Enisa Mede

English Language Teachers’ Perceptions of Involvement in High-Stakes Testing in Turkey

This chapter explores the perceptions of English language teachers about their involvement in High-Stakes testing, offering insights into the role of teachers in the testing process. The aim is to examine how often they are engaged in the different stages of test preparation and discuss whether their involvement has an impact on this process and procedures. It also considers the implications of strategies of involving teachers as contributors to this process. To this end, English language teachers working at five different higher education institutions in Turkey participated in this study. The data was collected through a Likert scale to elicit information about their involvement in the testing preparation process and to examine the positive and negative washback effect of testing on their instructional practices.

Perceptions of Students, Teachers and Graduates About Civil Aviation Cabin Services ESP Program: An Exploratory Study in Turkey

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a movement based on the proposition that language teaching should be tailored to the specific learning and language needs of particular groups of students. In Turkey, the growth of English is striking as it is cultivating students’ English proficiency along with their English competence in specific areas to meet their future needs is given great importance. However, research done for ESP has been limited so far. The present study, therefore, aims to investigate the perceptions of Turkish ESP students, teachers and graduates regarding the English course designed for Aviation Cabin Crew Members. The data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and analyzed through pattern coding. The results revealed similar perceptions including the three groups of participants’ expectations, experiences, challenges and respective solutions about the development of the existing ESP course which will serve as a reference in designing similar programs to facilitate learning English for specific disciplines.

Effects of Videos on Students’ Knowledge of the Target Language Culture

As language and culture are two inseparable entities, language teachers need to take the culture of the target language into consideration during their teaching practices in order to have learners who are able to speak the language well and understand the social context in which it exists. Also, as 21 st century teachers, we cannot deny the efficacy of technology integrated courses to maximize learning. Grounded on this information, this research aimed to find out the effects of videos on the knowledge of the target culture of EFL students and to analyse students’ perceptions about learning culture of the target language. The participants of the study included 60 students enrolled at a public university in Turkey during 2016-2017 academic year. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected by means of a Target Culture Knowledge Test and an attitude questionnaire followed by semi-structured interviews regarding students’ perceptions about learning the culture of the target language. The results of the study pointed out that using videos enhanced students’ knowledge about the target culture. Also, the results indicated that students had a positive attitude toward learning the target culture. The findings can contribute to curriculum developers, teachers, instructors and teacher educators.

Integration of collaborative learning in Grade K-5 EFL classrooms

This study investigated the effectiveness of integrating collaborative learning in Turkish elementary (primary) classrooms where English is acquired as a foreign language. Specifically, it aimed at shedding light on how the participating students and teachers perceive such language classes, what are the effects of integrating this particular method in the classroom and how does working collaboratively influence students’ level of proficiency. A sample of 23 Turkish students (Grade 5, age 10–12) and 2 English teachers participated in the case study. Data were collected through a triangulated approach, in which pre- and post-tests, diaries and observations were administered to the two groups of participants. The findings revealed that collaborative learning has positive influence both on teaching and learning English in fifth-grade classrooms.