Türk öğrenciler
109 theses under this subject heading
The impact of the explicit instruction of lexical bundles on academic writing skills of turkish EFL learners
The aim of the current study is to investigate the impact of the explicit instruction of lexical bundles through noticing, retrieval and generative activities on academic writing of Turkish EFL students and to reveal participants' opinions on this treatment.The participants of the study were 30 Turkish EFL learners enrolled in School of Foreign Languages at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University. Both quantitative and qualitative instruments were used in the study.The study includes a within group time series design in which participants were involved in one treatment group. The quantitative data were collected through pre-test, immediate post-test and delayed post-test scores of multiple choice test (for measuring receptive knowledge), c-test (for measuring controlled productive knowledge) and argumentative paragraphs (for measuring uncontrolled productive knowledge). The qualitative data were collected through questionnaire including two sections; fifteen closed-ended and three open-ended questions.The results of the study found out that explicit instruction of lexical bundles through noticing, retrieval and generative activities had a significant effect both on achievement and retention of receptive lexical bundle knowledge, and on achievement and retention of productive lexical bundle incontrolled and uncontrolled situations. However, the comparison of immediate post-test and delayed post-test scores of the productive knowledge of lexical bundles in uncontrolled situation showed that there was a significantly decrease in the retention of the participants. The results of the qualitative part of the study showed that participants highly benefited from this treatment, which helped them improve their academic writing quality by using the target lexical bundles. Moreover, after the treatment, they were more willing to use the target bundles in their writing. Keywords: Lexical bundles, Academic writing, Explicit instruction, Noticing,Retrieval and generative activities.
Türk ve yabancı öğrencilerin üniversiteye uyum süreçlerinin incelenmesi: Nitel bir araştırma
Bu tezin konusu; Türk ve yabancı üniversite öğrencilerinin üniversiteye uyum sürecini nitel araştırma yöntemleri kullanılarak incelemektir. Araştırmada Türk ve yabancı öğrencilerin üniversiteye uyum deneyimlerini keşfetmek amacıyla nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden fenomenoloji deseni kullanılmıştır. Bu tezin önemi; Türk ve yabancı üniversite öğrencilerinin üniversiteye uyum süreçlerini birlikte incelemesidir. Bu araştırmada çalışma grubu belirlenirken olasılığa dayalı olmayan örneklem türlerinden, kriter (ölçüt) örnekleme seçilmiştir. Çalışma grubunda verinin doygunluğa ulaşmasına dikkat edilerek 16 Türk, 12 yabancı üniversite 2. Ve 3. Sınıf öğrencisi ile yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler yapılmıştır. Veri analizinde Giorgi'nin fenomenolojik analiz basamakları uygulanmış ve Maxqda Analytics Pro 20 yazılımı kullanılmıştır. Yapılan fenomenolojik analiz sonucunda üniversiteye uyum ile ilgili 5 tema elde edilmiştir. Bu temalar; "öğrenciler için uyumun anlamı ", "üniversiteye uyum sağlamak için yapılanlar "üniversiteye uyum sürecini kolaylaştıran faktörler", "üniversiteye uyum sürecinde karşılaşılan zorluklar"," ve "öğrencilerin üniversiteye uyum sürecindeki beklentileri" olarak belirlenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda Türk ve yabancı öğrencilerin üniversiteye uyum sürecini kolaylaştıran faktörlerin ortak faktörler olduğu görülmüştür. Bunun yanı sıra öğrencilerin üniversiteye uyum sağlamak için yaptıkları davranışlar, üniversiteye uyum sürecinde karşılaştıkları zorluklar ve üniversiteye uyum için beklentileri ile ilgili olarak Türk ve yabancı öğrencilerin farklı ve ortak yönleri olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Araştırmada elde edilen sonuçlara yönelik önerilere yer verilmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Üniversiteye Uyum, Yabancı Öğrencilerin Uyumu, Üniversite Öğrencileri, Yabancı Öğrenci, Fenomenoloji
A study on the relationship between Turkish EFL learners' willingness to communicate in English, ambiguity tolerance and parental encouragement level
This study aims to investigate Turkish EFL learners' willingness to communicate, tolerance of ambiguity, and parental encouragement levels. Moreover, a possible link between tolerance of ambiguity and parental encouragement levels with willingness to communicate was explored in the study. The research sample consisted of 151 preparatory school students at Hasan Kalyoncu University. A mixed-method research design was preferred in this study as both qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized. ''Willingness to Communicate Scale'' developed by McCroskey (1992), ''Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity'' developed by Ely (1989), and ''Perceived Parental Encouragement Scale'' involved in ''Attitude/Motivation Test Battery'' developed by Gardner (1985) were used as data collection tools. SPSS 20.0 was operated to analyze the data obtained from the questionnaires. Frequencies, means, percentages, and standard deviations were calculated through this program. Moreover, independent samples t-test was utilized to detect whether there was a statistically significant difference relating to age, while one-way ANOVA was used to explore if there was a statistically significant difference relating language proficiency with willingness to communicate, tolerance of ambiguity, and parental encouragement levels. Apart from these, Pearson correlation was practiced to investigate the relationship between willingness to communicate, tolerance of ambiguity, and parental encouragement. Afterward, to detect the predictive power of tolerance of ambiguity and parental encouragement on willingness to communicate, multiple regression analysis was achieved. In the qualitative part of the study, 16 students who already took the quantitative part of the study were interviewed. The findings were examined through content analysis. According to the results, Turkish EFL learners showed high willingness to communicate, tolerance of ambiguity and, perceived parental encouragement. Besides, statistically significant results were found relating to the influence of age and gender. Furthermore, it was detected that tolerance of ambiguity and perceived parental encouragement predicted willingness to communicate positively. Finally, some linguistic, affective, contextual, individual factors and, self-perceived communicative competence were found to be influencing elements on learners' willingness to communicate. Moreover, some problems of tolerating ambiguity experienced by learners were detected.
