Learners' perceptions in the evaluation of an ESP course

Ankara : The Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University, 1992.Includes bibliographical references leaves 86-87.An ESP course is designed to prepare the learners for a future career or to satisfy a particular educational need. The determination of whether the needs have been satisfied or not can be done through course evaluation. This is an important aspect of the evaluation of an ESP course since it helps to assess whether the course objectives are being met. Since all courses are based on a perceived need of some sort, learners' perceptions are essential for such an evaluation. Former students' perceptions, however, are more valuable since they are in the target situation for which they have been prepared. The purpose of this study was to identify former students' perceptions of their ESP course given at BILKENT University School of English Language (BUSEL). The subjects of the study were students who had finished their language training at BUSEL and were in their freshman year of their current major field. The study required giving a questionnaire to 212 subjects from this specific population. Structured interviews were also conducted with 16 subjects since the data collected through questionnaire were not sufficient to draw conclusions. The questionnaire and the interview were divided into three sections, each of which was prepared to get different kinds of information. The first section identified whether the subjects had taken an ESP course or not. The second section identified subjects' perception of their ESP course and information was collected on reading, listening, speaking, writing and vocabulary skill areas. The third section identified subjects' perceived need for an ESP course if they had not taken one. The results were analyzed first by field of study and then the data were compiled. The data were analyzed first by identifying the number of subjects who had taken and not taken an ESP course at BUSEL and their perceptions. Second, the mean scores of the rating of skill areas of the students who perceived the ESP course that they took as helpful were calculated. Third, the activities that they found helpful in preparing them for their field of study were identified. Then, the reasons for the course being helpful by skill area were identified and frequencies were tabulated in the compiled data. Finally, the reasons for the course not being helpful were identified. The results of the research indicate that the students' needs at BILKENT University in the ESP course taken at BUSEL are not being fully met. It was also noted that the subjects who took ESP but perceived the course as not helpful were not against taking the ESP course but were critical of what was taught in the course. The findings of the experiment should be of interest to all those involved in the teaching of ESP.Demirbulak, DilaraM.S

Young Learners' Attitudes and Motivation towards Learning English in terms of Dörnyei’s Theory of Motivation

This study tries to explore young learners' attitudes and motivation towards learning English via Dörnyei’s motivational self-system. Designed as a qualitative study, the study employs interview schedules and an observation checklist that were adopted from Dörnyei and Csizer (2006) and a questionnaire designed by Ryan (2005). The data collection tools were, then, developed by the advisor and the researcher of the study upon expert opinion. The study was carried out with 57 primary school second-grade students from a state primary school in both face-to-face and online settings. The data were analyzed by thematic content analysis and coding via the Nvivo program. According to the results of the study, a positive learning environment and activities are significant factors that have an impact on young learners' attitudes and motivation to learn English. Regardless of the teaching environment, students' attitudes were mainly positive towards learning English and they were intrinsically motivated. This is especially important in countries where English proficiency is not as high as expected. &nbsp

İngilizce Öğretiminde Bağımsız Çalışma Planlarının Kullanımı

It is necessary for university students to work independently outside class hours in order to fulfill university requirements. In principle, self-study develops and reinforces active participation of the students in their own learning. However, students usually face difficulties in starting self-study. In order to facilitate students' independent study skills, various types of support can be provided by the teachers. An "Independent Study Plan " is one means to help students to study independently in their own time. It is also useful in motivating students, enabling standards for effective time/study management, improving teacher-student interaction, determining student needs and in return preparing supplementary materials. The results of the study, conducted in an English language school of an English-medium university, revealed that the students were in need of study plans which would show how and what to study for their education.Üniversite öğrencilerinin ders saatleri dışında bireysel olarak çalışmaları gerekmektedir. Çünkü bireysel çalışma öğrencinin sağlıklı gelişimini sağlar. Ancak, öğrenciler bu konuda nasıl çalışacaklarını bilmediklerinden yakınırlar. Bu bağlamda öğrencilere muhtelif yardımlar sağlanabilir. Bireysel Çalışma Planı'nın geliştirilmesi öğrenciye yol göstermesi açısından önemlidir. Bu planın geliştirilmesi ayrıca öğrenci motivasyonunu arttırma, zamanı iyi kullanma, ihtiyaçların belirlenmesi ve öğrenci-öğretmen ilişkisinin geliştirilmesi açısından yararlıdır. İngilizce eğitim veren bir üniversitenin hazırlık okulunda gerçekleştirilen çalışma, öğrencilerin neyi nasıl çalışacaklarının belirlenmesinde yardıma ihtiyaçları olduğunu göstermiştir. Bu ihtiyacın giderilmesinde öğretmen ve öğrenci tarafından geliştirilen Bireysel Çalışına Planı'nın etkili bir yöntem olduğu görülmüştür

A Qualitative study on identifying the perceptions of the students, parents' advisors, school counselors about their interaction in the credit system at secondary school level

Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra

The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students

Developing translation students’ critical writing skills is an important issue in academia since they are expected to be critical thinkers and contribute to the field of study. The most important precursor of critical writing is critical reading which is an active, probing, and recursive approach to interpret and use the information and ideas from the text. Meanwhile, keeping in mind the vast explosion of mass media products and technology, critical viewing is unavoidable serving the same purpose of hard-copy texts. Moreover, in recent years, the role of literature as the main component and material of its original texts has accelerated as a teaching of critical thinking and writing rather than a final goal. This paper aims to examine the effect of critical viewing and reading of literary texts on the critical writing skills of undergraduates of the Department of Translation and Interpreting. “Ennis - Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test”, designed by Ennis and Weir in 1985, was used to identify the impact of critical viewing and reading on critical writing skills. In this quasi-experimental study ANOVA, Kruskal- Wallis, and T-test were used to analyze the impact of critical viewing and reading on the critical writing skills of the 30 undergraduates

Determining the Opinions of Education Faculty Teacher Candidates on the Application for Online Courses

This study aimed to determine the opinions of teacher candidates about distance learning in online courses using a survey designed for this purpose. The researchers designed a questionnaire, titled “The opinion of teacher candidates about distance learning in online courses survey instrument” to collect quantitative data from teacher candidates (n= 1056, 55.3% females) who lived in urban, rural, and suburban areas in Turkey. The original version of the survey consisted of 30 items. The authors of this article used the snowball data collection method to collect data. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage analysis were applied for the items in the data collection tool. In response to the first research question of the research, most male and female candidates indicated that they could use the Internet continuously wherever they were. Approximately two-thirds of female and male candidates remarked Internet outages as more hardware problems during class participation. As for the second research question, most of the candidates stated that they had limited internet access at home and could use it continuously on a daily basis

Young Learners' Attitudes and Motivation Towards Learning English in Terms of Dörnyei's Theory of Motivation

This study tries to explore young learners' attitudes and motivation towards learning English via Dörnyei's motivational self-system. Designed as a qualitative study, the study employs interview schedules and an observation checklist that were adopted from Dörnyei and Csizer (2006) and a questionnaire designed by Ryan (2005). The data collection tools were, then, developed by the advisor and the researcher of the study upon expert opinion. The study was carried out with 57 primary school second-grade students from a state primary school in both face-to-face and online settings. The data were analyzed by thematic content analysis and coding via the Nvivo program. According to the results of the study, a positive learning environment and activities are significant factors that have an impact on young learners' attitudes and motivation to learn English. Regardless of the teaching environment, students' attitudes were mainly positive towards learning English and they were intrinsically motivated. This is especially important in countries where English proficiency is not as high as expected. &nbsp