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The effectiveness of corpus in written revision tasks for English language learners
This study aims at exploring the effectiveness of EFL learners' use of corpus data to review and self-correct lexico-grammatical errors in their writings. The participants (n=34) were divided into an experimental (n=17) and a control (n=17) group. Both groups were intact groups. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the learners' performance were analysed quantitatively, and their attitudes were explored qualitatively. The participants wrote five compositions followed by a revision session per composition. The categorization of errors is based on surface structure errors taxonomy. To explore the effectiveness of the correction methods, the percentages of accurately corrected mistakes were examined. The differences between different error categories was examined similarly. Finally, a post writing was compared to the error ratio of the first composition to reveal whether there is a long-term effect of the experimental treatment. The results indicated a positive short-and long-term effect for both groups, however the experimental group outperformed the control group. The interviews showed that the learners had a positive attitude towards corpus consultation after their short experience with it.
Eine vergleichende studie zum zweitspracherwerb geflüchteter frauen in der Türkei und Deutschland
Today, migration and flight are among the most discussed topics. Turkey and Germany are two of the top five largest host countries. After arrival, the refugees encounter the legal and language-political framework of the countries. This doctoral thesis focuses on the language acquisition of female refugees in Turkey and Germany. Whit the central question, research was carried out how female refugee can become successful language learners and which factors promote and delay language acquisition. Triangulation was used as a research method, and questionnaire and interview techniques were developed and applied in both languages. For the comparative study, 210 female refugees in Berlin and Adana were questioned about language acquisition strategies, language understanding, course and living conditions. Quantitative and qualitative data was categorized, statistical analyzed and evaluated. Thes similarities and differences in the language acquisition oft the female regugees were presented. The study shows that the reasons for the differences are related to age, education, first and foreign language skills, number of children, use of the national language in everyday life and length of language course attendance, so that they could be proven significant in the analysis. It can be conculuded that flexible course times, the inclusion of female teachers and childcare during the language course should be made possible in Germany. In addition, the need for systematic language teaching in Turkey, as in Germany, as well as the consideration and development of the subject Turkish as a second language, must be planned and integrated for the linguistic inclusion of refugees in Turkey. Keywords: flight, asylum, female refugees, language acquisition, Germany, Turkey, Berlin, Adana
A conversation analytic study on critical intercultural awareness in task enhanced virtual exchange
Advances in online communication technologies offer many opportunities for language learning and intercultural exchange.Through these advancements, telecollaboration has been a recent focus in educational settings and itsimplications have come into prominence in language teaching. However, the social actions and cultural practices performed in these settings and opportunities for critical intercultural awareness (CIA) have been investigated only to a limited extent. From this point of view, drawing upon the 10 hours of screen recordings of over a 4-weeks period of video-mediated task-oriented interactions in eleven tasks in a virtual exchange project between two universities from Turkey and Tunisia, this study contributes to the emergence of opportunities for interactants' critical intercultural awareness (CIA) through a telecollaborative exchange project. By applying the principles of Conversation Analysis methodology, this study aims to describe how an assessment sequence is identified and how assessments are constructed sequentially, and how the first assessment makes the second assessment relevant in and through intercultural tasks. The findings present various uses of lexical and grammatical items and positive or negative assessing responses towards cultural behaviors. The result from analyzing the study suggested that proffering assessments is closely embedded within the enhancement of critical intercultural awareness (CIA). As a CA study to explore critical intercultural awareness (CIA), the findings of this study are expected to bring a new perspective to interculturality and highlight significant implications interactional organization of assessments with its contribution to the online language learning and telecollaboration.
The impact of dynamic assessment on English language learners'writing skill
This study explored the impact of dynamic assessment/negotiated feedback and nonnegotiated feedback on EFL learners' writing skills. Related studies have yielded that there has been a need to adopt the Sociocultural Theory oriented feedback in L2 writing settings since the assertion of one-corrective feedback type-fit-all learners and all error natures has been criticized on some grounds. Instead, having a goal-oriented interaction with learners on errors have been gaining importance. Moreover, scholars have spread the idea of employing the present-to-future model of assessment to offer a fair assessment setting to the learners. Heeding these needs and calls, dynamic assessment (DA) has appeared as an alternative form of instruction and assessment. Within the scope of this mixed methods research, one group was provided DA, whilst another group was provided non-negotiated feedback. Initially, inferential statistical analyses yielded that both feedback approaches helped the students write more accurate and fluent texts. Yet, the students who joined DA sessions outperformed in the linguistic features in the long term. Then, dialogic interactions between the teacher and the students were analyzed, and the findings illustrated that the students might need different feedback for the same error nature, and different error natures might be treated with divergent feedback types. To unearth these differences in detail, the learners' macrogenetic and microgenetic analyses were presented with mediational moves and learner reciprocity acts. Lastly, the learners who were assisted with DA broadly mentioned the benefits and drawbacks of DA and need to integrate DA in L2 writing classes in interview sessions.
An evaluation of online practicum courses for pre-service English language teachers: Expectations, attitudes and learning
Teaching practicum should always be a priority for the purpose of equipping teachers with 21st century skills. The aim of the study is to evaluate online practicum from all stakeholders point of view. The study used both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. A total of 370 participants were included. 4th grade students enrolled in ELT departments' "School Experience" course at 2019-2020 academic year from every region of Turkey were questionnaired. EFA and CFA were conducted and Expectation and Reaction scales were developed with SPSS 24 and AMOS 19. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated as .96 and .98 for the expectation and reaction scales respectively, valid and reliable in terms of psychometry. After the scales were developed, at state and private Universities' ELT departments in Ankara in 2020-2021, Pre-practicum Expectation Scale, Post-practicum Reaction scale, Self-evaluation, Peer evaluation, and End-of-term evaluation statistics for quantitative analysis and interviews with the Cooperating Teachers, School Administrators and Academicians for qualitative analysis were used to administer the experimental study. Regression, Correlation and T-test analyses measured at what levels expectations were met and what were the reactions. Phenomenology analysis was conducted over the interviews. Working groups were determined based on maximum diversity sampling method. It was concluded that online practicum failed to meet the expectations of pre-service EFL teachers. As the end-product of the study "School Experience and Teaching Practicum Guidebook" an up-to-date manual for all stakeholders and a report called "Teaching Practicum Report" which sheds light onto the current problems and necessary changes was prepared.
The nature of dialogic reflection on L2 spoken performances of tertiary-level students
This study aims to explore the nature of dialogic reflections of L2 tertiary level learners on their spoken performances through qualitative sociocultural research. To conduct the study, 24 tertiary level L2 learners were given six different speaking tasks throughout 12 weeks, and they did the tasks in the classroom with their pairs and audio-recorded their conversation. Then, the learners listened to their performances and reflected on them dialogically with their pair, and audio-recorded their reflections. The learners yielded 22 hours of interaction with their peers. All the tasks and reflections were recorded, transcribed, and categorized through MAXQDA, a software platform. To analyze the data, sociocultural theory-based analysis methods, which are microgenetic approach and sociocultural discourse analysis, both of which are included in microanalysis methods, were used. The findings revealed that there are two main categories occurring while reflecting dialogically. The most common one is showing regulatory behaviors, and the other one is having affective involvement. In the dialogic reflection sessions, regulatory behaviors appeared in two ways; (1) the learners either initiated a conversation by asking questions, making suggestions, asking for guidance or clarification, and raising awareness or (2) showed regulated behaviors by scaffolding their pairs, making language-related explanations, and establishing mutual understanding between each other. Besides, affective involvement happed in two ways; the first one happened when learners felt their achievement, and secondly when they wanted to praise their pairs or themselves. Finally, the findings give implications for the use of reflection with learners, learner improvement, and classroom interaction.
