THE IMPACT OF MUSICAL SKILLS ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY

This research aims to research the impact of musical skills on foreign language anxiety. For this purpose, 158 English as Foreign Language students, 64 of whom engaged with music (48 of them were able to play an instrument and sing in front of people and 16 of them could only sing) were chosen for this study. The Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was applied and the results were compared. The study revealed that participants who were able to play a musical instrument or sing in front of people had far lower levels of foreign language anxiety than those who did not. For the qualitative section of the study, 10 participants, 5 of whom could play an instrument and 5 of whom could not, were selected to get a more detailed picture of the participants’ opinions and feelings related to the impact of engagement with music on foreign language anxiety. These interviews also supported the results of the quantitative study.  Article visualizations

Cultural and religious perspective of loss and bereavement in Anatolia

Coping with death is a grueling job to be done however it is not impossible. All cultures have developed ways to cope with death. Interfering with these practices may interfere with the necessary grieving processes. Understanding different cultures' and religions response to death can help counselors recognize the grieving process in patients of other cultures. It is also important to realize that, while each individual grief process is unique, there is a form of grief that is disabling, interfering with function and quality of life. A great majority of the people in Anatolia have remained under the influence of tradition as well as religion. In the foundation of main behavior models which forms our traditional life, ensuring them to possess specialty and formation however there lays numerous customs, beliefs and ethic operations. So that such kind of variations affects the death and the bereavement customs. As in the case of the three important event of the life, a great number of beliefs, customs, tradition, ceremonies, and behaviors have been also grouped around death. Such beliefs, customs, transactions, ceremonies and pattern behaviors which accumulated around the death and surrounded individuals with the death are collected under three groups. Sets of traditions formed as pre-death, during death and after death. So this study was carried out so as to determine the approach of Anatolian traditions to the death and bereavement. This qualitative research was conducted by means of semi-structured interviews in which   three questions prepared by the researchers and were asked to four volunteer male participants whose mean age was seventy-five years old. The study concludes that the traditions of Anatolia give importance to sharing and supporting the family of deceased, which overlaps the literature of bereavement process psychology

A psycholinguistic study of the bouba-kiki phenomenon: Exploring associations between sounds and shapes

This study investigates the cognitive phenomenon known as the bouba-kiki effect among English Language Teaching (ELT) students at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University in Turkey. The research aims to contribute to understanding how individuals intuitively associate specific sounds with abstract shapes, shedding light on the underlying cognitive processes of language perception. Participants (N=164) were presented with two abstract shapes and asked to match them with the pseudowords ‘bouba’ and ‘kiki’. Results revealed a significant preference (87.2%) associating the rounded shape with ‘bouba’ and the spiky shape with ‘kiki’. Additionally, participants were tasked with creating brand designs for ‘Kiki’ and ‘Bouba’, with 87.2% aligning their designs with their initial shape associations. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and a chi-square test, confirming a strong association between shape preferences and pseudoword assignment (χ²=132.05, p < .001). These findings underscore the robustness of the bouba-kiki effect across different cultural and linguistic contexts. This research contributes to interdisciplinary studies linking linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience, offering implications for language teaching methodologies and cognitive processing theories. By elucidating these associations, educators can enhance language learning strategies based on intuitive perceptual mechanisms. Disclosure Statement The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest. * Corresponding author: Süleyman Kasap, [email protected]

Tane Boyutu Optimizasyonunun Lif Donatılı Yüksek Performanslı Çimentolu Kompozitlerin Mekanik Ve Kendiliginden Iyilesme Davranısına Etkisi

