics, promotion, product, price, quality, logistics and access to online shopping. Study also revealed that different age groups are responding to the influencers differently. The gender differences, as the study showed, demonstrated different behavior in shopping decisions. The implications and limitations has also been discussed. Keywords: consumer behavior, international students, shopping decisions, environmental characteristics, promotion, product, price, quality, online shopping, logistics.
Evaluating the ELT Master’s Program at Eastern Mediterranean University
The purpose of the present research is evaluating the English Language Teaching Master’s program at EMU (Eastern Mediterranean University). To fulfill this purpose, the program’s strengths and weaknesses were determined as they were perceived by different participants (instructors, students and alumni). In addition, the participants presented some suggestions and recommendations that would contribute to improving the evaluated program. At the end, the findings of this evaluation study revealed the ELT Master’s program’s level of success in fulfilling the students’ needs. This case-study was designed as a mixed methods research and followed Peacock’s (2009) framework of evaluation in its overall design, where data were collected through the use of qualitative as well as quantitative data collection tools. The perceptions of the instructors, students and alumni were collected through instructor interviews, student questionnaire and alumni questionnaire. A total of 34 participants agreed to take part in this study, five of whom were the instructors teaching in the program, 15 were students and the rest (14 participants) were the graduates (alumni) of the evaluated program. The study’s overall results revealed that the English Language Teaching Master’s program at Eastern Mediterranean University has more strong than weak points. The strongest points revealed through the evaluation are that this program teaches and trains students to conduct well organized and well written research; provides students with adequate theoretical knowledge; and promotes the students’ reflective practice. Other strengths that were mentioned are the qualified instructors and the general structure and content of the program. As for the weaknesses, it was revealed that the program lacked the necessary practical aspects of teaching; some instructors’ performance was unsatisfactory; guidance and training for thesis writing was insufficient; the requirements were overloaded and there was a lack of coordination and communication among students and instructors. According to the results obtained from this study, it was concluded that the English Language Teaching Master’s program at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) does meet the students’ needs to some extent. Furthermore, the suggestions provided by the participants for improving the program include the addition of some practical training in teaching; the addition and reorganization of several courses; improving the used materials; increasing the involvement of instructors in the classroom activities and improving communication between the staff themselves and between them and students. Based on the findings, some implications and suggestions for further studies were also provided.
An Investigation of Iranian Students’ English Proficiency Test Scores in Relation to some Selected Sociolinguistic Variables
Since the first day of language teaching in history, the main objective of language educators has been improving the target language competency among their students. However, achieving identical learning outcomes among language learners is almost impossible. No matter what teaching methodology and what teaching materials are used, the learning outcomes of students differ from each other. Considering this fact in mind, the researcher has tried to find whether socio-economic variables play any role in the learning outcome differences. Meantime, since the education system of Iran is highly centralized, it is a unique context to deliver this study. However, there is another fact valid for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Educational System that makes Iran a unique context. After four decades of anti-intrusion policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) against the English language, the researcher has also tried to evaluate their success rates and to study the status of this language in Iran. This study has thus investigated the status of the English language in Iran on two levels: one concerning the state’s policies and another, the people’s attitudes. To do so, we carried out research on the content of education documents of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the English language teaching textbooks employed in the education system. To locate the society’s stance on the English language, we administered a survey study on 472 participants randomly sampled from undergraduate students from four state universities. We concluded that there is an evident gap between the approach of the Islamic government and the people’s approach toward the English language in the current Iranian society. In relation to the socio-economic variables, this study concluded that the attitudinal stances of Iranian EFL students towards learning English were more instrumentally oriented. However, their attitudes were more limited to affect level; they did not show that they were putting sufficient effort and desire to practice English out of classroom context. Accordingly, their generally low level of English competency can be explained. The next conclusion was that family background plays an active role in determining the success or failure of language learning attempts. The father’s occupation and the number of siblings were significantly interlaced related to the English competency level of participants. Age is another important factor in determining the English competency of Iranian EFL learners while the gender of the students does play an active role in their English competency earning, it needs to be highlighted that this is not valid in all geographical locations touched by this study. Geographical Location plays a very important role in determining success or failure among Iranian EFL learners. Finally, it should be underlined that ‘location’ and ‘culture’ have shown to be interrelated. Therefore, it can be concluded that culture is also an important factor. Keywords: Sociolinguistic Variables, Geographical Location, Age, Gender, Socioeconomic Status, Attitudes, Educational Policy