Turkish English As A Foreign Language Learners Research Articles

An Investigation into the Relationship Between Metacognitive Knowledge and Writing Achievement of Turkish EFL Learners

Writing poses a substantial yet demanding challenge for individuals learning English as a foreign language (EFL). In contemporary frameworks, this skill is characterized as a complex, recursive, strategic, and multifaceted process that engages both cognitive and metacognitive faculties. Consequently, recent decades have witnessed a burgeoning body of research spotlighting the pivotal role of metacognition in EFL writing. This study, employing an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, set out to delve into the depth of metacognitive awareness among Turkish EFL students concerning English writing. The study encompassed a cohort of 120 Turkish EFL students at the B2 level. To gauge the participants' metacognitive understanding concerning the variables of person, task, and strategy, a questionnaire was administered. Additionally, interviews were conducted with 35 participants to augment and elucidate the quantitative findings. Analyzing the data disclosed that participants exhibited an average level of knowledge with respect to person and strategy dimensions, but they demonstrated a robust understanding of the task dimension. Further scrutiny through correlation analysis, which explored the link between students' writing achievement and their metacognitive awareness, revealed a weak positive relationship between students' writing proficiency and their comprehension of both person-related and strategy-related aspects. In contrast, there was no statistically significant correlation between task-related knowledge and writing achievement. Content analysis of the findings shed light on noteworthy disparities among high-achieving, average-achieving, and low-achieving EFL writers concerning their grasp of metacognitive knowledge. In alignment with their writing performance, high-achieving writers outperformed their counterparts in all the metacognitive subcategories.

Subtitles and Captions: An Instrument for Intentional or Incidental Learning?

Audio-visual materials such as TV series and films offer multiple semiotic modes and authentic language input for language learning. This case study sought to depict English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ habits of utilising subtitles and captions for incidental and intentional learning of grammar and vocabulary through on-screen texts, subtitles and captions. The target group was determined through criterion sampling because they were expected to watch English TV series or films to be eligible to take part in the study. A survey and inter-view were employed to gather data from 113 Turkish EFL learners studying at the tertiary level. The quantitative data were analysed descriptively, while the qualitative data were analysed using a constant comparative method (Creswell & Poth, 2016). The findings revealed that, by watching captioned TV series and films, most of the participants performed intentional learning of vocabulary and grammar, whereas some are engaged in incidental learning. The strategies used by EFL learners for intentional learning of vocabulary and grammar were also provided.

A systematic review: An investigation of studies on the use of discourse connectors in Turkish EFL learners’ academic writing

The goal of this study was to analyze a collection of studies on discourse connectors in EFL learners’ writing in Turkey in terms of the distribution, purposes, corpora, findings, and pedagogical implications of certain studies between 2012-2022 in order to reveal research tendencies in this field. This review uses a systematic approach to identify and analyze studies on the use of discourse connectors in Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) academic writing in Turkey. The data analysis procedure comprised a detailed evaluation and synthesis of the selected studies. The systematic review process involved deciding on the subject to be studied, doing a thorough assessment of the literature, selecting the studies that would be included in the study, collecting the data obtained from the investigation, analyzing the data, and reporting the findings. Out of 21 reviewed studies, 8 research papers, 9 M.A. theses, 2 Ph.D. dissertations, and 2 proceedings were reached. In light of the obtained results, it can be concluded that most of the studies were conducted to compare the discourse connectors in native and non-native academic writing such as argumentative essays, MA theses, or doctoral dissertations (Ph.D.), native and non-native corpora, or in written and spoken language respectively. In the last part of the research, practical implications and suggestions for further research were offered in detail.

The mediating role of self-disclosure in the relationship between masculine gender role stress and foreign language classroom anxiety

ABSTRACT The excessive anxiety male EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students feel in their foreign language classrooms may have considerable drawbacks on their verbal and productive performances. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of self-disclosure in the relationship between masculine gender role stress and foreign language classroom anxiety. This research embraced a quantitative research design by utilizing a survey. Data were collected from male Turkish EFL learners (n = 227). Male gender was determined through self-identification. A closed-ended questionnaire including a demographic part and three scales was administered: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, Masculine Gender Role Stress, and Self-disclosure. The findings were analyzed by using Pearson Correlation Test and the mediation model proposed by Hayes (2018). There was a positive and significant correlation between masculine gender role stress and foreign language classroom anxiety. Also, each of these two variables had a negative and significant correlation with self-disclosure. Further, self-disclosure mediated the relationship between masculine gender role stress and foreign language classroom anxiety. These findings suggest that the excessive masculine gender role stress that participants possess in language classrooms is likely to decrease their self-disclosure skills, which might increase their foreign language classroom anxiety.

