Stancetaking in spoken ELF discourse in academic settings: Interpersonal functions of i don’t know as a face-maintaining strategy

Our study examines interpersonal functions enacted through a stance marker in spoken ELF academic discourse. We specifically focus on investigating the functions of I don’t know in an academic speech event by embracing an interpersonal pragmatics and sociolinguistics perspective to figure out how it contributes to the act of stancetaking as an intersubjective activity. We have examined 14 interactions of doctoral defense discussions from the ELFA corpus. Our detailed discourse analysis of these doctoral defense discussions has revealed five distinctive interpersonal functions of the stance marker I don’t know allowing speakers to construct their stance and adopt a face-maintaining strategy in the ongoing spoken discourse: prefacing a suggestion, seeking acceptance, hedging/mitigating, checking agreement, and expressing uncertainty. Considering the highly-context dependent and context-regenerated functions of I don’t know, our study attempts to delve into the relational and interpersonal aspect of communication, and thus contributes to research in this strand by disclosing the interpersonal functions of stancetaking as an intersubjective activity with a particular focus on ELF academic discourse.WOS:000641203100025Scopus - Affiliation ID: 6010507Emerging Sources Citation IndexArticleUluslararası işbirliği ile yapılmayan - HAYIRMart2021YÖK - 2020-2

Accuracy order in L2 grammatical morphemes: Corpus evidence from different proficiency levels of Turkish learners of English

The present study empirically scrutinizes the fixed natural order of grammatical morphemes relying on a manual analysis of an EFL learner corpus. Specifically, we test whether the accuracy order of L2 grammatical morphemes in the case of L1 Turkish speakers of English deviates from Krashen’s (1977) natural order and whether proficiency levels play a role in the order of acquisition of these morphemes. With this in mind, we focus on the (in)accuracy of nine English grammatical morphemes with 2883 cases manually tagged by the UAM Corpus Tool in the written exam scripts of Turkish learners of English. The results based on target-like use scores provide evidence for deviation from what is widely believed to be a set order of acquisition of these grammatical morphemes by second language learners. In light of such findings, we challenge the view that the internally driven processes of mastering grammatical morphemes in English for interlanguage users are largely independent of their L1. Regardless of L2 grammar proficiency in our data, the observed accuracy of some morphemes ranked low in comparison with the so-called natural order. These grammatical morphemes were almost exclusively non-existent features in participants’ mother tongue (e.g., third person singular –s, articles and the irregular past tense forms), thus suggesting the influence of L1 in this respect

'Europeanization' of the Turkish political system and the evolution of civil-military relations in the Post-Helsinki era

After the Helsinki Summit in 1999, Turkey has undergone a process of reform in order to satisfy the Copenhagen criteria which were the precondition for launching ‘accession negotiations’ with the European Union. Thanks to various constitutional amendments and ‘harmonization packages’, Turkey managed to adjust its domestic political structure in line with the European standards on the basis of Copenhagen criteria. Superior position of the Turkish military in civil-military relations was one of the most serious problems that needed to be targeted in the post-Helsinki era. As the ‘guardian’ of Turkish Republic, military has always had a privileged place in the Turkish polity. However, this thesis proposes that, as a result of series of institutional reforms, especially the ones concerning National Security Council, authority of the military over civil agencies has been weakened. In other words, civilianization and democratization process of the Turkish political system in the context of ‘Europeanization’ has given birth to re-arrangement of civil-military relations in favor of the former. This thesis explains the reformation process through harmonization packages and analyzes the underlying reasons how and why the Turkish military, a very powerful actor in the Turkish political arena, has accepted its loss of power vis-à-vis the civilians

Editorial Note: Letter from Editors-in-Chief

On behalf of the editorial board, it is our privilege and great pride to announce the launch and the very first issue of our journal 'Focus on ELT' (FELT). Devoted to and focused on solely to the English language teaching and learning, FELT is an open source journal and accepts articles written from a theoretical or applied perspective with the possible applications to the field of English language teaching and learning. To make FELT a high-calibre scientific publication venue, we have the following principles while accepting studies to the journal: FELT publishes fully refereed high-quality original research articles and studies for the benefit of teachers and researchers in the field of English Language Teaching. FELT accepts articles written from a theoretical or applied perspective with the possible applications to the field of English language teaching and learning. FELT follows stringent publication ethics and all submissions are undergone rigorous plagiarism check. If there is an issue with plagiarism in any of the submissions, these papers are withdrawn at any state of the publication process

Öğretme Yaklaşımları Envanterinin Türkçe’ye Uyarlanması ve Türkiye’deki Öğretim Elemanlarının Öğretme Yaklaşımlarının İncelenmesi