TÜBİTAK MAG Proje01.03.2019Tasarlanmıs Çimentolu Kompozitler (TÇK) tasarımlarından kaynaklanan çoklu mikroçatlaklanma davranısları ve bünyelerinde bulunan yüksek miktardaki baglayıcılar sayesindekendiliginden iyilesme özelligine sahip yüksek performanslı lif donatılı çimentolukompozitlerdir. Ancak bu kompozitler tasarımları geregi özel malzemeler ve belirli karısımoranlarında üretilebilmektedir. Bu projenin amacı tane boyutu optimizasyonu yöntemi ile TÇKtasarımı yapmaktır. Proje kapsamında literatürdeki TÇK tasarımları referans olarak alınarak,modifiye edilmis Andreasen ve Andersen modeli uygulanarak yerel malzemelerle TÇKtasarımı ve üretimi gerçeklestirilmistir. Bu amaçla, tane boyutu optimizasyonu ile tasarlanan 8TÇK karısımı ile literatürde sıklıkla karsılasılan 4 standart TÇK karısımı olmak üzere toplam12 farklı TÇK?nın mekanik özellikleri ve kendiliginden iyilesme performansları incelenmistir.Proje kapsamında literatürdeki TÇK karısımları dikkate alınarak, bu karısımlar içerisindekigranüler malzemelerin tane boyutu dagılımlarına baglı olarak, modifiye edilmis Andreasen veAndersen yöntemiyle baglayıcı olan ve olmayan kısım ayrı ayrı ve birlikte olmak üzere çesitlisekillerde optimize edilmistir. Bu amaçla kullanılan toz malzemeler çimento, uçucu kül,ögütülmüs granüle yüksek fırın cürufu, silis dumanı ve farklı boyutlardaki kuvars kumlarıdır.Böylece hem baglayıcı malzemelerin daha etkin kullanımının saglanması, hem deoptimizasyonla elde edilmis sıkı içyapının mekanik ve kendiliginden iyilesme davranısınaetkisinin incelenmesi hedeflenmistir.Tüm TÇK karısımlarının 7, 28 ve 90. günlerde olmak üzere basınç dayanımı ve egilmeözellikleri belirlenmistir. Kendiliginden iyilesme performansının belirlenmesi için ise 28.gündeön yükleme ile hasara ugratılan numunelerin egilme altındaki davranısları, ultrases geçishızları, elektriksel özdirenç degerleri, hızlı klor iyonu geçirimliligi, kılcal su emme indeksleri veçatlak genislikleri ön yüklemeyi takip eden 0, 15, 30, 60 ve 90. günlerde belirlenmistir. Projesonucunda tüm ECC karısımlarında kendiliginden iyilesme özelligi elde edilmistir.Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) are high performance cementitious compositeswhich have multiple micro-cracking property due to their design and possess self-healingproperty due to their high cementitious material content. However, these composites can beproduced only with specific materials and fixed mixture proportions. The aim of this project isto design ECC through particle size optimization method. Within the scope of this project,design and production of ECC with local materials were performed by taking the mixtures inthe literature as the reference and applying modified Andreasen and Andersen model. For thispurpose, mechanical properties and self-healing performances of 12 different ECC mixtures 4of which were the standard ECC from the literature and 8 of which were designed accordingto particle size optimization were investigated.Within the scope of the project, by considering ECC mixtures from the literature, depending onthe particle size distribution of granular materials of those mixtures, cementitious and noncementitiousparts were optimized together and separately according to modified Andreasenand Andersen method. Powder materials used for this purpose are cement, fly ash, groundgranulated blast furnace slag, silica fume, and quartz sands of different sizes. By this way, itis aimed to provide more effective use of binding materials as well as to investigate the effectof compact internal structure due to particle size optimization on the mechanical and selfhealingbehavior.The compressive strength and bending properties of all ECC mixtures were determined at 7,28 and 90th days. In order to determine the self-healing performance, bending properties,ultrasonic pulse velocity, electrical resistivity, rapid chlorine ion penetration, sorptivity indexand crack width change were determined on the specimens for the following 0, 15, 30, 60 and90th days after preloading. As a result of the project, self-healing property were obtained inall ECC mixtures.Keywords: Engineered Cementitious Composites, particle size optimization, modifiedAndreasen and Andersen model, self-healing

Controlled growth of large area multilayer graphene on copper by chemical vapour deposition

The growth of nearly full coverage of multilayer graphene on the surface of a 99.8% purity copper foil has been experimentally studied. It has been shown that the film thickness can be controlled by a single parameter, the growth time, and growth can be extended until nearly full coverage of more than one layer graphene over the copper surface. The results are supported by scanning electron microscopy and Raman analysis together with optical transmittance and sheet resistance measurements. It has been verified that silicon oxide impurity particles within the copper act as catalysts and the seeds of multilayer graphene islands. The linear increase of the average thickness of graphene to the growth time has been attributed to the interplay between the mean distance between the impurities on the surface and the molecular mean free path in the process gas. A qualitative model is proposed to explain the microscopic mechanism of the multilayer growth on copper. These results contribute to the understanding of the chemical vapour deposition growth kinetics towards the objective of large area high quality graphene production with tuneable layer thickness