Student engagement in K12 online education during the pandemic: The case of Turkey

Student engagement has become a challenge for K-12 students and teachers in online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored the factors underlying student engagement and the strategies teachers developed to engage students. Thematically analyzed interview data coming from 22 teachers and 20 students of public high schools revealed teachers' and students' similar perceptions of the factors affecting student engagement. The four themes identified were instructional and student related factors along with those related to the learning environment and policies. The teacher strategies for the facilitation of student engagement were instructional, managerial, and affective. Teachers also discussed which of these strategies were helpful in fostering student engagement

The socio-educational model of second language acquisition: The Turkish context

In the socio-educational model the complex of attitudes toward the learning situation and motivation reflects an integrative motive that promotes language learning. Whether integrative motive exists in EFL settings or whether it is more relevant to ESL contexts has been an issue of debate for years. The present study aims to expand the current knowledge on this issue and investigate the generalizability of the socio-educational model to the Turkish context. In the research conducted with Turkish EFL learners reliability and construct validity of the AMTB, as well as correlates of the major elements of the model with grades in English and their perceived language competence were analyzed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Elementary school EFL learners' vocabulary learning: The effects of post-reading activities

As language learning involves the acquisition of thousands of words, teachers and learners alike would like to know how vocabulary learning can be fostered, especially in EFL settings where learners frequently acquire impoverished lexicons, despite years of formal study. Research indicates that reading is important but not sufficient for second-language vocabulary learning, and that it should be supplemented by post-reading activities to enhance students' vocabulary knowledge. The present study investigates the effects of two types of post-reading activities: discrete written tasks on their own and a combination of written tasks along with interactive tasks on the vocabulary acquisition of young learners in an EFL setting. A total of 62 Grade 6 students in two classes in a public school in Turkey participated in the study. Data were collected by the Cambridge English Test (CYLET) and Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS). Results showed that the experimental group students outperformed the control group students in acquisition of both selected and unselected vocabulary items. The use of interactive tasks as post-reading activities proved to be an effective way of enhancing the L2 vocabulary knowledge of young learners. (c) 2006 The Canadian Modern Language Review

The pedagogical content knowledge development of prospective teachers through an experiential task

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) forms a knowledge base for teachers, guiding their decisions and actions in classrooms. The value of PCK has been emphasized since late 1980s, yet, still not much is known about the process of PCK development among prospective teachers. The present study aims to investigate the PCK development of Turkish prospective teachers through the process of an experiential task. Data were collected from 18 participants through focus group interviews and narratives, and analyzed by means of qualitative methods. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Exploring university students’ self-regulation in online foreign language education

With the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, online education has been embraced as an instructional delivery mode to ensure continuity in all levels of education including higher education. Given the fact that the success of online learning heavily relies on the learner’s ability to autonomously regulate their learning, this study focuses on self-regulatory behaviors of tertiary level EFL learners enrolled in an online intensive language preparatory program. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered to explore learners’ perceived levels of online self-regulation; the predictive role of online learning self-efficacy beliefs in their self-regulation; and the strategies they used to regulate their learning in online education. Findings revealed learners’ moderate level of online self-regulation predicted by their self-efficacy beliefs. Moreover, EFL learners used a variety of strategies to regulate their learning before, during and after synchronous online classes