Türkiye’deki İngiliz Dili Eğitimi Uzmanlarının Araştırma Kültürlerinin İncelenmesi

This study aims to reveal English language academicians and postgraduate students’ ambitions about involving in research studies in a developing country, Turkey. To collect data, a questionnaire was constructed and delivered to 159 ELT academicians and students to learn about their experiences in research and writing a research report, and perception of difficulty in different sections of a research report. Besides, semi-constructed interviews were also administered to 12 academicians. The results indicated significant differences between academicians and students. Besides, discussion was regarded as the most difficult part whereas writing references was the easiest. Although participants reported their experiences in constructing the skeleton of a research paper, they regarded themselves weak in long run studies.İngiliz dilinin eğitimi alanında araştırmacıların çalışmalarıyla ilgili tutum, istek, beceri, deneyim ve beklentilerini irdeleyen bir araştırma henüz yapılmamıştır. Bu nedenle, bu çalışma Türkiye gibi gelişmekte olan bir ülkede ilgili anabilim dalında görev yapmakta olan akademisyenlerin ve lisansüstü öğrencilerinin araştırma kültürlerini incelemeyi hedeflemiştir. Veri toplama amacıyla araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilen anket formu, ülkemizdeki 34 farklı üniversitenin ilgili anabilim dallarına gönderilmiş ve toplam 159 katılımcıya uygulanmıştır. Ayrıca, 12 katılımcıyla yarı yapılandırılmış mülakat yapılmıştır. Sonuçlar, akademisyenler ve öğrenciler arasında önemli farklara işaret etmektedir. Katılımcılar en çok bir makalenin tartışma bölümünü yazarken zorlandıklarını, kaynakça yazımınınsa bir akademik makalenin yazması en kolay bölümü olduğunu belirtmişlerdir. Katılımcılar araştırmayla ilgili deneyime sahip olduklarını bildirmelerine rağmen, vaka ya da aksiyon araştırması gibi uzun soluklu çalışmalarla ilgili deneyim eksiklikleri bulunduğuna dikkat çekmişlerdir

Innovative Instructional Tools in Vocabulary and Grammar Teaching

Rise of technological tools and the COVID-19 pandemic, technology has become an important part of daily life, including teaching and learning activities. The use of innovative tools in teaching grammar and vocabulary has been a controversial issue for a long time. The urgent need for such instructional tools has made it a significant part of language learning classes. Regarding these needs, the study focused on innovative instructional grammar and vocabulary teaching tools in English language teaching settings. The study%252339%253Bs main purpose was to investigate the differences between the setting where innovative instructional tools for grammar and vocabulary teaching were used and the setting in which only traditional methodologies were used to teach grammar and vocabulary. The study took place in a public university in Türkiye and 76 major beginner-level students participated in the study. The study was a quantitative study which has a pre-test and post-test design and a comparison of control and experimental groups. Results suggested a significant difference in vocabulary and grammar achievement between two groups

The effects of cultural familiarity on reading comprehension

This study investigated whether cultural familiarity influences comprehension of short stories and whether nativizing the story or using reading activities can compensate for the lack of such familiarity. The study was conducted with 44 advanced-level students of English at a state university in Turkey. In a 2 × 2 experimental research design, the 1st group of students read an original short story without any activities while the 2nd group of students read the original short story with some activities. The 3rd group read the nativized version of the text without any activities while the 4th group read the nativized version with the same set of activities as the 2nd group. The analysis of variance indicated a better comprehension of the nativized story. The activities contributed to the comprehension of the original story, but the difference caused by nativization remained intact, indicating a powerful impact of cultural schema on comprehension

Turkish language proficiency and cultural adaptation of American EFL teachers in Turkey

Intercultural competence is needed for effective and appropriate intercultural interactions. However, differences between individuals and specific factors, such as directness/indirectness and collectivism/individualism, should be considered when examining cultural adaptation. This paper aims to reveal the possible effects that language proficiency has on cultural adaptation. Although the 31 American teachers surveyed in this study had different levels of Turkish language proficiency, the results indicated no significant differences between their language proficiency and sociocultural adaptation. However, a significant negative correlation was found between previous experience abroad and successful sociocultural adaptation in Turkey. The main conclusion of this study questions the relationship between traditional conceptions of language proficiency and successful sociocultural adaptation

Testing of Support Tools for Plagiarism Detection

There is a general belief that software must be able to easily do things that humans find difficult. Since finding sources for plagiarism in a text is not an easy task, there is a wide-spread expectation that it must be simple for software to determine if a text is plagiarized or not. Software cannot determine plagiarism, but it can work as a support tool for identifying some text similarity that may constitute plagiarism. But how well do the various systems work? This paper reports on a collaborative test of 15 web-based text-matching systems that can be used when plagiarism is suspected. It was conducted by researchers from seven countries using test material in eight different languages, evaluating the effectiveness of the systems on single-source and multi-source documents. A usability examination was also performed. The sobering results show that although some systems can indeed help identify some plagiarized content, they clearly do not find all plagiarism and at times also identify non-plagiarized material as problematic

Development of a Rubric to Assess Academic Writing Incorporating Plagiarism Detectors

Similarity reports of plagiarism detectors should be approached with caution as they may not be sufficient to support allegations of plagiarism. This study developed a 50-item rubric to simplify and standardize evaluation of academic papers. In the spring semester of 2011-2012 academic year, 161 freshmen’s papers at the English Language Teaching Department of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey, were assessed using the rubric. Validity and reliability were established. The results indicated citation as a particularly problematic aspect, and indicated that fairer assessment could be achieved by using the rubric along with plagiarism detectors’ similarity results

