A GIMMICK FOR MIMIC: THE ELT STUDENT-TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS DRAMA COURSE

As a part of interaction-based meaningful activities, the use of drama techniques in education has gained popularity so far. The purpose of this study is to tackle the question whether the drama course together with the in-class applications contribute to the attitudes of prospective English language teachers. In that, the study is composed of the quantitative analysis of the attitudes of the prospective teachers from third graders at English Language Teaching (hereafter ELT) department. The data is gathered through the use of a 25-question-attitude scale (Topoğlu & Erden, 2012) which has been administered to all participants, in sum composed of 37 sophomore students. The results have indicated positive attitudes towards drama course held in ELT department within the scope of desire to increase in course duration, continuity of the course for future benefits, the development of personal, interactional and social skills, and the improvement of the creativity skill

Towards a continuum from know-how to show-how for developing EFL student-teachers’ assessment literacy

It mushrooms as an unerring fact that that assessment literacy has been a focus of interest as one of the major professional requirements of a teacher. Correlatively, there are some manifold standards for assessment and measures for assessment literacy. This study, hereat, aims to unearth the prospective English as a Foreign Language (henceforth EFL) teachers’ levels of assessment literacy. In this context, the Assessment Literacy Survey developed by Volante and Fazio (2007) together with the student questionnaire of the European Network of Language Testing and Assessment (ENLTA) which was developed in 2004 are exploited to collect data. The participants are thirty-six senior students from the department of English Language Teaching (henceforth ELT) at a state university in Turkey. Fundamentally, the pre-service teachers’ utilization of the assessment approaches, and their understanding of underlying principles are at the major axis. As a result, it is reported that prospective EFL teachers are aware of the concept of assessment literacy though they perceive themselves as not adequately qualified. At the very same, practicum courses in which they enroll do not satisfactorily meet their expectations in developing their assessment skills. Similarly, they have a judicious amount of practical knowledge on different types of assessment approaches although they are mindful of the fact that in-class practices are to be laced with various kinds of assessment applications. Some practical recommendations and implications for teacher education are also listed in tow. &nbsp

TEACHING THE CEFR ORIENTED PRACTICES EFFECTIVELY IN THE M.A. PROGRAM OF AN ELT DEPARTMENT IN TURKEY

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (hereafter CEFR) and the related documents are the current realities of ELT professionals, mainly in Europe, as part of the practices in their field of study. Although it is labeled as “common” and “European”, the CEFR is an internationally recognized framework worldwide. In this sense, this study aims to uncover whether the CEFR and the other related European documents such as the European Language Portfolio (hereafter ELP), as a course in M.A. classes, have reflected certain degree of effectiveness in relation to students’ expectations. Herein, students’ self-reflection forms and achievement test-retest scores were analyzed. Accordingly, the mixed method laced with both qualitative and quantitative data was implemented. The learners’ test-retest scores as achievement criteria constituted the quantitative part of the study. On the other hand, the qualitative part was composed of the learners’ self-reflection forms for the course and discussion-based self-assessment reports. The results of the study revealed the fact that the CEFR as an M.A course was internalized better on condition that the lecture was followed by self-study, self-reflection, discussion-based self-assessment as a part of review process and test-retest practices respectively, when applied whole and complete

Curriculum –Integration of Algorithmic Thinking Skills into Preschool Education

ALGOLITTLE is an EU funded Erasmus+ KA203 project seeking the ways of integrating algorithmic thinking skills into preschool education to cultivate future’s code literates starting from the earliest years. When we consider the COVID-19 outbreak process, while a transformation has been being experienced in every field, education has also been digitalized in a tremendous way. These developments promise the systems digitalized in a more global scale. Therefore, it becomes important to raise individuals with the skills allowing them to keep up with the expectations of the 21st century business world. ALGOLITTLE project consortium consists of 6 partners: İzmir Democracy University (Turkey), Scuola di Robotica (Italy), University of Maribor (Slovenia), University of Rijeka (Croatia), Instituto Politecnico de Viseu (Portugal) and Educloud Ed-Tech (Turkey). The consortium has been developing a curriculum and teaching materials to equip early childhood education undergraduates with the new skills which modern world demands and support them to become competent to meet the requirements of their future professions. Algorithmic thinking skills are defined as thinking about the steps to achieve a determined objective in a clear and detailed way (Brown, 2015). This term was suggested for the first time by Wing (2006) and is based on the studies of Seymour Papert (Papert, 1980, 1991). Wing (2006) claims that algorithmic thinking requires “solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behaviour by benefiting from the basic concepts of computer science”. And this becomes an opportunity in teacher education to ensure undergraduate students gain contemporary and innovative skills.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Türkiye'deki İngilizce Kurslarında Avrupa Dilleri Öğretimi Ortak Çerçeve Programı Odaklı Ölçme ve Değerlendirme Uygulamaları