The effect of distance self-assessment training on Turkish EFL learners' writing skills
The current study aims to examine the effect of self-assessment training given through distance education to students learning English as a foreign language on their writing performance. In addition, this study also aims to see whether self-assessment training has an effect on students' self-assessment performance. Finally, it is also aimed to reveal the views of the students who receive distance self-assessment training and their teachers about self-assessment training. To achieve the aims of the study, explanatory sequential mixed methods design was followed. Four groups of students participated in this study: two experimental and two control groups. 23 students each in the experimental and control groups, a total of 46 students participated in this study. The participant groups were selected randomly among four B1 level classes whose writing exam averages were the closest. Before collecting the quantitative data, the students in the experimental groups were given the treatment which is the distance self-assessment training. During the quantitative data collection process, while the students in the experimental groups evaluated their writings by receiving self-assessment training, the students in the control groups evaluated their writings without training. Both groups used the same assessment tool to evaluate their own writing. The assessment criteria that was used to collect the quantitative data was developed by the preparatory school and expert opinions were obtained for reliability and validity concerns to use it in the present study. Quantitative data were collected by students' self-assessment by looking at the assessment scales given in the two writing exams, and by their teachers' evaluation of their students in the same way. Qualitative data were collected by interviewing the students and their teachers about self-assessment training. The findings reveal that the distance self-assessment training created a significant difference in the writing performance of the experimental group learners. While the students in the control group did not improve their writing scores significantly, the students in the experimental group had higher scores after the self-assessment training. Besides, the students in the experimental group self-assessed their writing exam as close as their teachers whereas the students in the control group did not self-assess as accurately as the experimental group. Moreover, both the students and teachers had positive opinions regarding the self-assessment training and believed that it was effective.
A sequential analysis of task entering practices in paired role-play tasks
Assessment of L2 learners' interactional competence (IC) as part of oral proficiency has recently increased since the understanding of L2 speaking has been expanded with social-situational language use. L2 oral proficiency assessment studies have attempted to define what entails IC construct and to provide evidence to its unfolding across different assessment settings including oral proficiency interviews, group/pair discussions, and role-plays. However, there is still scant evidence to what entails IC since previous research has focused on limited interactional setting (e.g., L2 requests, Al-Gahtani & Roever, 2012; L2 refusals, Al- Gahtani and Roever, 2018) and practices (e.g., topic management, Galaczi, 2014; Kley, 2019). Examining 49 paired role-play interactions with conversation analysis (CA), this study investigates how test takers initiate telling their unfulfilled childhood dreams. The findings show that test takers either project their telling through preliminaries (n = 38) or directly launch (n = 11) their telling. Further investigation demonstrates that the test takers transform the initiation of paired role-plays into a collaborative interactional event even when the telling of a childhood dream is directly launched. Additionally, the test takers draw on a variety of preliminary sources that are sequentially consequential, namely pre-pre sequences, pre-question sequences, pre-telling sequences, and story prefaces. Varying practices at the task entrance imply that assessment protocols should start within the task initiation phase and that preliminaries as a defining feature of IC can be used within such moments for scoring. For this purpose, an evidence-based rubric built on the test takers' observed practices are offered. Keywords: interactional competence assessment, conversation analysis, role plays, preliminaries
University English preparatory school students' attitudes towards assessment and evaluation instruments
This study aims to investigate the attitudes of English language learners studying at a university preparatory school toward assessment and evaluation instruments. The study's population was A1-level students enrolled in a preparatory class during the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected for this study. The quantitative data was gathered through the questionnaire prepared by the researchers. For the qualitative part, a semi-structured interview form with 4 main questions and 3 sub-questions was employed. The quantitative findings revealed that rather than having a mostly one-sided attitude toward testing instruments, students had moderate positive and negative attitudes. In the anxiety items of the questionnaire, there is a significant relationship between gender and student attitudes; however, there is no such relationship in the enjoyment items. In both sections of the questionnaire, the results revealed that an academic major makes a significant difference in students' attitudes. The qualitative findings demonstrated that linguistic challenges and paired tasks are the causes of negative attitudes, and a sense of accomplishment is the cause of positive attitudes for the speaking assessment. Positive attitudes toward quizzes are related to the lower weighting of quizzes and the shorter test scope, negative attitudes toward mid-terms are due to the weighting of them and the bigger scope. Participants have a highly positive attitude toward the writing portfolio, and the most visible reason is receiving feedback from the teacher. Finally, participants have a slightly positive and noticeably negative attitude toward the online components, implying that they generate discontent and boredom.
University preparatory class teachers' attitudes towards distance English language teaching in Turkey
The purpose of this study is to reveal the university preparatory class teachers' attitudes towards distance English language teaching in Turkey. It has a mixed methods research design combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The participants of the study were 50 instructors from 6 different universities. The general attitudes of participants towards distance English language teaching were investigated through a questionnaire and their more personal attitudes through a semi-structured interview. The quantitative data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data through thematic analysis. The results of the study revealed that teachers have both positive and negative attitudes towards distance ELT. According to the teachers, distance ELT is advantageous, especially in time management, accessibility, and online and digital facilities. It also enables to implement various productive teaching/learning methods. But, on the other hand, it has serious instructional disadvantages including lack of interaction, participation, motivation, focus, and self-discipline. Difficulties in teaching the four skills, hardness in working on phonology, difficulty in getting immediate feedback, stilted online dialogues, deterioration of communication skills, difficulties in classroom management, various technical and technological challenges, and several health problems are some further problems reported. The results also suggest that distance ELT could be made more effective by making some instructional improvements, using interactive online tools and e-materials more efficiently, providing teachers and students technical and technological support, and through training and guidance. Consequently, the results suggest that neither face-to-face nor distance education but probably a hybrid language teaching model would be the best method to teach the English language in today's world.
21st century skills in English Language Teaching (ELT) programs in Turkey: A case study
The rapidly developing technology has affected our lives in many ways. For this reason, there is a need to develop some new skills required by our age in education. The concept of 21st century skills have entered our lives. This study aimed to see, after the latest decision of the Council of Higher Education, Turkey on authorizing Education Faculties to design their own curricula, to what extent the 21st century skills were included in English language teacher training programs; to compare the perspectives of students and academics of the programs and to discuss the effectiveness of the program in terms of gaining the 21st century skills. For this purpose, data were collected by using the triangulation method via document analysis, questionnaires, and interview forms. The programs released on the web pages of randomly selected Education Faculties of 4 different universities were examined using document analysis, the questionnaire was administered to the randomly selected academics and students, and interviews were conducted. This case study adopted mixed methods research design based on both qualitative and quantitative data. At the end of the study, the courses aiming at improving the 21st century skills in English language teacher training programs, the viewpoints of the participant students and academics conducting courses related to the 21st century skills development were determined. Thus, a scientific study was carried out on how effective English language teacher training programs in our country could raise teachers with these skills and have the potential to develop these skills in their students.
The influence of peer-interaction on middle school students' learning motivation
This research's aim is to investigate the impact of peer interaction on middle school students' learning motivation for English. In this study, the researcher collected both qualitative and quantitative data using a quasi-experimental research design. Firstly, the quantitative data were collected via Gardner's Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) (Gardner, 1985), which is originally a 6-point Likert format and was adapted to a 5-point scale ranging from 'Strongly Agree' to 'Strongly Disagree' by (Dogan, 2009). The initial quantitative data were analysed with the latest version of SPSS. Secondly, regarding qualitative data, a student interview form and a teacher interview form were also be utilised, all of which were also developed by the researcher. Interviews with the students and the teachers were audio-recorded and transcribed. Thematic content analysis was used to examine qualitative data. The results have revealed that CLT is much more effective in motivating the students' English learning skills by giving them a chance to practice their passive knowledge of English gained through GTM lessons. Moreover, board games are the most motivating CLT activity for the learners since as a fun activity, the board games match the students' age range. Due to the national examination system which requires grammar and vocabulary test-taking skills, GTM will remain the dominant lesson shape in the school curricula, however, CLT lessons may also gain a foothold in teaching English as a Foreign Language to the students.