Changing trends in academic integrity policy development: Implications for the post-COVID era

As adherence to academic integrity standards is one of the most important aims of academia, many institutions develop academic integrity policies which should be regarded as a core element by quality and qualification assurance agencies. A well-developed policy should reveal responsibilities of stakeholders and provide guidance on investigating suspected cases and delivering sanctions (Razı et al., 2021). Bretag (2013b) also remarks on the importance of a holistic and multi-stakeholder approach in the establishment of a culture of academic integrity. Policies are seen as documents providing guidance to institutions to develop a culture of academic integrity by helping them define their standards, prepare related guidelines and procedures for their stakeholders. Keeping the policies up-to-date is as important as developing them; otherwise, an out-of-date policy may bring more harm than benefit. It is therefore essential to address the changing trends during the COVID-19 pandemic in academic integrity policies by carefully blending what was already in place from pre-COVID era literature. Thus, this presentation aims to first highlight the general framework for academic integrity policies, and then present examples of the changing trends in academic integrity policies during COVID-19. Paine (1994) suggested two approaches: rule compliance strategy and integrity strategy. The former corresponds to the punitive approach to academic integrity, whereas the latter refers to the educative approach. Although earlier conceptions of academic integrity or responses to academic misconduct focused on how to prevent academic malpractice and what sanctions should apply to different academic integrity breaches, Bretag (2013b) spoke of an educative approach to academic integrity where proactive measures are prioritized over detection of and reaction to academic misconduct. Such developments fundamentally changed how we formulate our questions from “how do we stop students from cheating?” to “how do we ensure students are learning?” (Bertram Gallant, 2017). A good, robust, and holistic policy can help build a culture of integrity in an institution by emphasizing the values of integrity (Khan et al., 2019). Policies also serve the purpose of “affecting the way [values are] taught and embedded in curricula” (Bretag, Mahmud, East et al., 2011, p. 1) and good policies can help in reducing misconduct (Stoesz & Eaton, 2020). If policies are not clear, comprehensive, easy to understand or inconsistent, these can raise serious doubt on the quality of the institution’s programs, teaching and learning (Bretag, Mahmud, East et al., 2011; Tennant et al., 2007). Policies serve the purpose of contributing to quality and quality management at an institution, which will help to develop shared values stemming from genuine commitment by all stakeholders (Bretag, Mahmud, Wallace et al., 2011; Exemplary Academic Integrity Project – EAIP, 2013). Fundamentally, integrity is based on ethical principles and values of being honest, consistent, transparent and fair to the participant, public and scientific community. Ethics provides and underpins these principles as guides for research, whilst integrity makes us practise (or carry out) these principles in our day-to-day academic lives (Malan, 2007); therefore, both ethics and integrity collaboratively support appropriate and responsible behaviour in education and research. Organisational policies are usually based on ethical values (Polowczyk, 2017), but they should be written to suit all the different discipline (or subject) areas of an institution. Policies should consider the deviations and/or exceptions to the basic ethical principles. Academic integrity policies are meant to be holistic, inclusive, and educative (Peters, 2019). Bretag, Mahmud, Wallace et al. (2011) list five core elements to be addressed in an academic integrity policy: access, approach, responsibility, detail, and support. Access refers to the ease with which the policy can be accessed or located, read and understood by all stakeholders of the institution, be it staff, students, or faculty. Approach refers to the manner in which the concept is approached or addressed. Responsibility refers to the roles played by all stakeholders involved and what is expected of them in those capacities. Detail refers to the depth of information provided in terms of types of misconduct, severity levels, approach to deal with allegations and processes. Finally, support refers to how the process is implemented, the type of training available for all stakeholders to understand the policy, and on how the process works. Consulting existing policies might be an effective strategy as a point of departure for those who are either writing or revising policies. Researchers involved with the EAIP identified exemplary policies in Australia that others could use as a reference point (Bretag & Mahmud, 2016; Bretag, Mahmud, East et al., 2011, Bretag, Mahmud, Wallace et al., 2011; EAIP, 2013). Although consulting exemplary policies is an approach we recommend, we caution against lifting text or passages from other policies verbatim without acknowledgement as it could be considered plagiarism. Policies themselves can model ethical decision-making and behaviour that they wish constituents to follow. Policy documents that obviously plagiarise from other sources could lead to public outrage and negative media reporting. Institutional policies can vary according to the institutional view about academic integrity, academic misconduct or cheating. A reactive approach might be the most primitive form of policy as each academic takes individual responsibility for identifying the misconduct and its consequences. Another approach adopted by some institutions is a formal, almost judicial stance towards handling breaches of academic integrity, seeing cheating as an aberration to be punished. Detection policies focus on catching and generating evidence about academic integrity breaches. Proactive, deterrent or preventative approaches are designed to discourage and reduce cheating in academic work. Policies that have an educative focus are based on the premise that developing skills and knowledge related to academic integrity is at least as important as punishing students for academic misconduct. This presentation mainly aims to present examples of the changing trends in academic integrity policies during COVID-19. Despite ill-designed assessment practices during COVID-19, responsible academics and administrators were forced to rethink, redefine, and reassess common policies. For example, invigilated examinations were not viable, and they were replaced by online open book tests, short answer questions, timed assessments etc. Some institutions have tried to introduce new preventive measures such as the controversial ‘e-proctoring’ (Hollister & Berenson, 2009; Kharbat & Abu Daabes, 2021; Reedy et al., 2021;) which itself created additional challenges to the integrity policies. Therefore, it is essential for the integrity policy to holistically consider the ethical principles, their exceptions, national/international legislation that underpins integrity, and most importantly the situational changes, their needs and implications