To investigate the points of view of the students of İstanbul Technical University on different skills emphasized in the advanced English program

The main aim of this research is to investigate the points of view of the students on reading, writing, speaking and listening skills emphasized in the Advanced English program and to assess the Advanced English program at different levels in Istanbul Technical University. The participants consisted of 381 students who completed the 9 credit Advanced English program in the spring term of the academic year 2005-2006. The research is a descriptive model. The data is gathered by a questionnaire which contains 34 questions addressing the students. The questionnnaire is made up of two parts. The first part contains demographic information about the students and the second part contains 31 items related with the four language skills developed in the Advanced English courses. In order to investigate the different dimensions of the reseach, the mean and the frequency calculations based on the opinions of the students were transferred into charts. One-way variance in interrelated groups (ANOVA) was used to find out the differences at different levels. The results indicate that there is a significant discrepancy between the opinions of students about the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills emphasized at different levels in the Advanced English courses. Moreover, the most challenging language skill is the speaking skill. Finally, the communicative language teaching approach needs to be utilized in the redesign of the program in order to achieve the required level in four language skills fulfilling the students demands. Key words: Advanced English course, lower group, upper group, reading skill, writing skill, speaking skill, listening skill.