Learners’ Perceptions of Translation in English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) at University Level

Translation can be used as a learning strategy by students who learn their academic subjects through English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI). The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of students towards the use of translation at university level courses offered in English at various departments. This qualitative research characterized as a case study consists of an interview developed to interpret how students relate translation to developing subject matter knowledge. The data were collected through written interviews with students of international relations, political science, international trade and marketing, and business administration. The data were analyzed using qualitative methods and suggest that most students turn to translation as a tool for both understanding the subject matter and learning new vocabulary; however, they were found to have limited knowledge of and even some misconceptions towards the potential uses of translation. The findings also provide implications for learning and researching through activities that involve translation, thus enabling learners to actively participate in the process of acquisition of content knowledge through active translation. Keywords: Translation, Learners’ perceptions, EMI, Tertiary educatio

EFL teachers’ professional experiences in the southeastern Türkiye

Although a number of English language teachers commence their professional careers in under-resourced and underprivileged regions, far too little attention has been paid to their experiences as an area of research, particularly in Türkiye. This qualitative study investigates the concerns and challenges that English language teachers experience in the southeastern region of Türkiye. The participants consisted of  nine novice English language teachers in different school grades in state schools. Interviews were used as a data collection tool. Participants’ reflections and comments revealed teachers’ sociological and pedagogical negative or positive experiences after their appointment to Şırnak in the southeastern region of Türkiye. The findings of the study revealed context-specific challenges these teachers experience and how they deal with these challanges. Implications are presented in line with the findings to guide administrators, teacher educators, and policymakers

Dimensions of multidisciplinary engagement beyond the classroom in Challenge-Based Learning

The study investigates and reports on the process of engagement in learning through the innovative pedagogical framework – Challenge-based Learning (CBL) – their changing perspectives of learning and their interaction with each other while conducting authentic challenges. This gives way to understanding how learners construct and create meaning out of learning activities, course content and beyond the course objectives. Our mixed method research explores potential impact dimensions of the implementation of challenge based learning on teachers and students. To reveal the potential impact we conducted a focused group interviews with the learners who took part in CBL-integrated lessons and surveyed 68 number of learners who participated in CBL trainings. Our preliminary findings showed that learners undertook news roles by driving their own learning, developing collaborative skills, exploring knowledge to be acquired, and establishing relevance of course content in real contexts which made it meaningful for them to understand. In our presentation, we would like to discuss the implications of CBL implementation on the way higher education can be redesigned by assigning learners a more active role in learning and the engagement that occured during their learning experiences

Discipline-specific attitudinal differences of EMI students towards translanguaging

This study examines discipline-specific attitudinal differences in translanguaging when studying through English Medium Instruction following a mixed methods research design. The quantitative data for this study came from the Mathematics, Physical and Life Sciences (n = 173) and Social Sciences (n = 172) divisions of a major public university in Turkey. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted (n = 20). After conducting exploratory factor analysis to validate the questionnaire, we ran two independent samples t-tests to investigate the differences in the attitudes of the participants. Results revealed a statistically significant difference in the general attitudes towards translanguaging in the two divisions but not regarding their attitudes towards teachers’ and their own use of translanguaging in class. The qualitative analysis provided partial support for the quantitative analysis. The research suggests important implications by validating the translanguaging questionnaire in the Turkish setting and by highlighting discipline-specific differences observed towards translanguaging practices

Development of verbal creativity by bilingual and English as foreign language learners in kindergarten to 8th grade schools

Bilingualism has long been within the scope of creativity studies that investigate creativity and problem solving. This study aims to explore the possible effect of bilingualism on the verbal creativity of English language learners. Participants from a bilingual and an English as foreign language teaching program within the same school were selected as an experimental and a control group respectively to compare verbal creativity. A series of creative English writing tasks designed by the authors were assigned to a total of 86 third grade (aged 7–8) students. Both the English as foreign language group (N = 42) and the bilingual group (N = 44) were subject to assessment and evaluation in terms of verbal creativity. The two cohorts completed the same creative writing tasks that were then assessed by a board of five English teachers from the same school who were trained by the authors to assess verbal creativity using a Student Product Assessment Form. An independent samples Student’s t-test was conducted and descriptive statistics of both cohorts for 9 of the assessment form were analyzed. The results showed that the students on the bilingual program outperformed those on the English as foreign language program in terms of verbal creativity. The study offers implications for English language teaching in primary schools with reference to developing creative verbal language skills at early ages

Discourse of reflections on instant joint engagement in online ELT Graduate Courses (Chapter 17)

In this chapter, we investigate the discourse of post-course reflections by in-service teachers on instant joint engagement in online ELT graduate courses. Our findings demonstrate that engagement for teacher reflection might be promoted in synchronous interactions during online teacher education courses. We argue that in-service teachers’ cognitive, socio-constructive, affective and interactive engagement can foster their critically reflective voice.Ağusto

Foreign Language Learning Strategies of Music Department of Education Senior Students

İlişkisel tarama modelinin kullanıldığı bu çalışmada, müzik eğitimi anabilim dalı son sınıf öğrencilerinin yabancı dil öğrenme stratejileri incelenmiştir. Araştırmada, veri toplama aracı olarak Oxford (1990) tarafından geliştirilen, Cesur ve Fer (2007) tarafından Türkçeye çevrilerek geçerlik-güvenirlik çalışması yapılan "Dil Öğrenme Stratejileri Envanteri" kullanılmıştır. Araştırma; 2014-2015 eğitim-öğretim yılında Türkiye'nin farklı coğrafi bölgelerinde bulunan ve tesadüfi örnekleme yoluyla seçilen 253 son sınıf müzik eğitimi anabilim lisans öğrencisi ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Dil öğrenme stratejilerinden ne ölçüde yararlanıldığının belirlenmesi amacıyla yapılan çalışmanın sonucunda; müzik eğitimi anabilim dalı son sınıf öğrencilerinin önemli bir bölümünün bellek stratejisini kullandıkları ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu sonucun da sınav odaklı yabancı dil öğreniminin bir sonucu olabileceği ve çeşitli değişkenlerle dil öğrenme stratejilerini kullanma derecesi arasındaki istatistik olarak önemli/yüksek bulunan puanlarla açıklanabildiği sonucuna varılmıştır.Language learning strategies are learner-specific decisions which include procedures and techniques and practiced autonomously by learners. This study investigates these foreign language learning strategies of music education preservice teachers. In the research the SILL developed by Oxford and translate into Turkish by Cesur ve Fer (2007) who also did real unlit and validity statistics. The study was carried out with 253 music education preservice teachers from 12 different cities in Turkey. The study concludes that a majority of teachers use memory strategies. This finding was significantly found to be related to the exam-oriented language learning purpose as well as to some other variables which held statistically significant relation to the choices of language learning strategies