The effects of flipped instruction through authentic videos on Turkish EFL learners' use of speech acts and willingness to communicate
Teaching speech acts from pragmatics in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has been one of the neglected areas for several concerns such as limited class hours and inauthentic textbook content. Flipped classroom in which the instruction stage is completed before the class through communication technologies allows to allocate more in-class time for practice, especially for speech acts. Also, the inauthenticity of ELT textbooks could be compensated with authentic videos containing the use of speech acts. At this point, it could be remarkably useful to adopt flipped classroom instruction with authentic videos in teaching speech acts. Therefore, this quasi-experimental study that adopted mixed method design investigated the relation between teaching through flipped classroom with authentic videos and the EFL learners' performance on the use of speech acts. The participants who were 50 Turkish EFL students studying at Preparatory Department of English at a state university were divided into two groups as experimental (N=25) and control (N=25). The experimental group had flipped instruction on speech acts with authentic videos for 5 weeks while the control group were instructed in traditional classroom through the textbook as normally. Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was administrated to both groups in pre-test and post-test stages, and the experimental group were administrated a Perception Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews (N=5). The findings revealed that the experimental group outperformed those in the control group in terms of using speech acts. The data for Perception Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews also suggested that the experimental group had a positive perception towards flipped classroom and using authentic video-clips. It was also revealed that the participants in experimental group had an increased willingness to communicate after the treatment through flipped classroom and authentic videos.
Göçmen/mülteci öğrencisi olan ve olmayan sınıf öğretmenlerinin yaşadıkları sınıf içi problemler ve çözüm önerilerinin karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmesi
Bu çalışmada göçmen/mülteci öğrencisi olan ve olmayan öğretmenlerin sınıflarında ne tür problemlerle karşılaştıkları ve buna yönelik çözüm önerilerinin karşılıklı olarak incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmada nitel araştırma desenlerinden durum çalışması kullanılmıştır. Nitel araştırma yöntemi ile yürütülen bu araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Gaziantep İlinde bulunan 10 farklı okuldaki 20 sınıf öğretmeni oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubu belirlenirken amaçlı örnekleme yöntemlerinden ölçüt örnekleme kullanılmıştır. Ölçüt örnekleme yöntemi ile araştırmanın amacına uygun olarak her okuldan bir erkek bir kadın öğretmen olması, seçilen öğretmenlerin sınıf öğretmenliği mezunu olması, en az 5 yıllık mesleki deneyime sahip olmaları, görev yaptıkları okullarda belirlenen 20 kişilik öğretmen grubunun onunun sınıflarında göçmen/mülteci öğrenci olmaması diğer onunun ise sınıflarında göçmen/mülteci öğrenci bulunması ölçüt olarak belirlenmiştir. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak görüşme tekniği kullanılmıştır. Görüşmelerde araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen ve uzman görüşleri alınan 10 sorudan oluşan yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu kullanılmıştır. Nitel verilerin analizi içerik analizi yapılarak çözümlenmiştir. Sınıf öğretmenleri ile yapılan görüşmeler sonrasında kod, alt tema ve temalara ulaşılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçları sınıfında göçmen/mülteci öğrencisi olan sınıf öğretmenlerinin en sık karşılaştıkları problemin dil problemi ve buna bağlı olarak dersi anlamama, iletişim kurmakta zorlanma ve kendini ifade edememe problemleri olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Sınıfında göçmen/mülteci öğrencisi olmayan sınıf öğretmenlerinin ise karşılaştıkları problemler öğrencinin ödev yapmaması/eksik yapması, öğleden sonraki derslerde motivasyon kaybı ve soyut konuları somutlaştırmada zorlanma olarak belirlenmiştir. Araştırmada ortaya çıkan problemlerin altında yatan nedenler ve problemlere ilişkin çözüm önerileri de incelenmiştir.
Türk ve mülteci/göçmen öğrencilerin çocuk haklarına yönelik bakış açılarının incelenmesi: Karşılaştırmalı durum çalışması
Türk ve mülteci/göçmen öğrencilerin çocuk haklarına yönelik bakış açılarını karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmeyi amaçlayan bu araştırma karşılaştırmalı durum çalışması olarak desenlenmiştir. Araştırmanın çalışma grubu Gaziantep/Nizip'te bulunan, Türk ve mülteci/göçmen öğrenci sayısının birbirine en yakın olduğu 5 ilkokul arasından amaçlı örneklem yöntemlerinden biri olan kritik durum örneklemesiyle belirlenmiştir. ÇHTOÖ'nün uygulandığı, yüksek çocuk hakları anlayışına sahip okulda Türk ve mülteci öğrencilerle birlikte daha detaylı bilgiler elde edebilmek için ebeveynleri ve öğretmenleriyle de yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Dolayısıyla araştırmanın verileri yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmelerle ve öğrencilerden toplanan görsel dokümanlarla elde edilmiştir. Araştırmanın analizi kısmında ise içerik analizinden faydalanılmış ve toplanan veriler bu şekilde çözümlenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda, Türk ve mülteci/göçmen öğrencilerin genel olarak çocuk hakları ile oyun/eğlence ve dinlenme hakkına yönelik bakış açılarının benzer olduğu, çocuk hakları özelinde yer alan eğitim hakkı, katılım hakkı, korunma hakkı, çocuk işçiliği, yaşama, barınma, beslenme hakları, özel gereksinimli çocukların hakları ve mülteci/göçmen çocukların haklarına yönelik bakış açılarında ise farklılaşmanın olduğu ortaya konmuştur. Bununla birlikte Türk ve mülteci/göçmen öğrencilerinin çocuk haklarına yönelik bakış açılarını kavramsallaştırmalarında ebeveynleri başta olmak üzere öğretmen ve sosyal çevrelerinin etkili olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Araştırma, Türk ve mülteci öğrencilerin çocuk haklarına yönelik bakış açıları referans alınarak yapılacak olan düzenleme ve uygulamalarla ilgili bilgi sunması açısından önem taşımaktadır.