The aim of this research is to adapt the Approaches to Teaching Inventory into Turkish culture and analyze the teaching approaches of academics working at education faculties in terms of various variables. In the light of this aim, two subsequent sub studies were conducted. In the first phase of the study, the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) was adapted to Turkish culture. During the adaptation phase, language equivalence was analyzed both through interviews conducted with foreign language experts and through the correlation scores between the original and the Turkish forms. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis which was conducted on data gathered from 140 academics working at 35 different education faculties in Turkey confirmed the two-factor model of ATI as student centered and teacher centered. Reliability studies of ATI were carried out through Cronbach α, and McDonald ω coefficients and results revealed that ATI has the appropriate psychometric properties to be used in Turkish studies. In the second phase of the study, 185 academics working at 31 different education faculties were reached and their teaching approaches were analyzed based on the level of the course, number of students in their classes, their academic titles, and seniority variables. As a result of the analysis, it was found that academics adopted a more teacher-focused approach to teaching at undergraduate level courses whereas they adopted a more student-focused approach to teaching at graduate level courses. It was also found in terms of class size that academics adopted a more teacher-focused approach to teaching when the class size exceeded 20 students. In addition, in terms of academic titles, associate professors adopted a more student focused teaching approach compared to lecturer doctors and research assistant doctors. Moreover, a negative and weak relationship was found between seniority and teacher focused approach to teaching.Bu araştırmanın amacı, Öğretme Yaklaşımları Envanteri’nin Türk kültürüne uyarlanması ve eğitim fakültelerinde görev yapan öğretim elemanlarının öğretme yaklaşımlarının farklı değişkenlere göre incelenmesidir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda birbirini takip eden iki alt çalışma yürütülmüştür. Araştırmanın ilk aşamasında Öğretme Yaklaşımları Envanteri-ÖYE (Approaches to Teaching Inventory-ATI) Türk kültürüne uyarlanmıştır. Uyarlama sürecinde dilsel eşdeğerlik hem yabancı dil eğitimi uzmanları ile yapılan görüşmeler ile hem de özgün form ile Türkçe formdan elde edilen puanlar arasındaki korelasyon üzerinden incelenmiştir. Türkçe formun 35 farklı kurumda görev yapmakta olan toplam 140 öğretim elemanına uygulanması ile elde edilen veriler üzerinden gerçekleştirilen doğrulayıcı faktör analizi sonuçları ÖYE’nin öğretmen merkezli ve öğrenci merkezli olmak üzere iki faktörlü modeli ile veri uyumunun sağlandığını göstermiştir. Güvenirliği Cronbach α, McDonald ω katsayıları ve test – tekrar test yöntemleri ile incelenen ÖYE’nin Türkiye’de yapılacak çalışmalarda kullanılmaya uygun psikometrik özelliklere sahip olduğu görülmüştür. Çalışmanın ikinci aşamasında ise 31 farklı kurumda görev yapmakta olan toplam 185 öğretim elemanına ulaşılmış ve verilen dersin düzeyi, sınıftaki öğrenci sayısı, akademik unvan ve kıdem değişkenlerine göre incelemeler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Analizler sonucunda lisans düzeyindeki derslerde öğretmen merkezli, lisansüstü düzeydeki derslerde ise öğrenci merkezli yaklaşımların baskın olduğu görülmüştür. Sınıf büyüklüğüne göre yapılan karşılaştırmalarda, öğrenci sayısının 20’nin üzerine çıktığı durumlarda öğretmen merkezli yaklaşımın; unvana göre yapılan karşılaştırmalarda ise Doç. Dr. unvanına sahip öğretim elemanlarının öğrenci merkezli yaklaşımı Öğr. Gör. Dr. / Arş. Gör. Dr. unvanına sahip öğretim elemanlarına göre daha baskın bir şekilde sergiledikleri ve mesleki kıdem ile öğretmen merkezli yaklaşım alt boyutu puanları arasında negatif ve zayıf bir ilişkinin bulunduğu görülmüştür

THE EVALUATION OF ETIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN URTICARIA

Amaç: Urtikarya sık görülen, tanısı kolay konulabilen ancak oldukça değişken etyolojik faktörlerin saptanmasının zor olduğu bir dermatozdur. Bu çalışmada kliniğimizde urtikarya tanısıyla izlenmiş olan hastalarda saptanan etyolojik faktörlerin değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Gereç ve yöntem: Bu retrospektif çalışmada 2000-2007 yılları arasında Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Dermatoloji Kliniği'nde yatarak tedavi gören urtikarya tanısı almış 127 olguda saptanan etyolojik etmenler araştırılmıştır. Bulgular: Ayrıntılı anamnez ve etyolojiye yönelik yapılan tetkikler sonucunda özellikle gıdalar, ilaçlar ve infeksiyonlar olmak üzere 92 (%72,4) hastada en az 1 veya daha fazla olası tetikleyici etken saptanırken, 35 (%27,6) hastada tetikleyici etken saptanamamıştır. Sonuç: Çalışmada elde edilen bulgular ışığında; urtikaryalı olguların değerlendirilmesinde infeksiyonlar, ilaçlar ve gıdalar başta olmak üzere olası tetikleyici faktörlerin alınacak ayrıntılı anamnezde yer almasının önemi vurgulanmıştır. Objective: Urticaria is a common skin disease which is easily diagnosed. In contrast to the ease of its diagnosis, the underlying etiologic factors are often difficult to determine. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the etiologic factors in patients with urticaria who were followed-up by our clinic. Material and method: In this retrospective study; 127 in-patients with urticaria who were followed up in Dokuz Eylül University Medical School Department of Dermatology between the years 2000-2007 were re-evaluated to outline the established etiologic factors. Results: Detailed anamnesis and laboratory investigations revealed at least one etiological factor in 92 (72.4%) patients, especially foods, drugs and infections. On the other hand 35 (27.6%) patients had no associating triggering factors. Conclusion: In this study, the importance of a detailed history regarding triggering factors such as infections, drugs and foods in the evaluation of patients with urticaria was emphasized