EFL teachers' research engagement at a private university

The main aim of this study is to find research engagement level of English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers at Ozyegin University by reading published academic materials in the literature or doing teacher research, and the motives behind this engagement level. In addition, the research culture of the institution's relevant department, and how teachers perceive this culture was also aimed to be reported at the end of the study. Lastly, apart from the institutional research culture, EFL teachers' perception regarding what research is another issue addressed by the study. To achieve the goals of the study, fifty-five EFL teachers from with different backgrounds, years of teaching experiences and majors participated in the study. The participants were given a Likert type questionnaire adapted from Borg & Liu (2013) to get data of their background information, research engagement level, and institutional and personal research cultures. The questionnaire was followed by an e-mail interview for further exploration. After analyzing the both quantitative and qualitative data, the study showed that even though EFL teachers at Ozyegin University engage with and in research, their perception regarding teacher research or in other words teacher as a researcher were not quite parallel to the teacher research studied as a concept in the literature. To better the institutional and professional conditions, the reasons suggested by the study could be investigated.