The role of reading skills on reading comprehension ability of Turkish EFL students
Reading is a part of our daily lives. It is done both for pleasure and information. Reading skills are important for the individuals since they foster comprehension in reading. There does not exit an exact number of reading skills. Researchers have grouped the reading skills in their own terms. If the students do not have the knowledge of reading skills, they cannot be expected to be successful readers. Thus, they cannot achieve comprehension required to pass their exams in their own departments. For this reason, reading skills should be taught in universities. The students will be able to cope with comprehension problems. In addition, they will become active readers. This case study aims to find out whether reading skills has a role on reading comprehension ability of Turkish EFL students. This study is both a qualitative and a quantitative study which lasted 14 weeks. Two groups were selected (experimental and control) among prep classes at KSU. Both groups were administered a pre-test and questionnaire in the beginning of the study to find out if they were aware of reading skills. In addition, 10 Students were chosen randomly and they were interviewed. During the study, reading skills were infused into the curriculum through designing the lesson plans in accordance with the language content and topics for level C students determined by Common European Language Framework. The lessons required the students to use reading skills within pre-, during and post reading. At the end of the study, the same questionnaire was administered. The students were given the post-test and they were interviewed. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The obtained data revealed that the students enhanced their comprehension ability provided that they were taught to use reading skills.
Effects of podcasts on language learning beliefs and self-efficacy perceptions of first-year Turkish university students
This mixed method study described the language learning beliefs and self-efficacy perceptions of first-year Turkish university students engaged in learning English as a foreign language. It focused on beliefs and self-efficacy perceptions they held before and after using podcasts as language learning objects for twelve weeks, and compared the results to find out whether there was a significant change. It also focused on the description of participants? views and feelings concerning podcasts and related tasks that were covered by the program. In order to investigate learners? self-efficacy perceptions of and beliefs about foreign language learning, Turkish versions of two questionnaires were distributed to 187 Turkish university students (purposive sampling): the BALLI to investigate language learning beliefs, and the English Self-Efficacy Scale to analyze the perceived self-efficacy of English. Both instruments were given before and after the twelve-week podcast-based language learning program. Participants also filled in the Podcast Evaluation form four times during the course to express their views and feelings about repetitive listening to podcasts and doing related tasks. Sixteen participants (proportional quota sampling) were interviewed at the beginning and at the end of the course with the aim of triangulation and gaining deeper understanding of the process. The quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed rank test. The data from two rounds of interviews were analyzed by following coding procedures. Detailed analysis of data revealed that podcasts had positive effects on certain types of language learning beliefs and English self-efficacy perceptions. Descriptive analysis showed that participants had a great diversity of beliefs. Although some beliefs seemed to be interrelated and reflecting meaningful patterns, contradictory beliefs were also reported. Generally, participants had positive views about the podcasts and related tasks. However, the treatment improved self-efficacy perceptions concerning basic level skills and not advanced ones.Keywords: Podcast, Listening, Language Learning Beliefs, English Self-Efficacy Perception
A comparative investigation of lexical networks of Turkish learners of English as a foreign language: A corpus based study
The current study is composed of two main parts as descriptive and experimental. The aims are, first to determine lexical differences between texts written by Turkish EFL learners and native speakers of English, and then to make use of corpus-based language learning activities to help the learners overcome lexicon related problems. In the descriptive phase of the study, essays written by 49 Turkish EFL learners and 100 native speakers of English were compared. These essays were processed in Coh-metrix which is an online database. One of the indices in Coh-metrix, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), was used to compare lexical cohesion in learners? texts to the native ones. Statistical analyses revealed that learner essays were significantly different from native ones in referential, semantic, reading comprehensibility and syntactic aspects. Focus group interviews which were carried out with the same learner group brought to light that these differences mostly stemmed from lexicon related problems. This point was the main rationale behind the quasi-experimental phase of the study.In the quasi-experimental phase, 37 intermediate and upper-intermediate level Turkish EFL learners participated in the study. The experimental group was composed of 18 learners, and there were 19 learners in the control group. Before the treatment, both groups were given vocabulary recognition and essay writing tests. The experimental treatment included corpus-based concordancing activities. This treatment lasted for about 10 weeks, and at the end, both groups were given the same vocabulary recognition and writing test again. In order to test the delayed effects of the treatment, the same written test was given to both groups after about two weeks.Analysis results revealed that the experimental group obtained significantly better scores compared to the control group in terms of vocabulary recognition and production. However, concordancing activities did not have any significant effects on lexical cohesion in control group?s texts. As the last stage of the study, the participants were interviewed about the use of concordancing activities in language instruction. The results indicated that the majority of the participants improved positive attitudes towards these activities and found them beneficial.
