Exploring academic literacy practices of graduate students in English language teacher education programmes at English‐medium universities in Turkey

Abstract

AbstractWhile previous research has documented the challenges international students face during their graduate level study in U.S. universities (Casanave and Li, 2008), less is known about the graduate students at English‐medium universities, which are common in non‐English dominant (EFL) contexts. To address this gap in the literature, this exploratory research study investigates second language (L2) graduate students' academic literacy practices at English‐medium universities in Turkey. During one academic year, Turkish graduate students in English language education programmes at seven English‐medium universities were invited to participate in a survey regarding their academic literacy practices in English and Turkish. One hundred ten participants responded on the survey. In addition, a subset of participants was asked to participate in semi‐structured interviews. Graduate students stated that studying through the medium of English made it almost impossible to write in their L1 (i.e. Turkish). They, however, were asked to make parallel use of English and Turkish in some genres such as academic papers and conference abstracts. Based on the results, the study highlights the importance promoting academic biliteracy along with full‐bilingualism at graduate programmes in English‐medium universities.