Eine studie zur förderung der interaktionskompetenz von angehenden daf-Lehrkrӓften
In foreign language didactics, there is a tendency from a teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered and action-oriented learning process. In this respect, Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC) emerges as a key concept for foreign language teachers. In this context, German as a Foreign Language (GFL) teachers should be made aware of classroom interaction, teacher talk, specifically constructive vs. obstructive effects of interactional features during the field experience. This research reports on a case study that examined the effects of incorporating an approach into the practicum phase of eight prospective GFL teachers. The teachers were administered a questionnaire before and after the practicum to determine their perceptions regarding interactional features and the concept of CIC. Upon this, they received training on them through the SETT framework. Therefore, the study also investigated whether the training resulted in a change in their perceptions. For this reason, they wrote reflections at regular intervals. In addition, their reflections were collected through an evaluation form and interviews. Results indicate that the teacher candidates' interactional skills clearly improved over the course of the training in which interactional practices were reported to be used systematically. Accordingly, contributions to their professional development were seen in their evaluations and reflections. Furthermore, they made constructive suggestions for the re-planning of the field experience according to the SETT framework, which suggests that they are convinced of the necessity and usefulness of this training for the education of future foreign language teachers. Keywords: Interactional competence, GFL teacher education, interactional features, SETT-framework, professional development.
The impact of group dynamic assessment on grammar achievement of EFL learners
Taking its roots from the Vygotskian sociocultural theory of cognitive development, Dynamic Assessment (DA) has proved to be a valuable tool in psychological and educational research for a long time. However, DA has recently been employed in the field of SLA and given promising results. Considering the gap in the literature, this study sought to investigate the impact of Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA) on development of B1 EFL learners' control over narrative tenses. A total of 72 students were included in the study and divided into two groups as experimental and control. Employing a mixed-methods design, the data of the study were collected via multiple sources including grammar tests on narrative tenses, a written transcendence task, recordings of G-DA sessions, semi-structured interview, and reflective teacher journal. During the intervention in which interactionist approach to DA was employed, experimental group learners were offered contingent and graduated mediation from implicit to explicit in response to emergent needs of the learners in a dialogic interaction for four weeks while control group received explicit corrective feedback. The findings revealed outperformance of the experimental group on the grammar test. It was also found that the experimental group showed a more varied, more accurate, and higher number of tense use in the transcendence task. The analysis of DA sessions revealed that the experimental group had higher self-regulation abilities compared to the control group, who had a higher need for other-regulation. Finally, the perspectives of the learners and the teacher about the implementation of DA in a classroom context were analyzed and interpreted. Considering the potential of DA for L2 learning, implications and suggestions were provided.
Orientation to teacher identity as an interactional resource in L2 testing and evaluation classroom interaction in a teacher education context
Studies of interaction-based reflective practices in training pre-service English teachers have been gaining momentum; however, the micro-analysis of classroom interactional processes emerging in teacher education programs have not been adequately investigated. Besides, interaction studies conducted with L2 pre-service teachers mostly focus on "how to teach?" question and "how to test?" remains scarce. Drawing on multimodal Conversation Analysis (CA), this study investigates an English Language Testing and Evaluation (ELTE) course in an undergraduate program and presents a micro-analysis of language test item reviewing (IR) sessions in this course. The analysis reveals an interactional practice of the L2 teacher educator, Orientation to Teacher Identity (OTI), emerging in test item problematization (TIP) sequences to either problematize the test items or to elaborate on the problems. In both cases, the L2 teacher educator positions the L2 teacher trainees as actual English teachers in interaction, assigns a set of responsibilities relating to English teaching and testing, and charges them with displaying these responsibilities when writing language test items. These findings implicate that teacher educators may exploit pre-service teachers' identities for enacting professional actions. Also, L2 teacher trainees can benefit from dialogic reflection sessions to improve their practice of language test item writing. Lastly, problems in the trainees' test items highlight the importance of developing their language awareness necessary for pedagogical and/or professional activities. Overall, classroom interaction research exploring ELTE course context may unveil the interactional and pedagogical processes that contribute to the development of pre-service English teachers' L2 testing and evaluation knowledge and skills.
Eine untersuchung zur effektivität und dem einfluss von sozialen medien auf den erwerb des Deutschen als fremdsprache – am beispiel Instagram
The development of the internet and the widespread use of social media have had a direct impact on all areas of life, especially education. Although efforts are being made to integrate social media into formal education, the fact that social media provides time- and location-independent learning environments and personalized learning experiences makes it one of the most important tools for informal learning. The relevance of social media is particularly emphasized by researchers in foreign language learning. As one of the most used social media platforms in recent years, Instagram has become a central platform for foreign language teachers and learners to meet with its diverse functions (features). Users can access various language materials by following accounts that produce German content on Instagram. In this context, the aim of this study is to measure the effectiveness and impact of social media on the acquisition of German. For this purpose, the mixed methods research design was applied. An online questionnaire was sent to the participants for the quantitative part of the study and six participants were interviewed online for the qualitative part. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed separately, but the results were evaluated together in the discussion section. According to the findings of the study, participants perceive Instagram as an effective platform for learning German.
Pre-service and in-service English language teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and metacognitive awareness
This study aims to examine teacher self-efficacy and metacognitive awareness of preservice and in-service English language teachers and if there is any relationship between their self-efficacy beliefs and metacognition. The study also explores whether there are any similarities or differences between these groups in light of a number of demographic factors and other associated factors suggested in the existing research. Considering these purposes, data of the study which is in a mixed-method design were collected at one of the leading state universities in Turkey with participation of 96 senior students at English Language Teaching (ELT) department and 53 English lecturers working at the School of Foreign Languages of that university through valid and reliable scales on the variables and semi-structured interviews. Data analyses revealed that both groups had high levels of self-efficacy and metacognitive awareness, and there was a strong relationship between self-efficacy and metacognitive awareness. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference between these two groups in the related variables. As for demographic factors, it emerged that gender, years of experience or academic achievement were not effective in leading a difference among the groups. Additionally, qualitative data revealed factors affecting pre-service and inservice English language teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and metacognition either positively or negatively. To this end, while undergraduate education and teaching practice were reported to affect pre-service teachers' self-efficacy and metacognition, low level of student motivation was considered as the main factor for in-service teachers. Overall, this study proposes significant implications for language teacher education and teaching profession. Keywords: teacher self-efficacy, metacognitive awareness, ELT, teacher education
Enhancing ELT students' professional vision through early critical awareness-oriented content integration
The aim of the study is to explore the effect of critical pedagogical content integration through critical awareness raising content integration in Spoken English courses at Foreign Language Education Departments on students' vision of their profession. The study was conducted with the students who took the Spoken English I and II courses during the 2018-19 academic year in Foreign Language Education Department at Middle East Technical University, based on a qualitative research design. Students were interviewed individually and in focus groups twice throughout the academic year. Observation notes of the researcher were also used as a research tool for data collection. Almost all classroom performances of students were recorded for the researcher to keep her observation notes. The outcome of the study is that students' vision of their profession was more realistic having developed a deeper insight discussing multiple aspects of teaching English in contextualized tasks through critical awareness raising tasks throughout one academic year. It was observed that the participants developed an awareness of a more empowered teacher image sensitized to oppressed groups in educational settings. Keywords: critical pedagogical content, preservice teachers, critical thinking, professional vision, Socratic approach
Pre-service English teachers' perceived levels of and perceptions on intercultural communicative competence
Nowadays, intercultural communicative competence (ICC) gains importance in this globalized world, and ultimately in foreign language education. Teachers' perspectives on intercultural communicative competence are one of the research areas in the field. Hence, this study aimed to investigate pre-service English teachers' intercultural communicative competence level and their perspectives on ICC in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting. The participants were 130 preservice English teachers studying at a major state university in Turkey. Intercultural communicative competence questionnaire (ICCQ) and semi-structured interviews were applied to find out participants' level of ICC and their perspectives on ICC. The data analysis was carried out through statistical analysis and content analysis. The results showed that participants had high levels of ICC and there was not a statistically significant difference between freshman and senior students' perceived level of ICC. While there was a statistically significant difference in participants' ICC levels with regard to gender, there was not a strong correlation between their ICC levels and academic achievement. Pre-service English teachers' understanding of ICC was limited and they generally defined it based on attitudes. They were aware of the importance of ICC in foreign language education. They perceived the place of ICC in teacher education inadequate and highlighted the necessity of ICC in teacher education. They provided suggestions such as including courses integrating ICC and infusing student-exchange programs to promote ICC in teacher education. Implications were provided for pre-service teachers, teacher trainers, in-service teachers and material designers to develop foreign language learners' ICC. Keywords: intercultural communicative competence, pre-service English teachers' perspectives, foreign language teaching, culture, EFL setting
The reflexive practice triplication model for English language teachers via video enhanced observation
This study represents an exploratory research in which the teacher/researcher aims to suggest a Reflexive Practice Triplication Model. This exploratory practice investigates the needs, strengths and weaknesses of EFL teachers, the puzzles teachers have in a language classroom, what to reflect upon in teaching, and how reflexive practice triplication affects teachers' professional development. The study also reveals the value of collaboration with colleagues through evaluation of their peers' teaching practices using critical peer-review checklist and providing feedback to others in focus group discussions for their practices. The study was conducted in 2018-2019 academic year at a private K-12 institution in Ankara. Participants were 8 secondary school teachers of English who were chosen on a voluntary basis. Triangulation technique was used to find out the effectiveness of the model. In this respect, critical reflective and reflexive report, critical peer-review and the researcher's observation diary were analysed with constant comparative method. Besides, the teacher/researcher studied how the participant teachers were engaged in the process and both qualitative and quantitative influence of the reflexive practice on the participant teachers were studied. The findings of the study suggested that the reflexive practice triplication model enabled teachers to identify their needs, strengths and weakness in teaching, to collaborate with their colleagues and to develop professionally. This study may be conducive to EFL teachers' professional development through the implications it offers.