A corpus-based study on Turkish EFL learners' written English: The use of adverbial connectors by Turkish learners
Investigation of interlanguage has long been an important subject of second and foreign language acquisition research. The primary goal is to provide better descriptions for SLA and its process. Computer Learner Corpus (CLC), which is a new way of thinking about learner language (Granger, 2004), offers a source of learner data suggesting empirical base for a remarkable and descriptive contributions in the field of SLA. Learner corpus is the computer texture database formed by the language produced by foreign language learners (Leech, 1998). This interlanguage corpora provides a reliable data of learners written production in order to examine the learner grammar and lexis and the main difficulties experienced by learners of English when writing an essay. Many corpus-based studies have been conducted on interlanguage investigation through learner corpora (Altenber & Tapper, 1998; Granger & Tyson, 1998; Aijmer, 2002; Housen; 2002; Neff et al., 2003; Narita et. al., 2004) to gain insight for a better understanding of learner language. In the present study, the use of adverbial connector in L2 writings of Turkish adult learners has been investigated. Adverbial connectors have been examined whether, such usage is effected by a possible transfer from mother tongue and there is a common interlanguage properties among learners from different mother tongue backgrounds. In the study, some common interlanguage properties among different EFL learners have been identified in use of adverbial connectors. In addition, some features in the use of adverbial connectors by Turkish EFL learners have been found in respect of L1 transfer.
Interlingual development of Turkish adult learners of English: L1 vs. L2-Based communication strategy use
Interlanguage (IL) is accepted as being developed by fossilizing L1 or L2 items, thus utterances produced in IL generally contain erroneous forms. These erroneous forms cause idiosyncrasies surfaced by communication strategies (CSs) which learners resort to when their linguistic repertoire does not allow them to communicate flawlessly in the target language (TL). As errors in learner language provide considerable information about second language acquisition (SLA), this issue has been one of the main focuses of SLA research. This research is designed as a developmental study aiming to investigate possible effects of exposure to the TL on the use of CSs in both speaking and writing in English. In this study, 20 Turkish learners of English were observed throughout the 2011-2012 academic year to investigate whether CS employment in speaking and writing is affected by TL exposure. The participants were chosen from beginner level, and they designated their own topics they would speak and write about. Their oral and written performances on the topics were tested at the beginning prior to instruction, in the middle and at the end of the academic year to observe whether types and functions of CSs altered over time. The findings of this study show that participants resorted to different types of CSs in their speaking and writing tasks. As the nature of speaking is different from writing, total numbers of CS employment in speaking and writing tests indicate a significant difference. The comparison of CS employment in each test shows that learners? CS preferences changed over time in both speaking and writing. The results also indicate that use of L2-based CSs increased while L1-based CSs decreased as a result of exposure to the TL. Therefore, it is concluded that exposure to the TL may have a significant effect on the preference of CSs in terms of type and function. Despite not receiving any specific CS training, learners can make use of L2-based CSs according to their needs as long as their TL repertoire allows. The findings of this study have important implications for teaching English as a foreign language in reference to effects of language exposure on the use of CSs in both oral and written performances of L2 learners.
Repetitions as communication strategies used by Turkish adult EFL learners: A cross-sectional study
Communication strategies (CSs) are coping strategies that second language learners resort to when they face a problem during their speech in their Interlanguage (IL) system. IL includes the fossilization of first language (L1) and second language (L2) rules. As a result of this fossilization, language learners develop a different system with its own structures and rules apart from their native (NL) and the target languages (TL). Since the utterances produced by second language learners have the potential to be erroneous, these learners make use of CSs to compensate for their mistakes. This notion has attracted many researchers in second language acquisition (SLA) research for the past four decades. This study was designed as a descriptive study aiming to investigate the effects of the duration of exposure to TL on the usage of repetitions as CSs in the oral narratives of 48 Turkish learners of English in the English Language Teaching (ELT) Department of Çukurova University. Twelve students from each first, second, third and fourth year were randomly selected to investigate whether their usage of repetitions as CSs got affected by their amount of exposure to TL during their university education. Making use of cross-sectional analysis, this study revealed gradual differences among types and forms of repetitions across these groups. The findings of this study show that participants resort to repetitions as CSs during communication breakdowns in their oral narratives. Regardless of the year, all the participants used vocalized fillers to gain time and self-repairs to attempt to correct their previous erroneous utterance and pronunciation, to make an explanation and to emphasize a part of speech. These results are also supported by the pilot study which was conducted for this study. The study reveals that there is no systematic effect of sole exposure on the usage of repetitions either as vocalized fillers or self-repairs across groups even though some parts of the results seem to be significant. In addition, exposure by itself has no effect on the repetitions' word classes or types as word-level, grouplevel or sentence-level. The findings of this study have important implications for teaching English as a foreign language in schools or at university level making a reference to the effects of exposure on the usage of repetitions as communication strategies. Key Words: Interlanguge; Communication Strategies; Repetitions; Exposure.
Lexical verbs in academic writings of Turkish learners of English as a second language: A corpus based study
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interlanguage features of Turkish EFL learners in academic written discourse. Acquisition and usage of lexical verbs of Academic Keyword List (AKL) (Paqout, 2010) by Turkish EFL learner will be analysed. AKL covers the non-domain specific words which entitle the characteristics of academic texts and outline the basic academic sketch of the texts. It is assumed that the level of acquisition of these words that are defined under four basic lexical categories (nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives) will reveal the students' lexical repertoires of academic vocabularies as well as interpreting lexico-grammatical attributes specific to writers. Detailed analysis of lexical verbs may help researchers to define interlanguage features of Turkish EFL learners. The scope of this study includes conducting a corpus based analysis of verbs of AKL. For the purpose of this corpus based study, at the first level, comparison of TICLE (Turkish sub-corpus of International Corpus of Learner English) and the LOCNESS (The Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays) corpus was utilised to define general lexical profile of the learners by preparing frequency based list according to usage levels of the verbs in two corpora. At the second level, a detailed analysis of 10 verbs with the highest frequency was conducted within the frame of Pattern Grammar approach. Results indicate the overuse of some specific words by non-native students while some others are underused in comparison to native speakers of English. This investigation revealed the levels of students' implicit knowledge of these particular lexical items, their awareness of register of academic verbs and to what extent they are able to put in use these items within the frame of functional lexico-grammatical usage.
