Türk ingilizce öğretmenlerinin TEOG sınavının İngilizce bölümünün öğretim plan ve uygulamalarına geri etkisine yönelik algıları

The primary aim of the present study is to find out how Turkish EFL teachers perceive the washback effects of English language section of TEOG exam on their instructional planning and practices regarding the dimensions of teaching content, methods, materials, syllabus, time arrangement and activities and classroom assessment practices, and how they actually teach at 8th-grade level. The second aim is to reveal to what extent the teacher and school-related factors (gender, school location, years of experience, academic degree, departments they graduated and class size) can interplay in the teachers' perceptions. Through random sampling, 97 8th-grade EFL teachers participated in the questionnaire survey, of whom 15 joined the semi-structured interviews while another 10 teachers were observed to gather data at public schools in different cities in Turkey. Quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews and classroom observation) data collection methods were performed to triangulate the data. The quantitative data were analysed through SPSS (23. version) and content analysis was carried out for the qualitative data. The findings demonstrated that English section of TEOG exam generated mostly negative washback on teaching content, materials, syllabus, methods, activity and time arrangement and classroom assessment practices. Positive washback was found only on teaching reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. As for the second aim, the teacher and school-related factors revealed no statistically significant differences in the teachers' perceptions of the washback effects of the exam except the choice of teaching methods were found to vary based upon where teachers work, that is their school location (.021, p<.05). As for the interview findings, teacher-related factors: prestige and feeling of responsibility and school-related factors: limited class hours, large class size, pressure put by stakeholders, discipline and students' low level proficiency were found to interplay in teachers' perceptions at different degrees. As also revealed in the interviews, most of the teachers were aware of the negative effects of the TEOG on their instructional planning and practices as well as the learners' English language proficiency, and they thus suggested improvements in the format and content of the examination towards the design of a communicative test involving four language skills. The present study revealed the mismatch among what the national ELT curriculum demands from the teachers, what actually the teachers perceived of the curricular and exam objectives, and how they actually taught. Finally, several implications were given for EFL teachers, Ministry of National Education and the design of TEOG as well as the suggestions made for further research.