Meslek yüksekokulu öğrencilerinin zorunlu İngilizce derslerine ilişkin görüşleri: Öğrenciler ne düşünüyor?

The aim of this study is to find out the opinions of vocational college students about the contribution of the compulsory English courses to their future professional and daily lives and the usefulness and the necessity of these courses. This study was conducted in the university the researcher was working for. There were 16 participants in this study, 8 of them were in the Electronic Communication department and 8 of them were in the Social Security department. All participants were first-year students at Düzce Vocational College, Düzce University, and they voluntarily participated in the study. The data were gathered through document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Document analysis was used for three purposes: these are to identify the types of high school students graduated from, the grade they obtained in the first-term compulsory English courses, and to place them into groups according to their grades. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by each student individually on different dates and in Turkish. Four open-ended questions were asked to obtain participants' opinions about the characteristics of successful, average, and weak students' in the vocational college in terms of their performance in English classes, the contribution of the English courses in college to their future professional and daily lives, the usefulness and the necessity of those courses. The information gathered through document analysis reveal that "average" is the term which define student performance in the compulsory English courses in vocational college and an "average" student is the one who is able to answer enough number of multiple-choice grammar, vocabulary, and reading items on the tests correctly to achieve a passing grade. Contrary to the general expectation that the graduates of Anatolian high school types would be more successful in English courses, the findings of this study showed that the leading students in the successful and average groups were graduates of non-Anatolian high school types, and that one of the two students in the weak group was a graduate of an Anatolian high school type. These results showed that the type of high school was not a factor in the English achievement of the participating vocational college students. The students' answers to the interview questions firstly showed that all students considered themselves weak in terms of the productive skill of speaking as they could at best speak English only at word or phrase level, using memorized items. The majority of the students, regardless of their department, mentioned that the English courses in college would contribute to their future professional lives. However, the students in the Electronic Communication and Social Security departments stated different reasons to explain their opinions about the contribution of the English courses. Nearly all of the students did not find the English courses in vocational college useful. They stated that the courses were either "not useful at all" or "not very useful". They stated that the content of the English courses was repetitive, and, therefore, they were not able to learn any new English. The majority of the students found the English courses in college necessary. However, the students in the EC and SS groups stated different reasons for the necessity.