The relationship between Turkish adult students' ambiguity tolerance levels and metacognitive awareness of l2 reading strategies at different English proficiency levels
Ambiguity Tolerance (AT) is regarded as one of the learner variables that can influence one's language learning performance as well as language learning strategy use. Along with this, some individual differences like gender and English proficiency level can play a vital role in affecting learners' AT level and level of language learning strategy use. This study is designed as a descriptive study and specifically aimed to investigate the relationship between Turkish adult students' AT level and Metacognitive awareness of L2 reading strategies (MARS) at different proficiency levels. The study was conducted with 195 Turkish adult learners registered in preparatory classes at Melikşah University's School of Foreign Languages. The participants were selected among A1, A2 and B1 level students using convenience sampling method. Data was collected through the Second Language Ambiguity Tolerance Survey (SLATS), the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI), and semi-structured interviews for both AT level and MARS. The findings of this study indicate that as English proficiency level increases, the level of AT increases. Even though, the AT level scores were all below the mid-point of the continuum score of the survey – meaning that all participants' AT levels are considered low - there seems to be an increase in the AT level as English proficiency increases. Secondly, the findings of this research suggest that gender has a significant effect on AT level. Based on the results of the questionnaires and interviews, male students tend to have a higher AT level compared to their female counterparts. Thirdly, a significant relationship is found between students' level of MARS and English proficiency level. Within the context of this study, even though high proficiency level students are expected to have high awareness and reading strategy use, the level of MARS tended to increase as the language proficiency level decreases. Regarding the gender effect on MARS, no significant difference is found between MARS and gender. Lastly, within the scope of this study, no significant correlation was found between students' AT level and MARS. The findings of this study also have important implications for both students and teachers. Key Words: Ambiguity tolerance, metacognitive awareness, reading strategies
Exploring the changes in Turkish university students' language learning beliefs as a result of 'Erasmus student mobility for studies programme'
This mixed method study described Turkish EFL university students' beliefs about language learning before and after the Erasmus Student Mobility for Studies (SMS) programme. It focused on the language learning beliefs they held before and after becoming an Erasmus student in a non-English speaking European country for fourteen weeks, and then compared the results to find whether there was a significant change. In order to explore learners' beliefs about language learning, data were collected using a 34-item Likert-Type scale (Horwitz's BALLI - Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory), translated and modified for the Turkish EFL students. The Inventory was distributed to 102 university students before and after the fourteen-week Erasmus SMS programme. Eleven students were interviewed upon returning to their home country in order to gain deeper understanding of the process they went through during the Erasmus SMS programme. The quantitative data were analysed by using a Paired Sample T-Test. Data derived from the interviews was analysed by following coding procedures. The results from the analysis of interview data were displayed in percentages. The quantitative and qualitative results of this study have revealed that students begin the Erasmus SMS programme with already developed beliefs regarding language learning and significant change was observed in some of their beliefs about language learning after completing the Erasmus SMS programme. Beliefs that significantly changed were specifically concerning structural difference between English and Turkish, importance of grammar in language learning, being self-conscious speaking in front of others, fear of making mistakes and opportunities to use English. The findings also have shown that Turkish exchange students' overall beliefs remained almost the same after the Erasmus SMS programme, which suggests that short-time periods spent abroad might not result in significant changes in students' beliefs. Keywords: Constructivism, beliefs about language learning, lifelong learning programme, erasmus student mobility for studies, study abroad.
An investigation into pronoun resolution of Turkish learners of English by eye-tracking technique
Although the pronoun resolution process has been investigated in L1, there are limited numbers of studies investigating L2 pronoun resolution with reference to the EFL reading comprehension process. Pronoun resolution has engaged significant attention of linguists for the last few decades, and most of the research has been done in the interpretations of reflexives, emphatically in English. However, the interpretation of pronouns has received less attention than that of reflexives (Kweon, 2011). Therefore, this study aims to meet the general need for a study to scrutinize the pronoun resolution mechanism in EFL learners with comparison to native English speakers. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to investigate first and total fixation times of pronouns in native English speakers and Turkish EFL speakers by using an eye tracking device, to specify the correlation between first and total fixation times of pronouns and perceived difficulty levels determined by participants, and finally, to disclose participants' personal comments regarding the cause of difficulty in pronoun resolution. For these purposes, both qualitative and quantitative data have been collected through various tools, such as eye-tracking recordings, matching pronouns with referents, and personal comments of participants during eye-tracking sessions. In the experiments, native English speakers and EFL learners have been asked to do a reading task as their eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracking computer set-up. In the reading task, they were asked to read statements and then match the pronoun with its referent and rate the difficulty. Meanwhile, during the eye-tracking session, participants were required to comment on their pronoun resolution preferences, difficulty of understanding, and resolving of the pronoun. The findings of Turkish EFL learners have been compared to those of the native English speaking control group. The MANOVA results suggested that there was not a statistically significant difference between the first fixation times of parallel function pronoun resolution (PFR) and non- parallel function pronoun resolution (non-PFR) in native English and Turkish EFL speakers; however, another MANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference between total fixation times of PFR and non-PFR pronoun resolution in native English and Turkish EFL speakers. Paired samples t-test results have revealed a statistically significant difference between the total fixation times of PFR and non- PFR pronoun resolution in native English speaking and Turkish EFL speaking participants. The results suggested that participants fixated significantly longer on non- PFR pronouns than on PFR pronouns. Additionally, we investigated a probable correlation between mean fixation times and personal difficulty of understanding (PDU) scores. To that end, a Pearson product moment correlation analysis conducted to find out if there is a relationship between mean first fixation times, mean total fixation times and mean PDU scores. The results suggested a positive and statistically significant correlation between the mean total fixation times and mean PDU scores. Finally, the personal comments of the participants revealed two themes underlying the difficulty of understanding: namely, lexical accounts and grammatical accounts for pronoun resolution. Keywords: English language teaching, linguistics, pronoun resolution.