A multiphase study on willingness to communicate in an English as a foreign language learning context
This dissertation explores the willingness to communicate in a foreign language (L2 WTC) of English language (EFL) learners in Turkey. It firstly attempts to elicit the EFL learners' perceptions of L2 WTC in order to identify the variables affecting L2 WTC through a qualitative data collection set. The thematic analysis of the data leads to the construction of a valid and reliable data collection tool based on the direct reflections of EFL learners. This tool is employed to collect data from 933 Turkish EFL learners in different universities. The psychometric analyses suggest that L2 WTC has different components inside and outside the classroom. Following this phase, a mixed methods research study adopting both macro and micro perspective is conducted in order to recruit a fuller understanding of L2 WTC. To represent the macro perspective, 636 Turkish EFL learners taking intensive EFL lessons participated in a quantitative study. The results indicate that Turkish EFL learners have a moderate level of L2 WTC in both settings; yet, their level of L2 WTC inside the classroom is significantly higher than outside the classroom. Additionally, L2 WTC in both settings is observed to be predicted by different underlying variables. Moreover, the micro perspective focuses only on L2 WTC inside the classroom and it suggests that L2 WTC emerges in the classroom both as observable behaviors and as unobservable intentions. The EFL learners posit that their L2 WTC is a combination of individual, contextual and affective variables, which leads to the fluctuations in their level. Keywords: willingness to communicate, trait-like willingness to communicate, state willingness to communicate, underlying variables of willingness to communicate, scale development
Pre-service and in-service English language teachers' attitudes towards English dialects and dialect self-awareness
As the world globalized and the people on it became global citizens with cosmopolitan identities, it was realized that English that functions as a channel for communication, which is called 'lingua franca', is not expressed as a plural noun, it is not a single constitution, even though it's not expressed as a plural. It has a variety within itself in terms of its acoustical and lexical features which brought the terms 'accent' and 'dialect' into the literature. They comprise an important field to investigate with the contribution of the speakers and teachers of English. As they are the transmitter of the knowledge of language, the teachers have a great vitality on the issue because their attitudes and perspectives are transferred to the learners directly. For that reason, this study inspects the attitudes and awareness of the prospective and practitioner teachers as well as their positions on the integration of accents in ELT before they take stage of education. A semantic differential scale enriched with MGT was applied to 50 freshman students, 50 senior students from ELT and 20 in-service teachers from School of Foreign Languages at Hacettepe University, while interviews were conducted with 19 participants from the same groups. Finally, American English was found to be the most favored accent, while native accents were preferred to the non-native ones in general. Furthermore, exposure at school or via media was observed to be significant determiners of attitudes and awareness. That is probably the reason of the fact that both of them increases going from freshman students to in-service teachers.
Semiotic approach in English classes and its effect on students' achievement and attitude in speaking
Speaking skills in a target language has been considered as one of the most difficult skills by learners and ways of increasing the success and creating a convenient learning environment are seeking for decades. Recently, the use semiotics in learning has been discussed; therefore, this study aims to find the effect of using semiotic approach on students' speaking achievement and their attitude towards speaking English and the semiotic approach application. The study is held at a state university preparatory school in Turkey with 32 participants. Mixed method is used. The quantitative data is collected by experimental research method, using one control (n=14) and one experiment group (n=18) to compare pre-test and post-test results of speaking success. Also, an adapted questionnaire is applied to experiment group to reveal their attitudes towards English speaking and the use of semiotic approach. Experiment group's speaking skills development is observed and a teacher journal is kept by the researcher for each week's application to collect the qualitative data for having a deeper understanding of the classroom atmosphere and participants' attitudes towards the semiotic approach use. The results demonstrated that the use of semiotic approach in class has a significant influence on students' achievement in speaking and students who the semiotic approach applied has a positive attitude towards speaking English and using semiotic approach classroom. The classroom atmosphere is also enjoyable and comfortable with the use of semiotic approach in order to create a suitable environment for stress-free speaking area for language learners.
A discourse-analytic perspective into classroom interactional competence development of English as a foreign language instructors: A multiple-case study
The purpose of this study is three-fold; first, to explore novice EFL instructors' needs for further professional development pertaining to classroom interactional features, second, to enhance their classroom interactional competence (CIC) with specific reference to the classroom interactional features identified, namely teacher echo, teacher interruption, limited wait-time, turn completion and extended teacher turn through the use of self-evaluation of teacher talk framework (SETT) and third, to showcase if enhanced CIC awareness had any positive impact on the instructors' actual classroom interactional practices. To do this, a multiple-case study design was chosen, and data were collected from three novice EFL instructors whose teaching experiences were limited to 0-3 years at a tertiary context. For these aims, the data were collected through video-recordings, video-stimulated recalls (VSRs), SETT grid, dialogic reflection sessions, audio recordings and semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed through SETT and Conversation Analysis (CA) as an instrument and thematic analysis. The instructors' needs for further professional development were found to be turn completion, teacher interruption, limited wait-time, teacher echo and extended teacher turn. The findings revealed that although the focal points were still observed in the instructors' data, all cases showed improvement in terms of identification of the focal points, critical self-evaluation and making conscious interactive decisions after the intervention. The evidence for increased awareness came from VSRs on video recordings and their CA analyses, and dialogic SETT reflections through which they described, reflected, and critically evaluated themselves. In the light of the findings, pedagogical implications for L2 teacher education, SETT and CIC were provided. Keywords: novice EFL instructors, classroom interactional competence (CIC), reflective practice, self-evaluation of teacher talk (SETT), multiple-case study.
