Reflection of the Accession Process of Turkey to European Union on Doctoral Theses Written About Foreign Language Education in Turkey 1987-2017

Abstract

The European Union is the most important political and social integration of the 20th century. EU member countries have worked to develop common policies not only in the field of economy, but also in social, cultural, political and educational fields. In the European Union member countries, foreign language teaching is one of the most important topics in the field of education. European Union accepted Turkey as a candidate country in the enlargement process. With Turkey’s full EU membership process which started in 2005, importance of foreign language education increased in all educational institutions in Turkey. Ministry of National Education and Universities have carried out and implemented studies on pre-school language education, curriculum, language teaching methods, and foreign language teacher education within the scope of language education. Undoubtedly, academic studies on foreign language teaching play an active role for a successful language education. In this study, how Turkey's EU membership process is reflected in the doctoral theses on foreign language education published in 1987-2017 and how the research topics in doctoral theses changed with the start of the membership process were investigated. Document analysis technique was used in the research. Since the universe was used as a sample in the study, it is a study of complete inventory. 58 doctoral theses were examined. They were analyzed in terms of titles. Practical and concrete proposals related to foreign language teaching in Turkey were presented in accordance with the results obtained in the light of findings of the research. The study shows that with the effect of the Turkey’s accession process to European Union full membership, research topics in doctoral dissertations have changed and focal points in PhD theses were determined as foreign language teaching, Creative writing skills, Creative thinking skills, Understanding By Design, Mobile Multimedia Support,Web based Foreign Language Teaching,Detailing Theory, Intercultural Communication.