A study on oral corrective feedback preferences and learning styles of Turkish efl learners
The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the preferences of EFL learners for oral corrective feedback in relation to their learning styles, and to determine whether there was a relationship between these two aspects of language learning. The research sample consisted of 348 preparatory class students who were studying English at A1, B1 and B2 levels at Gaziantep University- School of Foreign Languages in 2016-2017 academic year. A questionnaire was administered to explore oral corrective feedback preferences. The questionnaire included six sections, each of which referred to a sub-dimension of feedback preferences: (a) necessity of feedback, (b) frequency of feedback, (c) timing of feedback, (d) types of errors to be corrected, (e) types of feedback and (d) source of feedback. Learning styles of the participants were identified through Learning Style inventory developed by Kolb (1984). The data collected through these two instruments was analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 21.0). Frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation values were calculated for the analysis of the data, and a Chi-square test was employed to determine whether there was a relationship between preferences of the students for the six sub-dimensions of feedback preferences and their learning styles. Of all participants included in the study, 61 (17.5%) had diverger, 162 (46.6%) assimilator, 97 (27.9%) converger and 28 (8%) accommodator learning styles. According to the results, students believed that providing corrective feedback is necessary for their learning and they expect their teachers to provide feedback frequently. The participants had the idea that frequent and serious errors should be treated more often. Explicit feedback, clarification and elicitation were found to be the most popular types of feedback among learners. Teachers were the most favored source of feedback. When the learning styles of students were taken into consideration, it was determined that the difference between groups was not statistically significant. Overall preferences for oral corrective feedback were similar to the preferences of learners with different learning styles. This suggested that learning styles did not account for students' preference for a particular feedback type and provide an explanation in terms of learners' varied preferences for feedback. Considering proficiency levels, a significant difference among students with proficiency levels was found only in opinions about metalinguistic feedback and sources of feedback. It was concluded that the concept of learning styles may not work for every occasions and should not therefore be approached from a holistic point of view. Keywords: feedback preferences, language learning, learning styles
Pragmatic development of Turkish EFL learners in terms of speech acts: Refusals, requests, and suggestions
This study, which was designed as a descriptive one, was conducted to explore interlanguage pragmatic development of a group of EFL learners. In order to follow pragmatic development of the participants, scenarios about three speech acts, namely requests, refusals, and suggestions, were prepared and these scenarios were modified around two social variables proposed in Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory, namely Power and Ranking of imposition. In this research, the participants' interlanguage pragmatic development was followed on a regular basis around a timeline covering one academic year and two different data collection instruments, namely Discourse Completion Tests and act-outs, were employed with definite intervals during this process. At the initial phase of the study, the participants were additionally asked to complete the given scenarios in Turkish, so that it would be possible to investigate the possible influence of pragmatic transfer on their L2 productions. At the final data collection period, also semi-structured interviews were applied in order to investigate the participants' own evaluations of their production processes. This study was completed thanks to the regular participation of 16 Turkish EFL learners. The participants' strategy use along with internal and external modification productions throughout the study were analyzed statistically. Overall, the results did not indicate significant changes in the participants' productions in English in terms of pragmatic development. It was seen that the participants' strategy and modification tool preferences remained stable for specific types for each speech act throughout the study. Keywords: Interlanguage, pragmatics, speech acts, politeness
Les connecteurs logi̇ques dans les ecri̇ts argumentati̇fs des apprenants Turcs de fle et des locuteurs nati̇fs du Françai̇s: Une etude comparée
In this study, the purpose is evaluating the use of the connectors in written expression classes and substitutive texts by Turkish students studying French as a foreign language at higher educational institutions in Turkey as a grammatical problem in frequency, variety and suitability in a French-Turkish comparative manner. The population consists of the students studying at Adana Çukurova University, Educational Faculty, Foreign Languages, French Department, and the students from Rouen University, Philology Department. The data of the study were obtained by comparing the connectors in the substitutive texts, and the connectors used by award-winning Turkish and French authors after 2000s in France and Turkey. The study is both qualitative and quantitative. It was observed that the connectors used by Turkish students in Turkish substitutive texts showed similarity and overlapped when compared with the connectors used in Turkish works that received awards in terms of frequency and variety, and there were grammatical mistakes on suitability. It was observed in French substitutive texts that the connectors used by Turkish students showed similarity and overlapped on variety when compared with the connectors used in the works that received awards; however, there were grammatical mistakes on frequency and suitability. It was concluded that, when the connectors used by French students in the texts and the connectors used by Turkish students were compared, the grammatical mistakes showed similarity and overlapped on variety (successful) and suitability; however, did not show similarity and overlap on usage frequency. Keywords: Substitutive text, connectors, frequency, variety, suitability
Enhancing oral skills of Turkish adult learners of English through self-transcription method: A case study
The purpose of the present study was to promote oral skills of non-native adult learners of English language through self-transcribing and editing of their own speeches, and reflecting upon them. While the focus of the study was on enhancing learners' speaking skills, it also aimed at helping them notice their weaknesses, strengths and encouraging them to take responsibility for their own learning and bringing them one step closer to be autonomous learners. The study was conducted in English Preparatory Program of a private university in Turkey. The learners were from different departments; however they had to join one-year English preparation program since it was obligatory for all learners. The number of learners who took part in the study was 13. The data were collected in three steps. The first one was through transcriptions and self-reflection forms. Each week, learners spoke on given topics in pairs or as individuals, they transcribed them, and edited their transcriptions with their partners. Then, they had a short feedback session in which the researcher guided them and checked what they had done. When the feedback session was completed, participants filled out a self-reflection form each week. At the end of the term, the researcher had interviews with 11 participants individually to evaluate the whole process and to get feedback about the study. The researcher analyzed transcriptions, self-reflection forms, and interviews. The data revealed that self-transcribing had positive effects on learners' speaking skills to some extent. In addition to the contribution to their speaking skills, this activity enhanced participants' self-evaluation skills. Interviews also demonstrated that all participants appreciated the effects of self-transcribing on their learning, and this also gave them self-confidence to speak English more. All of them developed positive attitudes toward transcribing activity, and were able to see different dimensions of learning, and had an opportunity to look their own learning process from various perspectives.