An experimental study on scaffolding for writing achievement and its effect on writing motivation
This study intents to investigate the effect of scaffolding techniques on writing achievement, writing motivation, and classroom environment as well as the students' perceptions. It also aims at finding which writing stage can be more beneficial for the students in order to give scaffolding in the writing classes. The study was held in the English preparatory school of a state university in Turkey with 50 students. Two experimental groups that were given scaffolding instructions in different stages of writing, and one control group which followed standard writing classes were formed so as to make comparisons not only among all groups but also between two experimental groups separately. Data collection was made both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data collection part was designed in the form of pre-test and post-test. The data gathered from these quantitative tools were analyzed via SPSS 21. On the other hand, teacher journal and student interview methods were included in the study as qualitative methods so as to gain insight with regard to both the classroom environment and the learners' opinions towards scaffolding in writing classes. The data from these tools were analyzed thanks to thematic analysis. The results indicated that scaffolding appeared as an effective tool for the enhancement of achievement and motivation in writing classes. Besides, thanks to scaffolding, a more positive classroom atmosphere could be created in writing classes, and the learners also believed that scaffolding applications were beneficial and enjoyable for them. Lastly, compared to pre-writing scaffolding applications, it was proved that when scaffolding techniques were presented through while-writing stage, the students could improve their writing abilities larger amounts and increase their motivation level more. Furthermore, the classroom atmosphere of the experimental group 1 became friendlier, more collaborative and supportive although the workload of the teacher increased in a considerable amount during while-writing stage.
The effect of a visionary motivational program on learners' ideal L2 self
This study aimed to investigate the effect of a visionary motivational program on learners' Ideal L2. The study was conducted in the academic year of 2017-2018 at a state university, Central Anatolia, Turkey. 59 female and male Turkish EFL learners formed an experimental and a control group. While the experimental group attended a visionary motivational program, the control group attended a general program. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and an open-ended questionnaire. Quantitative data were analyzed by using a statistical analysis program and the findings were shown in tables and interpreted afterwards. Qualitative data were analyzed using the grounded theory and the constant comparative method. The findings were listed narratively and supported with the direct quotations from the data. The results showed that the Ideal L2 self of both groups increased, but the difference between them was not at a statistically significant level. The overall comparison of the quantitative data did not yield any significant difference between the experimental and the control group in nine domains. However, only in the domain of English anxiety, the control group had a significantly lower level of anxiety after the program. The results from the qualitative data, on the other hand, revealed that both groups found their programs effective and motivating for different reasons such as feeling an increase in their self-confidence, setting broader and concrete goals, understanding the crucial role of English and getting to know themselves.
The influence of conventional and distance flipped instruction on EFL learners' self-regulation skills and anxiety while teaching speaking skills
Flipped learning has emerged as an innovative approach and provided interactive opportunities for students who are rapidly adopting new technologies. In a flipped classroom, learners are required to do cognitively challenging and engaging tasks in class instead of trying to do this "heavy work" at home. With the spread of the COVID-19, a new concept has also appeared: distance or online flipped instruction, which basically refers to flipping synchronous online classes. To this end, the present study attempts to find out the possible influence of conventional flipped instruction along with online flipped instruction on EFL learners' self-regulated L2 learning strategy use and foreign language classroom anxiety while teaching speaking skills. Nearly 80 A2 level students at Middle East Technical University participated in the study. Four intact classes were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups: experimental and control. The experimental group students started to use Google Classroom application besides their regular classes. In the experimental group, students were required to watch videos and take notes on various topics before the actual lesson. The influence of the flipped learning model on learners' self-regulatory behaviours and foreign language classroom anxiety was analyzed by comparing control and experimental groups' survey results before and after the implementation of the flipped instruction. Finally, to get a deeper understanding, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten students to explore the learners' views in the experimental group as well.
A study on investigating the factors that demotivate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL)
The issue of demotivation in foreign language learning is a relatively new area that has recently gained attention. For success in foreign language learning, it is of great importance to determine the source of the demotivation that students have towards language learning and to eliminate these factors. This research, adopting a sequential exploratory mixed research design, aims to develop a demotivation scale for foreign language learners. Within the scope of this scale development study, comprehensive literature review, semi-structured interviews with the participation of 17 teachers, and student compositions collected from 25 university preparatory class students were employed to create the item pool of the scale. After creating the item pool, two experts in the field of language teaching and educational sciences were consulted, and some minor changes were made on the scale. In order to test the validity and reliability of the developed scale, a pilot study was conducted with the participation of 250 university students. In order to verify the data obtained as a result of the pilot study by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the main study was conducted with the participation of 533 university students. According to the results, a demotivation scale consisting of 35 items and 5 factors was developed. The factor names of the developed scale are as follows: (1) Teaching methods and teaching process, (2) Teaching material, teaching environment, and teaching facilities, (3) Teacher competence and teacher attitudes, (4) Failure experiences and lack of self-confidence, and (5) Negative attitudes towards the target language.
Exploring the link between anxiety, enjoyment, and achievement in foreign language classes
The present study critically examines the relationship between foreign language enjoyment, foreign language anxiety, and language achievement in the Turkish context. Thiis research is designed to investigate the role of positive emotions in the field of language education. The current study is carried out in the spring term in the 2019-2020 academic year. Participants are 233 fifth-grade students studying at a state secondary school. In this study, a mixed-method research design is adopted. The quantitative part of the study is conducted by using two questionnaires, which are Foreign Language Enjoyment scale and Children's Foreign Language Anxiety Scale. Qualitative data is collected by using semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. A total of 12 students participate in the qualitative phase of the study. Data is analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as content analysis. It is found that students experience high level of enjoyment and moderate level of anxiety in their English classes. No significant difference exists between FLE and gender. On the other hand, the results indicate that gender is a significant determinant of FLA. It is also revealed that teacher strictness is a factor associated with both FLE and FLA. Moreover, a negative correlation is detected between anxiety and enjoyment. One of the most important findings of the study is that FLE is a predictive factor for language achievement. The qualitative results indicate that language anxiety and language enjoyment stem from factors including self, teacher, and classroom environment.
Analysis of speaking skill in high school English language curricula and coursebooks in Turkey
The aim of the current study is to investigate the distribution of the speaking skill in the English language curricula and the coursebooks of high schools in Turkey from the perspective of Bloom's revised taxonomy. The relationship and differences between the speaking outcomes in the high school English language curricula and the speaking activities in the high school English language coursebooks have been determined according to the cognitive process and knowledge dimensions in the taxonomy. Based on a mixed-method research design, document analysis has been chosen to collect data from the high school English language curricula and the coursebooks for the grades between 9th and 12th in Turkey. Data have been analyzed through content analysis and placed into the taxonomy table. Findings have been presented with their frequencies and percentages in tables. The interpretation of the findings has been made relating to the dimensions of Bloom's revised taxonomy. At the end of the study, it has been revealed that both the speaking outcomes in the curricula and the speaking activities in the coursebooks are mostly placed in the lower order categories according to the cognitive process dimension, in all the grades except for the 12th grade. Besides, it has been found that most of the outcomes and activities are based on conceptual knowledge and there are not any outcomes or activities aiming at metacognitive knowledge. The study presents suggestions to the curriculum designers, coursebook writers, and teachers.
A case study on pre-service English teachers' formative assessment teacher cognition
This dissertation explores student teachers' construction of formative assessment teacher cognition with a sociocultural perspective in language teacher education context. The current study has three focal points to investigate: the factors influencing the construction of pre-service language teachers' formative assessment cognition, how the construction process of formative assessment teacher cognition progresses, and how sociocultural resources mediate the construction process of formative assessment teacher cognition. With these aims, a holistic single-case study was adopted as the research design. A total of eight senior student teachers of English constituted the participants of the present case study. The data were collected through multiple sources including reflective journals, documents (lesson plans), semi-structured interviews, classroom observation (field notes), and pre-observation and post-observation conferences. The collected data were analysed through a grounded content analysis and sociocultural discourse analysis. The analysis resulted in three major factors as the main sources of pre-service language teachers' formative assessment cognition: prior language learning experiences, teacher education, and contextual factors. The findings also indicated that the construction process of formative assessment cognition progressed through six main major shifts: dissonance, exploration of teaching-related beliefs, self-examination, re-examination of alternatives, approval, and integration. In this construction process, sociocultural means like mediation and cognitive/emotional dissonances were also detected and explained in relation with the findings. In the light of the results, pedagogical implications for L2 teacher education, teacher cognition, and formative assessment were provided.