As an offspring of the negotiation on the accession of Turkey to the European Union, the Framework has been adopted as a basis for language education policies with related implementations in the field of language testing and assessment. Although there is a growing body of research on the CEFR and language teaching, testing and assessment in formal educational settings, there is a perceived gap in the literature regarding the CEFR oriented testing and assessment practices of English language schools serving as non-formal educational settings. Considering this research gap, the prevalent aim of this study is to scrutinize the appropriateness of the current testing and assessment practices of English language schools rendering non-formal education to some European guidelines together with the Framework. Grounded upon a mixed methods research design, this study embraces quantitative data gathered from English language teachers who are also test (-item) developers at 3 private institutions rendering non-formal English language education, which are renowned for quality with the highest course attendee capacity and branches in Turkey together with the qualitative data gathered from their directors and that of the Association of Private Educational Institutions and Study Centers in Turkey (ÖZKUR- DER). Accordingly, the results have yielded that English language schools do not apply European guidelines in language testing and assessment thoroughly as the Framework is not adequately covered in related practices. This study has several implications for research on the development of the CEFR oriented language testing and assessment practices, and feeds into the growing body of research on the utilization of the European standards in non-formal educational settings. To sum up, in this study, the current language testing and assessment practices in non-formal educational settings, as the arteries of Turkish education economy, have been discussed to improve the quality by the exploitation of the CEFR.Türkiye’nin Avrupa Birliği müzakere süreci kapsamında benimsediği ve yürütmekte olduğu dil eğitim politikalarının dayanağı olan ADOÇEP, eğitimde ölçme ve değerlendirme alanında da uygulanmaktadır. Yapılan alanyazın taramasına göre, yaygın eğitim kapsamında ölçme ve değerlendirme uygulamalarını irdeleyen çalışmaların yanı sıra, Türkiye’de yaygın eğitim hizmeti veren İngilizce kurslarının ölçme ve değerlendirme uygulamaları açısından daha önce yapılmış bir çalışmaya rastlanmamıştır. Buna göre, bu çalışmanın temel amacı Türkiye’de yaygın eğitim hizmeti veren İngilizce kurslarının ölçme ve değerlendirme uygulamalarının ADOÇEP ile birlikte birtakım Avrupa ölçme ve değerlendirme ölçütlerine uygunluğunu irdelemektir. Çalışmada temel alınan Avrupa ölçme ve değerlendirme ölçütleri, Avrupa Dil Ölçme ve Değerlendirme Birliği, Avrupa Dil Testleri Uygulayıcılar Birliği, Uluslararası Ölçme Birliği ve Avrupa Dil Eğitim Değerlendirme Birliği tarafından öngörülen uygulama esaslarıdır. Metodolojik açıdan bu doktora tezi, karma yönteme dayalıdır. Nicel veri, 5 seçenekli Likert tipi ölçek yoluyla, Türkiye’de yaygın eğitim hizmeti veren, ülke genelinde kalitesiyle bilinen 3 İngilizce kursunun belirlenmesiyle, bu kurumlarda sınav hazırlayıcı olarak çalışan İngilizce öğretmenlerinin görüşleri alınarak toplanmıştır. Nitel veri ise İngilizce kurslarının ve ‘Tüm Özel Öğretim Kursları, Hizmet İçi Eğitim Merkezleri, Dershaneler ve Etüt Eğitim Merkezleri Birliği Derneği (ÖZ-KUR-DER)’nin yöneticileri ile 6 soru üzerinden yapılan yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşme yöntemiyle elde edilmiştir. Bu çalışmanın bulguları İngilizce kurslarında çalışan öğretmenlerin ilgili ölçütler hakkında yeterince bilgi sahibi olmadığını göstermiştir. Ayrıca, kurum yöneticilerinden toplanan görüşler ise ADOÇEP’in ölçme ve değerlendirme konusunda yeterli düzeyde uygulamaya konulmadığını ortaya çıkarmıştır. Bu çalışma, yaygın eğitim hizmeti veren İngilizce kurslarının ölçme ve değerlendirme çalışmalarının Avrupa standartları çerçevesinde geliştirilmesi konusunda çeşitli çıkarımlar da sunmaktadır. Özetle, bu çalışmada Türkiye’de yaygın eğitim yoluyla İngilizcenin öğretiminde benimsenen ölçme ve değerlendirme uygulamalarının ADOÇEP kapsamında gelişimi tartışılmıştır

Applying EALTA Guidelines as Baseline for the Foreign Language Proficiency Test in Turkey: The Case of YDS

Within the scope of educational testing and assessment, setting standards and creating guidelines as a code of practice provide more prolific and sustainable outcomes. In this sense, internationally accepted and regionally accredited principles are suggested for standardization in language testing and assessment practices. Herein, ILTA guidelines for good practice proposed by International Language Testing Association (2007), ALTE code of practice by Association of Language Testers in Europe (1994), JLTA code of good testing practices by Japanese Language Testing Association (2002) and EALTA guidelines for good practice by European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (2006) can be cited. Amidst them, the EALTA guidelines have been adopted to ‘frame a validity study’ (Alderson, 2010: 63) for language testing and assessment practices. In this sense, due to the abundance of guidelines and principles, it is expected to see myriad of practices to be well-implemented and documented. However, documentation on aforementioned practical cases is rare with a few empirical studies conducted (Alderson & Banerjee, 2008; Alderson; 2010; De Jong & Zheng, 2011). Accordingly, in this paper, a practical case study on YDS (foreign language exam in Turkey) is applied regarding the EALTA guidelines with a special concern on the development of tests in national and/or institutional testing units or centers. It is, therefore, aimed to tackle the question whether YDS adheres the principles purported by EALTA with its probable high-stake consequences. Thus, the results have indicated that taking the EALTA guidelines in the course of the test development process as baseline promotes value-added language testing and assessment practices

Curso – Integração de Competências de Pensamento Algorítmico na Educação Pré-Escolar

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