Türk üniversite öğrencilerinin Fransızca öznellik kipi edinimi
Bu çalışma, Türk öğrencilerin Fransızca öğrenim sürecinde karşılaştıkları zorlukların dilsel boyutunun öznellik (fr. Subjonctif) kipi bağlamında karşıtsal bir yaklaşımla incelenmesini konu edinmektedir. Söz konusu kipin hem öğrenimi hem aktarımı karşılaşılan en önemli sorunlardan biridir. Bu sorun, sadece söz konusu kipin çekimiyle ilgili değil, aynı zamanda ve belki daha çok, kullanım alanlarının tam olarak kavranamamasından kaynaklanıyor olmalıdır. Kullanım alanlarının öğrencinin ana dilindekiyle birebir örtüşmemesi de bir başka güçlüktür. Gerçekten, Fransızca öznellik kipi öğreniminin gerek öğrenciler gerekse eğitimciler için güçlük çekilen konuların başındadır. Bu zorluğun temelinde yatan etkenin ise, diller arasındaki farklılıklardan kaynaklanıyor olduğunu düşünmekteyiz. Uygulamalı dilbilimin karşıtsal dilbilim alanına giren bu çalışmada, Fransızca öznellik kipi ile Türkçede eşdeğeri olan tasarlama kipleri karşıtsal bir yaklaşımla incelenmektedir. Öznellik kipinin biçimsel, işlevsel, anlamsal ve sözdizimsel olarak Türk üniversite öğrencilerine farklı olduğu görüşü ileri sürülmekte ve farklılıkların, öğrenim sürecinde sebep olduğu zorluklar araştırılmaktadır. Bu çalışma, nicel araştırma tekniği çerçevesinde değerlendirilmiştir. Veri toplamada, sormaca tekniği kullanılmış, sayısal veriler elde edilmiş ve analizleri yapılmıştır. Söz konusu sormaca; olgusal, tutum ve bilgi sorularından olmak üzere 37 sorudan oluşturulmuştur. Bu sormacadan elde edilen verilere göre, dilsel benzerlikler öğrenimi kolaylaştırmakta, farklılıklar ise, zorlaştırmaktadır. Fransızca öğrenirken en zor konulardan birinin öznellik kipi olduğu saptanmıştır. Bu kipin kullanımı ve fiilin öznellik kipindeki çekimi, öğrenimini zorlaştırdığı anlaşılmıştır. Öğrencilerin öznellik kipi kullanım alanlarını iyi bilmedikleri saptanmış ve bu sorunun da önemli bir zorluğa neden olduğu belirlenmiştir. Türk üniversite öğrencileri için öznellik kipinin, tamamen yabancı öğe (fr. Xénité) özelliği taşımadığı gibi tamamen aynılık özelliği de taşımadığı anlaşılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Uygulamalı dilbilim, karşıtsal dilbilim, dil edinimi, dil öğretimi, öznellik kipi.
Problematik der lernersprache von Türkischen studenten im lernprozess von Deutsch als zweite fremdsprache
In der vorliegenden Studie wurden die Lernersprache und deren Ursachen recherchiert, die von Lernern an der Hochschule für Fremdsprachen der Trakya Universität in den Vorbereitungsklassen für Deutsch entwickelt worden sind. An dieser Hochschule wird das Deutsche intensiv zwei Semester unterrichtet. Um diese Studie durchführen zu können, wurden aus den Vorbereitungsklassen für Deutsch insgesamt 30 Lerner ausgewählt, von denen 10 Lerner an der Abteilung für Deutschübersetzen der Literaturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät und 20 Lerner an der Abteilung für Deutschlehrerausbildung der Erziehungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät immatrikuliert sind. Bei dieser Auswahl wurden die Motivationen der Lerner für Deutsch berücksichtigt. Um die Lernersprache der Probanden festzustellen, wurden jeweils eine Frage auf den Sprachniveaus A1, A2 und B1 der Schreibprüfungen durch die kontrastive Fehleranalyse untersucht und deskriptiv interpretiert. Demzufolge wurden insgesamt 50 Fehlerarten festgestellt, von denen die 21 Fehlerarten auf dem Sprachniveau A1, die 15 Fehlerarten auf dem Sprachniveau A2 und die 14 Fehlerarten auf dem Sprachniveau B1 auftauchen. Kriterium für diese Fehleranalyse ist die Beantwortung der Prüfungsfragen mit einfachen Sätzen. Nach gesammelten Daten wurden festgestellt, dass die Lerner eher von früher gelernten ersten Fremdsprache als Englisch profitieren. Demgemäß wurde die Entwicklung der Lernersprache im Lernprozess des Deutschen als zweite Fremdsprache beschleunigt. Die Lernstrategien der Probanden wurden mit einer fünf-stufigen Likert-Skala-Befragung über die Sprachlernstrategien, die von Oxford (1990) entwickelt wurden, festgelegt, um die Entwicklung der Lernersprache von Lernern zu untersuchen. Die gesammelten Daten wurden durch SPSS-Paketprogramm statistisch analysiert. Da die Probanden aus zwei unabhängigen Variablen bestehen, wurde der parameterfreie t-Test durch Mann-Whitney U Test ausgerechnet, und der Signifikanzwert wurde als (p<0.05) berechnet. Um den parameterfreien t-Test der gepaarten Stichproben auszurechnen, wurde der Wilcox on-Test verwendet. Nach den gesammelten vortestlichen Daten wurde festgelegt, dass die Probanden dieselben Lernstrategien, die sie im Lernprozess des Englischen als erste Fremdsprache verwendet haben, auch im Lernprozess des Deutschen bevorzugen. Eine Präsentation über die Sprachlernstrategien wurde von der Forscherin erstellt und nach zwei Wochen nach der vortestlichen Befragung mit Beispielen aus dem Lehrwerk präsentiert. Zwei Wochen später nach dieser Präsentation wurde dieselbe Befragung über die Sprachlernstrategien nochmals als Nachtest durchgeführt. Nach gesammelten Daten wurden festgelegt, dass die Verwendungsebenen der Strategien und die Reihenfolge der häufig gebrauchten Strategien der Probanden geändert worden sind. Durch diese Veränderung ging die Entwicklung der Lernersprache langsamer, und somit wurde die Anzahl der Fehlerarten reduziert. Als Schlussfolgerung wurde betont, dass das Lernen durch die analogen Strukturen zwischen den Sprachen auch in negativer Hinsicht beeinflusst werden könnten. Daher sollten im Lernprozess des Deutschen unterschiedlichere Strategien als im Lernprozess des Englischen entwickelt werden.
