Academic Self-Concept and Students’ Achievement in the Sixth Grade Turkish Course: A Preliminary Analysis

This study investigates the relationship between academic self-concept (ASC) and first term marks of sixth grade students from their Turkish course. 74 students from two state primary schools in Turkey participated in this self-report survey study. ASC was assessed through a Turkish version of Myself-As-a-Learner Scale (MALS) (Burden, 2012) while achievement was measured by composite course mark at the end of Term I. Data analysis showed that female and male participants had varying levels of ACS, with girls reporting more positive academic self concept. It was also found that Turkish marks correlated significantly with ASC. The relationship was still significant when gender was controlled, implying the gender variable did not have any moderating effect. This study concludes that understanding ASC can provide useful information to teachers of Turkish and other fields alike both at the level of prediction and intervention

MEASURING POSSIBLE LANGUAGE TEACHER SELVES: A SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY

The current study set out to build on the limited research on possible language teacher selves. The study aimed to develop a possible language teacher selves scale (PLTSS) for English as a foreign language (EFL) student teachers. The tripartite scale intending to measure the constructs of ideal, ought-to and feared language teacher selves was developed in two major stages. Data were collected from two distinct samples of senior Turkish EFL student teachers studying at twelve different universities in Turkey. In a preliminary study, tentative scale items were constructed based on a review of literature and qualitative data collected from a small sample, and finalized through expert review and pre-piloting. The initial form of the scale was then administered to 296 senior student teachers of English. Following an exploratory factor analysis, the final form of the scale was constructed. The final form was administered to a different sample involving 274 student teachers. By this way, the scale was further validated through confirmatory factor analysis. The three scales under the PLTSS were checked for internal consistency reliability with both datasets. Findings revealed sound psychometric properties of the PLTSS in terms of construct validity and internal consistency reliability

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

The relationship between learners' oral errors and teachers' corrective feedback in three EFL classes

Ankara : Faculty of Humanities and Letters and The Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University, 1993.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1993.Includes bibliographical references leaves 39-43This study sought to provide a description of how EFL students' oral errors are treated by three EFL teachers. This study had four research questions. Three EFL teachers (from BUSEL, Bilkent University School of English) participated in this study. Two lessons of each teacher were recorded and analyzed using Chaudron's (1988) taxonomy of corrective feedback types and Chaudron's (1986) definitions of error types. Frequencies were tabulated for feedback types and error types. The first research question was how frequently and which oral errors of learners are corrected. The data revealed that the three teachers corrected 57% of the total oral errors. Of these errors, 88% were content errors, 86% were discourse errors, 64% were lexical errors, 46% were linguistic errors, and 25% were phonological errors. The second research question was what types of corrective feedback are used by EFL teachers. The data showed that the three teachers used eighteen types of feedback: 'ignore', 'acceptance', 'delay', 'provide', 'loop', 'interrupt', 'questions', 'attention', 'explanation', 'negation', 'repetition with change', 'complex explanation', 'prompt', 'transfer', 'repetition with no change', 'emphasis', 'repeat', and 'exit'. The third research question investigated the relationship between error types and corrective feedback types. A simple calculation of frequencies of feedback types for corrected errors revealed that phonological errors were responded to mostly with the type 'provide' (71%). The teachers also tended to prefer using the type 'provide' for discourse errors (46%). Teachers used the feedback type 'delay' as most frequently for linguistic and lexical errors, 27% and 44% respectively. However, no dominant preference for any feedback type was found for treating content errors. The fourth research question sought to find the differences between the three teachers in correcting errors. Three teachers tended to correct different amounts of errors, though two of the teachers corrected similar amounts of errors. The teachers corrected 50%, 55%, and 66% of total oral errors. For feedback types teachers did not show great differences, they all used the feedback types 'ignore', 'acceptance', 'delay', 'provide', and 'loop' most frequently. Only teacher B used the type 'explanation' more frequently than the other teachers. There also appeared differences in the teachers' feedback type preferences for certain types of error. The three teachers used different feedback types for content errors; teacher A used the type 'negation' (27%), teacher B used the type 'questions'( 25%), and teacher C used the types 'delay' (33%) and 'attention' (20%). For discourse errors, teacher A and B used the type 'provide' most frequently but teacher C used the types 'negation' and 'loop' most frequently. No major difference was found in three teachers' feedback preferences for other types of error.Erten, İsmail HakkıM.S

The relationship between ideal L2 self, achievement attributions and L2 achievement /

This study examines whether learners’ (high vs. low) ‘ideal L2 self’ exerts an effect on causal attributions and which of these causal attributions could predict future L2 achievement. To this end, 1006 EFL students were invited from a state university in Ankara, Turkey. The data were collected with an attribution scale composed of 29 questions and with a questionnaire containing 10 items measuring learners’ ideal L2 self. The researchers also collected the students’ achievement scores to measure the predictive power of causal attributions. The impact of high and low ideal L2 self on causal attributions was analyzed through MANOVA and the prediction power of these attributions for achievement was measured through regression analysis using SPSS 23. It was found that learners’ ideal L2 self (high vs. low) influenced causal attributions, including ability, school system, teacher, family and classroom environment. It was also found that the attribution to effort, luck and ability are the best predictors of future exam scores of learners. These predictors could provide insightful implications for EFL teachers with regard to the actions they can take in order to diagnose motivationally at risk students and to boost their motivation through effective designs of interventions embedded into the curriculum

Construct Validity of Language Achievement Causal Attribution Scale (LACAS)

Causal attribution theory has attracted the attention of the scholars recently as it has a pivotal role in learners' motivated behaviour and effort for their future learning experiences. According to this theory, learners' perceived cause of their academic performances can be based on locus of control, controllability or stability. In this way, it might be easier for scholars or teachers to identify the "motivationally-at risk" students and take necessary actions. Although learners might state a wide range of reasons for their performances including effort, ability, or teacher, it is challenging to collect quantitative data when the number of the participants is quite high as a valid and a reliable scale, specifically designed for language learning- has not been developed in the world yet. Considering this shortcoming, this study purports to develop a scale to measure causal attributions of language learners, so that scholars can easily determine motivational problems among students. (c) Association of Applied Linguistics. All rights reserve

Listening to Practising Teachers: Implications for Teacher Training Programs

This paper reports on findings from a small scale preliminary study that sought to explore how practising teachers feel about their university education they received as part of their training as teachers of English. To do this, a web-based self-report survey form was administered to 49 practising Turkish teachers of English (mean length of experience = 6 years) across Turkey. Descriptive statistical analysis revealed that participants were fairly satisfied with their program. Qualitative analysis showed that participants often complain that they did not experience real life teaching during their education; that they were unaware of contextual challenges awaiting; and that there was a mismatch between ideals and actuals. Correspondingly, participants suggest that teacher training programs offer more real life teaching experience and help trainee teachers develop skills that will help them overcome real life teaching challenges. This study has demonstrated that listening to practising teachers may help teacher trainers develop more down-to-earth teacher education programs. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Wo