Assuming learner behavior as an interactional resource in L2 testing and evaluation classroom interaction in a teacher education context
This study uncovers an unexplored phenomenon of "Assuming Learner Behavior" (ALB) emerging within the context of testing and evaluation course in an English Language Teaching (ELT) program by using Conversation Analysis (CA). It involves the analysis of video-recorded classroom interaction (12 hours) of fourth year ELT students and an ELT professor in a university in Ankara, Turkey. Using CA, this study has investigated how the phenomenon of ALB emerges in the classroom interaction of pre-service teachers during feedback and presentation sessions in the testing and evaluation course. Moreover, this study has explored the interactional functions of ALB in different sequential positions and how pre-service teachers' orient to the different aspects of test items by means of ALBs. In addition, the analysis has indicated that ALB creates learning opportunities for pre-service teachers in developing their testing and evaluation knowledge and skills. In light of these findings, this study provides insights into classroom interaction in a higher education context in general and has implications for L2 teacher education, classroom learning of pre-service teachers, and the development of testing and evaluation knowledge and skills.
Factors affecting receptive and productive knowledge of collocations of tertiary level learners of English in Turkey
Being an essential component of vocabulary knowledge and contributing to native-like fluency, collocational knowledge deserves to be explored. This study explores the factors that affect receptive and productive collocational knowledge of tertiary level EFL learners in Turkey. For gathering data, two vocabulary knowledge tests (i.e., receptive and productive) and two collocational knowledge tests (i.e., receptive and productive) are employed. In addition, a questionnaire about language exposure and use activities is utilized. First, the correlations between single-word knowledge and collocational knowledge, at both receptive and productive levels are investigated. Second, the effects of five factors (congruency with Turkish, collocational frequency, node word frequency, type of collocation and mutual information scores) on collocational knowledge are examined. Third, the effects of participants' personal language exposure/use and their individual differences (age, gender and year of formal English instruction) on collocational knowledge are inspected. The findings show that vocabulary and collocational knowledge are correlated at both knowledge levels. The participants tend to have higher knowledge of both single-words and collocations at the first 1,000 level than the second and third 1,000 levels. Among the five factors that affect collocational knowledge, congruency with L1 is found to be the best predictor of collocational knowledge. The investigation of questionnaire results suggests that learners tend to have higher knowledge of collocations when they are exposed to more amounts of language input. Overall, the findings suggest that collocational knowledge is affected by and correlated with different factors and the awareness of these factors offers some implications and suggestions.
Orientations to interculturality in a task enhanced virtual exchange setting: A multimodal conversation analysis study
Virtual exchange practices are steadily gaining importance in the academic world. These practices are echoed in foreign language pedagogy along with its merits to interculturality. Through virtual exchange, foreign language learners have had the opportunity to interact with people in their target language and expose to intercultural communication. However, because the majority of the studies have primarily relied on retrospective data, the actual interaction in virtual exchange, which requires closer analysis, remains a gap. In addition, while there is an overemphasis on emerged cultural differences in intercultural communication studies, few studies have investigated the cultural similarities in these interactions. To address these gaps in both fields, the emic perspective of conversation analysis methodology is applied to a task-enhanced virtual exchange setting. It is aimed to document the emergence of interculturality in this video-mediated interaction and how the participants orient to this with which resources while engaging in a series of (intercultural) tasks. The data includes 10 hours of screen recordings of one virtual exchange partner (VEPs) paired as Tunisian – Turkish. The qualitative analyses revealed that the participants display orientations to interculturality. These orientations are mostly displayed through utterances of similarity and/or difference. The findings contribute to growing literature on intercultural communication by (a) maintaining the view that interculturality is a dynamic notion in a virtual exchange setting, too and (b) challenging the overemphasis in these studies related to the cultural differences by documenting mutually constructed cultural similarities. Drawing on the findings, implications are provided for virtual exchange and intercultural education.
Student and teacher preferences in using written corrective feedback in English preparatory classes
Among four language skills, writing is considered to be one of the most challenging skills to develop both for L2 students and teachers. When writing is compared to speaking as a productive skill, it seems to be more demanding, time consuming and challenging. Specifically, use of grammatical structures is problematic for most of the L2 writers and they are in need of receiving correction from their teachers to detect and eliminate these errors. Teachers' notification of these errors is known as written corrective feedback which occurs as exchange of information about the students' L2 writing process. During this process, the students write a text and teachers indicate errors to get corrected forms. Then students correct these errors and resubmit the written text. This process keeps going until the text gets a certain quality. Thus, the use of written corrective feedback and how it is prefered play a key role in L2 writing development. This study aims to figure out students' and teachers' preferences in using written corrective feedback by means of mixedmethod approach. Initially, quantitative data will be collected from students and teacher through questionnaires. This stage of the study is based on random sampling, whereas, qualitative data will be collected from fewer participants. Quantitative data will be analysed by using SPSS. The researcher will analyze the qualitative data by transcribing recordings. In the end, the researcher aims to compare students' and teachers' preferences and try to shed light on problems in using written corrective feedback in L2 classes.
Gamification and directed motivational currents in optimizing language learning environments through Octalysis
For a long time, games have been used to increase individuals' engagement with the tasks in non-game contexts. However, it is seen that integrating a whole game into a context or creating a totally new game for a specific context can cause several problems in practice. Thus, researchers, especially the ones who are interested in digital games, have proposed game elements, which enable users to go on playing and make a game fun, to be used in non-game contexts, and have developed the concept of gamification. And scientists from various fields have conducted studies on gamification since 2010, and developed many models. Yet, when investigated, it is seen that their studies lack statistical evidence to validate their models. In this study, theoretical background of Octalysis which is one of the comprehensive gamification models was investigated in terms of Directed Motivational Currents Theory and whether gamification could be used for this purpose was tested. Hypothesis were formed according to the factors which are told to affect motivation and their relationships with long-term motivation and they were tested through Structural Equation Modeling. In the second phase of the study, an Octalysis application was applied in face-to-face foreign language classrooms and the model was tested empirically. Qualitative and quantitative data which were obtained during the intervention were compared and a justification about usability of the model was made. As a result, it was found out that gamification applications could be used to improve students' engagement with tasks and/or classes to improve students' motivation. Keywords: gamification, octalysis, flow theory, self-determination theory, directed motivational currents.
Eine studie zur förderung der akademischen textkompetenz im kontext der daf-lehrerausbildung
In the context of GFL teacher training in Turkey, access to pedagogical content knowledge is largely based on the competently handling of written academic text forms. In view of the fact that in Turkey, six of a total of sixteen GFL teacher training courses are taught in German, students in the German language courses face some difficulties when dealing with German academic texts and thus, need to develop their German academic text competence. Against this background, it can be seen that academic text competence is a key competence that significantly influences the quality of knowledge acquisition in the context of GFL teacher training. Despite this great importance, the current teaching practice in the GFL teacher training courses in Turkey shows that this competence is not systematically promoted in the classroom, but rather simply assumed. Based on this, a specially designed training model is presented, which is based on process-orientation approach and the procedures of the three stage model by Schmölzer-Eibinger (2008) to promote the academic text competence of prospective GFL teachers as part of the elective course "Academic German". In addition to this, a case study was carried out to empirically determine the effectiveness of process-oriented approach, which focused on the effect of this approach on the insights, perceptions and attributions of prospective GFL teachers as well as on the concrete influence of this approach on the realization of academic text competence. On the basis of an empirical analysis of focus groups, student essays and other questionnaires, it was possible to find out largely positive effects on the subjective perceptions of the students in addition to development in the quality of the student essays.
