The use of complaints in the inter-language of Turkish EFL learners (El uso de los reclamos en el Inter-lenguaje de estudiantes de Inglés como lengua extranjera en Turquía)

Many Turkish EFL learners struggle with giving complaints and criticisms in the EFL classroom. Language instructors must find way to provide students with the linguistic and pragmatic elements of EFL to be able to appropriately complain as EFL users. The purpose of this study is to investigate the complaint speech used by Turkish EFL learners in two different situations: speaking to a commiserating teacher and speaking to a contradicting teacher. Four kinds of data sources were used to collect data in the classroom: twenty native English speakers’ role-plays, twenty-five Turkish native speakers’ role-plays, and forty students’ role-plays. The subjects’ complaint speech act sets were a coding scheme borrowed from a previously conducted study by Murphy and Neu (1996). The baseline and the inter-language data were compared to see to what extent they were similar or different, whether or not the Turkish EFL learners made positive and negative transfer, and if there were any features unique to the inter-language of the learners. The findings revealed that when speaking to the commiserating teacher, students made both positive and negative transfer in using ‘demand’. The students speaking to the contradicting teacher made positive transfer in the components ‘explanation of purpose’, ‘complaint’ and ‘justification’. The component ‘demand’ was subject to negative transfer

Developing academic vocabulary objectives: corpus analysis and word lists

This chapter is concerned with the development of a vocabulary syllabus to accompany and supplement a coursebook series. To further enhance the use of these books, we decided to initiate a project to develop an academic vocabulary syllabus. This chapter will outline the process of analyzing corpus data, deciding on lexis to cover and how to spread this across the course of study, creating support materials to facilitate learning as well as incorporating this into the wider curriculum

Writing for and Because of Lifelong Learning

Once a privilege for the members of the elite, writing is now a staple of everyday life accessible to the masses. Despite its significance for individuals’ economic, psychological, and educational well-being, it may not always be utilized to its full capacity. This is partly due to reductionist approaches to writing without full consideration of its various manifestations in life. This paper will argue that writing is more than the inscription of letters and symbols on paper (or on screen). The common misconception that highly developed artistic skills are a must for one to be a “good” writer often prevents individuals from engaging in rewarding learning experiences in and outside of formal education contexts. The realization of the ways in which writing in fact is a part of our daily lives and therefore cannot be divorced from learning throughout life will reduce concerns about a possible lack in writing skills. It will also be maintained in this paper that there is complementarity between lifelong learning and writing; just as lifelong learning requires the utilization of writing skills, greater involvement in writing and enhancements to one’s writing skills support lifelong learning skills. This paper will also propose that an emphasis on writing across curriculum in formal education settings as well as outside of formal education will help prepare individuals for engagement in continuous learning throughout life

El uso de los reclamos en el inter-lenguaje de estudiantes de Inglés como lengua extranjera en Turquía

Many Turkish EFL learners struggle with giving complaints and criticisms in the EFL classroom. Language instructors must find way to provide students with the linguistic and pragmatic elements of EFL to be able to appropriately complain as EFL users. The purpose of this study is to investigate the complaint speech used by Turkish EFL learners in two different situations: speaking to a commiserating teacher and speaking to a contradicting teacher. Four kinds of data sources were used to collect data in the classroom: twenty native English speakers’ role-plays, twenty-five Turkish native speakers’ role-plays, and forty students’ role-plays. The subjects’ complaint speech act sets were a coding scheme borrowed from a previously conducted study by Murphy and Neu (1996). The baseline and the inter-language data were compared to see to what extent they were similar or different, whether or not the Turkish EFL learners made positive and negative transfer, and if there were any features unique to the inter-language of the learners. The findings revealed that when speaking to the commiserating teacher, students made both positive and negative transfer in using ‘demand’. The students speaking to the contradicting teacher made positive transfer in the components ‘explanation of purpose’, ‘complaint’ and ‘justification’. The component ‘demand’ was subject to negative transfer.Muchos estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera tienen dificultades para dar quejas y hacer críticas en el salón de inglés como lengua extranjera. Esta situación exige que los profesores de idiomas piensen en las maneras de brindar a los estudiantes los elementos lingüísticos y pragmáticos de la lengua extranjera, para que sean capaces de reclamar apropiadamente en este idioma. El propósito de este estudio es investigar el discurso utilizado por los estudiantes turcos de inglés lengua extranjera para quejarse, en dos situaciones diferentes: la primera, al hablar con un profesor simpático y la otra, al hablar con un profesor contradictorio. Para la recolección de datos en el aula, se utilizaron cuatro tipos de fuentes: representaciones de veinte nativos de inglés, representaciones de veinticinco turcos y representaciones de cuarenta estudiantes. Los sujetos fueron expuestos a dos situaciones diferentes. El conjunto de sujetos que se quejan en su discurso fueron analizados, usando un esquema de codificación tomada de un estudio previamente realizado por Murphy y Neu (1996). La base de referencia y los datos de interlenguaje fueron comparados, para ver hasta qué punto eran similares o diferentes, sin importar, si los estudiantes turcos de lengua extranjera hicieron transferencia positiva o negativa, ó si había algunas características únicas en el interlenguaje de los estudiantes. Los resultados revelaron que cuando hablan con el profesor simpático, los estudiantes hicieron transferencias tanto positivas como negativas en la “demanda”. Los estudiantes que hablaron con el profesor contradictorio hicieron transferencias positivas en los componentes del “propósito de explicación”, “queja” y “justificación”. El componente de la “queja” fue sujeto a transferencia negativa

Andragogical, Pedagogical and Lifelong Learning Orientations of Freshman Engineering Students in a Project-Based Course

