ELT teachers' research engagement: Perspectives from Turkey

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers about the concept of research. It attempts to explore the extent that they read and do research and the factors affecting why they do so. A quantitative study was conducted with 152 English language teachers teaching at various levels in Turkey through an online survey by employing the first convenience and then snowball sampling methods. The data were collected utilizing Borg’s (2009) English Language Teachers’ Views of Research survey and it was statistically analyzed by SPSS. The results indicated that teachers conceptualized research similar to a scientific notion of inquiry. They thought that good research should include teacher objectivity, which was found as the most important feature, hypothesis, experiments, variables, statistical analysis, a large number of participants. Furthermore, teachers also reported that lacking enough time and finding doing research not practical in a classroom setting were the most dominant factors that had a negative impact on their research engagement. However, the current study revealed that teachers do research for their professional development and to enhance their teaching techniques whereas lacking time and lacking interest in research emerged as the most significant obstacles for not doing research.