Enhancing the quality and quantity of verbal student participation: An action research study
The main purpose of learning a language is communication, but most EFL learners in Turkey have difficulties using English for communicational purposes. To deal with this situation, they need to interact with their peers in the classroom. This qualitative action research aims to increase the quality and quantity of 22 EFL learners' verbal participation through some collaborative activities during 13 weeks. In this study, firstly, a comprehensive literature review and an initial student survey are conducted to find the factors affecting student participation and how to increase the quality and quantity of verbal student participation in classroom interaction. Then, four regular teacher-controlled speaking classes and seven collaborative activities are recorded to see the effects of the activities on verbal student participation. The number of words and turns, the LREs, types of turns produced by learners, the number of different students, the percentage of students who spoke per class, and time spent in student participation are investigated to reveal the nature of learners' interactions and to see the effects of collaborative activities on the quality and quantity of verbal student participation. Additionally, post-activity surveys, the final student survey, and the reflective teacher journal also answer the research questions. The findings show that there are many factors such as speaking activities and topic selection affecting learners' verbal participation; collaborative activities increase the quality and the quantity of verbal student participation; and these activities differ in their effects on verbal student participation based on some factors.
An investigation into profile of ELT teacher education programmes in Turkey
The desired outcomes of educational systems necessitate higher levels of quality in the structure of each undergraduate degree programme of the higher education institutions. Assessing the quality of the departments on the basis of reconciled terms in accordance with the national objectives necessitates a systematic internal evaluation procedure for the programme components as a crucial asset for improvement and maintenance of quality. In terms of the quality in the foreign language teacher education programmes, raising qualified language teachers have an increasing value over the improvement of the learners' language profiles since the teachers substitute a critical asset in arousing interest of learners, raising their competences and attainments towards languages. This master's thesis aims to evaluate the efficiency of English language teacher education programmes in Turkey with sets of principles through preservice teachers` perceptions. The study was conducted at 4 undergraduate English Language Teacher Education programmes in Turkey with 116 preservice teachers from Hacettepe, Ufuk, Sabahattin Zaim, and Sakarya University. Throughout the mixed method research design, the quantitative data was collected with 4 questionnaires designed by the researcher while for the qualitative data, in-depth interviews were utilized. The quantitative results indicated that most of the preservice teachers were satisfied with the efficacy of their departments` curriculum, its training in knowledge and understanding, strategies and skills, and values. On the other hand, the qualitative findings proposed some suggestions like rearranging the proportion of theory and practice, increasing connections with other departments and encouraging teacher educators and school mentors for professional development.
Exploring directed motivational currents of English as a foreign language learners at the tertiary level through the dynamic systems perspective
Having a grasp of foreign language learners' ebbs and flows patterns and factors of motivation, affective state and effort can be of noteworthy value. This study aims to explore and identify freshman EFL learners' motivational trajectories, signature dynamics, and patterns and factors of ebbs and flows of motivation, affective state, and effort at the tertiary level through dynamic systems perspective. To generate the participant cases of this study, Retrodictive Qualitative Modelling was utilized to obtain the identification of salient learner archetypes among EFL learners at the particular research site. The data collection instruments were motigraph, individual semi-structured interview, bi-weekly reflective journal, follow-up unstructured interview, and final follow-up semistructured interview. The data were then obtained from eight cases representing different motivational, emotional, cognitive, and behavioural archetypes to gain insights from the motivational archetypes of learners who manage to generate a highly intense goal-directed motivation (Directed Motivational Currents- DMC), those who have properties similar to DMC, and those who have different motivational, emotional, cognitive levels but do not experience a DMC. Qualitative data analyses indicated that the trajectories, patterns, signature dynamics, and factors within their motivational systems of the participant cases' motivation, affective state, and effort are unique and highly contextualized. However, both their state spaces are driven by only a certain number of attractor states and also the factors are also in a limited number. The results of this study were discussed in relation to dynamic theories of motivation. Both theoretical and pedagogical implications were provided to call for further research.
Teacher to researcher: Reflections on drama as extracurricular activity and speaking anxiety
Foreign language speaking anxiety has been a major obstacle influencing EFL learners' oral communication performance negatively. It is therefore significant to alter the perceived mindset of learners regarding fear of making mistakes that inhibits spoken interactions. Despite proven effectiveness of drama within in-class practices, the effects of language-related drama as extracurricular activity on speaking anxiety remains relatively unmapped territory in Turkey. Taking this into focus, drama converting students' role from passive recipients to active participants as learner-centered approach is the primary use of the current research to shed light on the impact of drama as extracurricular activity on speaking anxiety. Action research is undertaken to develop critical attitude towards use of drama and pinpoint practical drawbacks faced by the researcher in drama sessions. In accordance with shortcomings of drama identified, it offers recommendations to improve the conditions of drama practices with self-critical enquiry. The study adopts a mixed method design including qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data results are drawn from validated measure Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale responded by 60 participants while the qualitative data is gathered from analytic memos, one-to-one student interviews and student mini-reports. The study is conducted with control-group (n=30) and experiment-group (n=30) whose participants are in elective English preparatory program at Hacettepe University School of Foreign languages during the 2018-2019 educational year. Results demonstrated prominent position of language-related drama as extracurricular activity in lowering communication apprehension and enhancing confidence to produce and understand authentic language in unpredicted variety of contexts. Keywords: Speaking anxiety, drama, extracurricular activity, preparatory student, action research, active participants
The predictors of intercultural communicative competence in Turkish and Kazakh settings: Academic self-concept and L2 motivational self-system
The aim of the present study was to determine Kazakhstani and Turkish pre-service teachers' level of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC), academic self-concept and L2 motivational self-system and to investigate the nature of relationship among these constructs. To do so, the study followed the paradigm of sequential exploratory mixed methods research, in which the data were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. ICC scale developed by the researcher, Academic Self-Concept Scale (Liu & Wang, 2005) and L2 Motivational Self-System Scale (Taguchi et al., 2009) were administered to pre-service ELT teachers in Kazakhstan and Turkey. Two groups of participants involved in the study: pre-service ELT teachers (N=314) from Turkey took part in the pilot study and pre-service ELT teachers from Kazakhstan (N=307) and Turkey (N=258) participated in the main study. To analyze the quantitative data descriptive statistics, correlation, regression analyses and content analysis were used. The results indicated that pre-service ELT teachers in Kazakhstani and Turkish educational contexts had high levels of ICC, academic confidence and academic effort, ideal L2 self, ought to L2 self and attitudes to learning English. Further results revealed that statistically significant differences existed between Kazakhstani and Turkish pre-service teachers in terms of their level of ICC, academic confidence and ought to L2 self-guide. Regression analyses revealed that while the best predictor of Kazakhstani pre-service ELT teachers ICC was academic confidence, Turkish pre-service ELT teachers ICC was best predicted by their ideal L2 self.
Eine untersuchung zum verhältnis von sprachhandlungen und grammatik in regionalen daf-lehrwerken
Grammar is no longer the primary aim in foreign language teaching, but a means of communicative situations. This pragmatics-based approach is reflected in foreign language teaching and textbooks. Speech acts play an important role in determining grammatical structures. These grammatical structures are treated with regard to their functions in the communication process. Aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between speech acts and grammar in local German textbooks for secondary level. The textbooks "Schritt für Schritt Deutsch A1.1", "Deutschkasten A1.2" and "Wie bitte? A2.1" are analyzed. The data is collected through the analysis of the textbooks and then compared with Profile German, which is developed as a reference framework for German as a foreign language. Based on the results, the relationship between speech acts and grammar in the local German textbooks is presented. In the textbooks "Schritt für Schritt Deutsch" and "Deutschkasten" it is found that the grammatical topics treated in certain communication situations are not suitable for this situation. Shortcomings regarding the expression of the speech acts and their order within the modules are noted. The data is obtained from the Profiles German catalog showed that the communication situations correspond to the most suitable grammatical topics. In the textbook "Wie bitte?" no information is found to speech acts. Grammar is in the foreground of this textbook. It is found that the grammatical topics are sometimes the topics of a higher level. Based upon the results, some suggestions have been stated to contribute the development of local textbooks.