Utilization of affective strategies by domestic and international students in english speaking classes of Turkish universities
Accompanied by the newly emerging circumstances and rapidly increasing requirements of a globalizing world, language learning and teaching has always been in the limelight. It is a field in which there is great amount of research to help students and teachers overcome hardships and foster their experiences in language. Compared to other skills, speaking in another language is most challenging for students, which deserves much attention. Along with cognitive, personal and social elements, affective factors like motivation, confidence, attitude and anxiety also play a significant role in performing speaking. Individuals learn a language if they receive intelligible input and if their affective filter is low enough to permit them to do so. In studies made in this area, learners state that their speaking performances are hindered because a mental block prevents them from speaking fluently and accurately when they feel unmotivated, anxious or insecure. It is therefore important to come up with strategies to facilitate the process for both students and teachers. This study aims at finding affective variables faced by intermediate level domestic – Turkish – and international students in the classes of intensive English program at universities in Turkey in speaking English in class and thus explore different affective strategies that they use in lowering their affective filter, with its correlation to their achievement through their speaking grades. The study also highlights the difference between domestic – Turkish – and international English teachers in using affective strategies to help students combat negative feelings in learning and speaking English. In this way, it intends to help students and teachers from both sides see what other strategies are employed by those from a different background, society, culture and nationality for the promotion of speaking, and give insight into their implementations. As a result, the study, which was carried out with intermediate level 30 domestic – Turkish – and 30 international students, along with 15 domestic – Turkish – and 15 international English language teachers, shows that the international students have higher values in affective factors like self-confidence, motivation, and attitude in speaking English in class than the domestic students. Likewise, their speaking scores and affective strategy use are ahead of those of Turkish students. As for the teachers' part, it concludes that the international teachers are more frequent users of affective strategies than the domestic teachers. Keywords: English speaking skill, affective filter, affective factors, affective strategies
Wortschatzdidaktik unter besonderer berücksichtigung der kollokationen. erweiterung der produktiven lexikalischen kompetenz bei fortgeschrittenen Türkischen deutschlernern
Kollokationen, die im Allgemeinen als solche Wortverbindungen definiert werden, die aus wenigstens zwei Wörtern bestehen, deren syntaktisches Miteinandervorkommen durch Sprachkonvention bestimmt wird, haben eine bedeutende Rolle bei der aktiven sprachlichen Kompetenz von Muttersprachlern. Deswegen stellen sie auch für die Fremdsprachenlerner bei der Erweiterung der lexikalischen Kompetenz und infolgedessen auch bei dem natürlichen, flüssigen Produzieren der Sprache eine große Bedeutung dar. Kontrastiv betrachtet weisen interlinguale Kollokationen meistens große Unterschide auf. Deutsch und Türkisch sind jeweils Sprachen, zwischen denen im Rahmen der Kollokationen große Unterschiede auftreten. Während Muttersprachler des Deutschen bei Erwerb und aktivem Gebrauch der Kollokationen keine Schwierigkeit haben, bereiten diese zweier Wortverbindungen durch ihre Unauffälligkeit den türkischen Deutschlernern beim aktiven und natürlichen Gebrauch große Probleme. Aus diesem Grund ist es unbedingt erforderlich, bei den Lernenden kollokationsbezogene Bewusstheit zu gewährleisten und im Rahmen der Wortschatzdidaktik eine kollokationsbezogene Didaktik mit spezifischen Übungen und Aufgaben, die die Struktur des mentalen Lexikons stützen, zur Anwendung zu bringen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit besteht darin, die Kollokationen aus der strukturellen und syntaktischen Sicht zu untersuchen, deren Relationen zum mentalen Lexikon im Rahmen der kognitiven Linguistik zu bestimmen und die Effizienz der hiernach entwickelten Lehrintervention, Kollokationsübungen und –aufgaben auf produktiver Wortschatzentwicklung und auf dem adäquaten, natürlichen und flüssigeren Sprachgebrauch offen darzulegen.