This paper provides a comparison of andragogical and pedagogical orientations to learning, and argues that andragogy needs to be viewed as a principle for lifelong learning. Andragogical and lifelong learning assumptions are discussed from the perspective of engineering education in general and project-based learning in particular. The paper also presents the results of a small-scale study conducted on fifty-eight freshman engineering students’ andragogical and lifelong learning orientations in the context of Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Results showed that the students had a greater tendency towards andragogical orientations, and that they had a moderate level of lifelong learning orientation. Data also revealed a positive correlation between andragogical and lifelong learning tendencies, and a negative correlation between pedagogical and lifelong learning tendencies. The results of the study are discussed and recommendations are made

The frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy and Pompe disease in children with isolated transaminase elevation: results from the observational VICTORIA study

IntroductionElevated transaminases and/or creatine phosphokinase can indicate underlying muscle disease. Therefore, this study aims to determine the frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD) in male children and Pompe disease (PD) in male and female children with isolated hypertransaminasemia.MethodsThis multi-center, prospective study enrolled patients aged 3–216 months with serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and/or aspartate transaminase (AST) levels >2× the upper limit of normal (ULN) for ≥3 months. Patients with a known history of liver or muscle disease or physical examination findings suggestive of liver disease were excluded. Patients were screened for creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) levels, and molecular genetic tests for DMD/BMD in male patients and enzyme analysis for PD in male and female patients with elevated CPK levels were performed. Genetic analyses confirmed PD. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of the patients were analyzed.ResultsOverall, 589 patients [66.8% male, mean age of 63.4 months (standard deviation: 60.5)] were included. In total, 251 patients (188 male and 63 female) had CPK levels above the ULN. Of the patients assessed, 47% (85/182) of male patients were diagnosed with DMD/BMD and 1% (3/228) of male and female patients were diagnosed with PD. The median ALT, AST, and CPK levels were statistically significantly higher, and the questioned neurological symptoms and previously unnoticed examination findings were more common in DMD/BMD patients than those without DMD/BMD or PD (p < 0.001).DiscussionQuestioning neurological symptoms, conducting a complete physical examination, and testing for CPK levels in patients with isolated hypertransaminasemia will prevent costly and time-consuming investigations for liver diseases and will lead to the diagnosis of occult neuromuscular diseases. Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT04120168

İngilizce̕yi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen Türk öğrencilerinin aradillerindeki şikayet edimi üzerine bir çalışma

The purpose of this study is to investigate the complaint speech act set used by Turkish EFL learners speaking to a commiserating and contradicting teacher. For this purpose, four kinds of data sources were used: twenty native English speakers̕ role-plays, twenty five Turkish native speakers̕ role-plays, forty students̕ role-plays and two native speakers̕ judgments on the students̕ production. The subjects were given two different situations. Their role-plays were audio taped and transcribed. The subjects̕ complaint speech act sets were analyzed, using a coding scheme from a previous study in the literature. The baseline and the interlanguage data were compared using SPSS to see to what extent they were similar and different, and to see whether or not the Turkish EFL learners made positive and negative transfer, and whether there were any features unique to the interlanguage of the learners.M.A. - Master of Art

The Use of Complaints in the Inter-Language of Turkish EFL Learners

Many Turkish EFL learners struggle with giving complaints and criticisms in the EFL classroom. Language instructors must find way to provide students with the linguistic and pragmatic elements of EFL to be able to appropriately complain as EFL users. The purpose of this study is to investigate the complaint speech used by Turkish EFL learners in two different situations: speaking to a commiserating teacher and speaking to a contradicting teacher. Four kinds of data sources were used to collect data in the classroom: twenty native English speakers’ role-plays, twenty-five Turkish native speakers’ role-plays, and forty students’ role-plays. The subjects’ complaint speech act sets were a coding scheme borrowed from a previously conducted study by Murphy and Neu (1996). The baseline and the inter-language data were compared to see to what extent they were similar or different, whether or not the Turkish EFL learners made positive and negative transfer, and if there were any features unique to the inter-language of the learners. The findings revealed that when speaking to the commiserating teacher, students made both positive and negative transfer in using ‘demand’. The students speaking to the contradicting teacher made positive transfer in the components ‘explanation of purpose’, ‘complaint’ and ‘justification’. The component ‘demand’ was subject to negative transfer

Freshman Students' Emotional Intelligence and Team-Work Satisfaction Levels. A Comparative Study: Gender and Nationality Birinci s›n›f ö¤rencilerinin duygusal zekâs› ve ekip çal›flmas› memnuniyet düzeyleri. Cinsiyet ve uyruk aç›s›ndan karfl›laflt›rmal› bi

Zeka katsay›s› (IQ) akademik baflar› için yeterli bir belirteç olmad›¤›, duygular›m›z ve di¤er bireyler ile olan iliflkilerimizi daha etkin flekilde ele almam›za yard›mc› olabilen duygusal zekân›n (EI) ise baflar›m›z›n %80'ine kadar›ndan sorumlu olabilece¤i Anahtar sözcükler: Duygusal zekâ, ekip çal›flmas› memnuniyeti, mühen-dislik e¤itimi, sosyal beceriler. It is generally accepted that intelligence quotient (IQ) is not a sufficient predictor of academic success, and that emotional intelligence (EI), which can helps us handle our emotions and relationships with others more effectively, can account for as much as 80% of our success. This appears to be particularly important for students who take courses requiring team or group work. Students with higher levels of EI are more likely to achieve academic and social success. However, this is a formidable challenge for freshman students who have a lower EI, and thus lack the skills necessary for effective team-work. This may result in reduced levels of satisfaction with team-work and therefore adversely affect their success Keywords: Emotional intelligence, engineering education, soft-skills, teamwork satisfaction