A study into the interplay between first and second language reading motivation and vocabulary development
The present study aimed to examine the cross-linguistic effect of L1 vocabulary, reading motivation and habits on L2 vocabulary, reading motivation and habits. In this respect, proposing a model, the study aims to contribute to the foreign language education and research. Moreover, the study also seeks to contribute to Turkish language studies through illustrating Turkish vocabulary size, reading motivation and habits of university students. With respect to the sample size and data collection tools required by the complex theoretical model proposed, the study employed a quantitative survey research design. The data was collected through vocabulary size tests, reading motivational scales and reading habits questionnaires from a total of 490 participants from the four different state universities. As the complex theoretical model suggested, the model proposed in the study was analyzed with PLS-SEM technique. The results revealed that L1 vocabulary size and reading efficacy were the two predictors of L2 vocabulary size; however, L1 vocabulary size was the best predictor. Whereas L1 reading habits explained L1 vocabulary size, L2 reading habits did not predict L2 vocabulary size. Although participants' most highly endorsed reading motivational dispositions in L1 and L2 were different, only intrinsic reading motivation explained reading habits in L1 and L2. Moreover, L1 reading motivation and habits significantly predicted L2 reading motivation and habits. In this respect, the study suggests that L1 vocabulary size and reading habits are important in the development of L2 vocabulary size and reading habits.
Exploring the implementation of mediated learning experience in secondary schools in Turkey
This study was conducted to explore English teachers' implementation rates of Mediated Learning Experience principles in their classroom settings. The study was designed with a quantitative approach and a five point likert scale questionnaire was administered. The questionnaire has 12 items correspond with the MLE principles. The study was conducted on English teachers (n=100) serving in secondary schools in Turkey. The teachers were asked to rate the questionnaire items in accordance with their classroom implementation from 1 to 5. The data were analyzed quantitatively through SPSS Statistics 21.0 and descriptive statistics of teachers' responses were revealed. The findings revealed the implementation ratios of the MLE principles by English teachers in their classroom. The results showed that English teachers reported that they employ MLE principles on different ratios and they also reported that they implement the MLE principles most of the time in their classrooms.
The effects of TV series as curricular activities on speaking skills of English language learners
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of TV series, as curricular activities, in the target language on the speaking skills development of the students studying at the preparatory school of a state university in Turkey. Therefore, 48 students participating the study were divided into two groups; the control group and the experimental group. While the control group and the experimental group were subjected to the same curriculum carried out by the school, the experimental group additionally watched one 25-minute episode of "How I Met Your Mother" series every week for thirteen weeks. After the learners watched the episodes, they formed groups of 4 or 5, and they had conversations where they expressed their feelings and thoughts about the episode that they had just watched. In the present study, a mixed method research design was used. Quantitative data were collected through two speaking examinations, and qualitative data were collected via interviews with the participants of the treatment group to find out the learners' perception of the usage of TV series in language learning. The results indicated that the experimental group surpassed the control group with a statistically significant difference in terms of the general speaking scores and interaction scores of the post-test. Furthermore, the interviews carried out with the learners revealed that most of the learners (87,5%) found the TV series very useful in their language learning process. Among all the participants, 70,8% of them explicitly indicated that TV series helped them to improve their speaking skills.
The relationship between English teachers' emotional intelligence and their burnout level
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout. Additionally, English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' emotional intelligence and their levels of burnout were investigated as separate constructs in terms of specific demographic variables. In the methodology, quantitative research design was adopted and a correlational research was conducted. The participants were 166 English teachers among which are 129 females and 37 males. Participants work in public school in Giresun, Turkey. Ages of the participants ranged from 24 to 30 and their years of experience ranged from 1 year to 30 years. Assessing Emotions scale was utilized to measure English teachers' emotional intelligence, Teacher Burnout Scale was utilized to measure their level of burnout, and the correlation of the two constructs was analyzed. The findings of this study revealed that participants have high level of emotional intelligence and low level of burnout. Managing one's emotions, managing other's emotions, and utilizing emotions correlated negatively with participants' burnout level. Moreover, further investigation indicated that emotional intelligence could predict burnout. The findings of this study can be used to raise English teachers' emotional awareness and to take precautions to minimize teacher burnout.
Textual analysis of argumentative essays according to Toulmin Model, position of claims, evidence types and coherence
This qualitative study analyzed 47 L2 English argumentative essays written by Turkish students enrolled in the Department of English Language Teaching at Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey; in terms of the Toulmin's model of argument structure, the position of main and sub claims, the evidence types used, coherence, possible reasons that break coherence and fallacies. The results showed that participants use data and claim as the most dominant Toulmin model elements, and they use much fewer counterargument claims, counterargument data, rebuttal claims and rebuttal data. The results also showed that most participants in the study had a deductive pattern in their essays, with the main claim and sub claims in the initial position. Moreover, the evidence type that is mostly used was revealed to be logical evidence. Incoherence was found to be low and mostly at micro (paragraph) level. The major reasons behind this incoherence were found to be mentioning something totally irrelevant and wrong word choice. Finally, the fallacy that is done most was found to be amphibology. The results indicate the need for a thorough instruction on Toulmin model, evidence types and incoherence reasons for ELT students.
Technology utilization in teaching vocabulary at tertiary level
The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of a web-based corpus (WBC) teaching on learner autonomy, e-learning readiness level, use of vocabulary learning strategies, and vocabulary size development. This study was carried out at two state universities in the province of Ankara, Turkey during the spring term of the academic year 2017-2018. The study group consisted of one control and one experimental group, all of whom were ELT Department freshman students. Having a mixed method research design, both quantitative and qualitative data collection was carried out in the current research. As for the quantitative data, at the beginning and at the end of the study surveys of learner autonomy, e-learning readiness level, the use of vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary size tests were administered to both groups. As for the qualitative data collection, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 9 control group students (5 males and 4 females) and 8 experimental group students (4 males and 4 females) from each group. The quantitative analysis of the dataset was conducted through the use of Multivariate Analysis of Variance/Covariance (MANOVA & MANCOVA) and Mixed Between-Within Subjects Analysis of Variance, while for the qualitative data, content analysis technique was run. The quantitative analysis yielded that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups' scores. Lack of motivation, classroom teaching practices, time management issues were some of the points the interviewees highlighted in regard to their achievement. Keywords: web-based corpus, learner autonomy, e-learning readiness, vocabulary learning strategies, vocabulary size, language learning
Eine untersuchung zum gebrauch von fremdsprachenlernstrategien Türkischer daf-lerner an Anadolu gymnasien
The objective of this study is to identify the frequency of strategy use for foreign language learning undertaken by turkish students while learning German. In this context, the study intended to identify the use of language learning strategies and to promote those strategies, which are less frequently used, in future learning processes. The present study has also undertaken a research into wether there are significant differences between variables and strategy use. In this regard, a study was carried out in the spring semester of the 2009-2010 academic year with 493 students from three different Anatolian High schools located Ankara. The data was collected through the Oxford (1990) SILL-Questionaire. The Manova variance analysis and t-tests were applied to identify the correlation between variables and strategy use. Based on the research findings, the frequency of strategy use by Turkish learners of German language is in the mediocre or in the high range and no critical meanness was found. The most frequently used strategies are social strategies and the least frequently used strategies are the affective strategies. As a result, the research concludes that Turkish learners of German language may prefer their language learning process in groups and with each other and on work focused more on communication. Emotional regulations, on the other hand, are less preferred or less necessary. The findings show that, the gender factor has a significant influence on the use of strategies. Accordingly, men use memory, cognitive, metacognitive and social strategies more frequently than women. In addition, it has been found that the use of strategy in the upper classes decrease and the learning experience in acquiring the first foreign language does not influence the strategy use while learning a second foreign language. The study discusses the research in light of other research results and makes suggestions for future research in the field.