Cross-cultural Study of Grit among Iranian, Turkish, and Iraqi EFL Learners

Introduction: Positive psychology has been a buzzword in language learning and teaching practices recently. Among different concepts, grit, a tendency to maintain stamina to tackle long-term challenges, has received significant but inadequate consideration. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the role of grit in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) by Iranian, Turkish, and Iraqi learners.
 Methodology: Using a non-experimental and descriptive design, the present study explored three cohorts from Iranian, Turkish, and Iraqi learning contexts to compare EFL learners’ grit to examine whether language played a role in their perseverance of effort combined with passion. A total of 684 EFL learners participated in the study from three different cultures. The data for the study were collected via Google form employing the domain-specific L2 grit scale designed by Teimouri et al. (2020). 
 Results: The findings revealed that Persian learners’ grit in language learning was higher than the other two groups in terms of proficiency level. Moreover, regardless of the EFL learners’ first language, learners at advanced levels had the highest mean, followed by the intermediate and elementary groups. However, there was no significant interaction between the first language and proficiency.
 Conclusion: In conclusion, grit can act as a strong predictor of EFL learners’ achievement as their level of English proficiency increases. The findings could benefit material developers and teachers and help them consider grit as a predictor of achievement for EFL learners.

An error analysis on Turkish EFL learners’ writing tasks

This descriptive qualitative study aimed to investigate the types and sources of errors committed by Turkish students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in their foreign language (L2) writings as well as find out whether there is a difference in terms of the number, classification, and sources of errors between students at two different proficiency levels. To this end, the study was carried out at the School of Foreign Languages at a non-profit foundation university in Turkey in the 2020-2021 academic year. The students participating in the study (N= 32), who were selected using the convenient sampling method and participated in the study voluntarily, were Turkish preparatory class students having two different English proficiency levels, namely A1 level (n= 16) and A2 level (n= 16). Data for the study came from three different narrative paragraphs (each ranging in a 100 - 200 word band) written by the students, and a total of 96 paragraphs were collected for the study. The analysis revealed that the most frequent type of error was grammatical errors overall, a large part of which was the inappropriate use of verb forms. Moreover, findings concerning the potential differences between two proficiency levels showed that A1 level learners committed more errors than A2 level learners in all types except the semantic errors. Based on these findings, a number of implications for L2 writing teachers are discussed.

The Use of Translanguaging Pedagogy in Writing Classes of Turkish EFL Learners

Despite the blurred boundaries among languages and classroom evidence contrary to the implementation of monolingual pedagogies, the dominance of monolingual policies for teaching foreign languages continues to persist. To provide foreign language learners with an appropriate bilingual pedagogy and target one of the most challenging second language (L2) skills, this study aimed to explore the role of translanguaging pedagogy (TP) in writing classes and participants’ perceptions regarding its implementation in English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The participants (n=63) at the English prep school of a state university were assigned as one control and two experimental groups. Throughout one semester, the first experimental group was exposed to TP in their writing classes, whereas the second one learned writing through the translanguaging instructional cycle excluding their mother tongue (L1). The control group had product-focused English-only writing classes. Quantitative data collected via four in-class writing tasks (WTs) from three groups were analysed using inferential statistics. A weekly questionnaire regarding the first experimental groups’ perceptions of TP was conducted. The results revealed significant gains in task achievement, lexical and grammatical range and accuracy, and cohesion and coherence favouring TP and the participants found the implementation of TP useful in helping them improve in a variety of aspects in their English writing classes.

Language teachers’ perceptions of using Google keyboard in L2 writing

Despite the growth of research on mobile technologies in educational contexts, research on language teachers’ perceptions of mobile technologies – particularly in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) – remains sparse. Hence, the present study explored EFL teachers’ perceptions of using Google keyboard (Gboard) for L2 writing instruction. The participants were two teachers who taught 47 intermediate Turkish EFL learners. Data were collected from the teachers. They were asked to keep a teaching journal and report their perceptions of Gboard implementation as well as the most distinctive lexical errors they deemed to emerge in the learners’ writing. Data analyses indicated that the teachers perceived the integration of Gboard into instruction as an effective intervention that assisted with enhancing the spelling accuracy of the learners. The implications of the study have been discussed.

Are enjoyment and anxiety specific to culture? An investigation into the sources of Turkish EFL learners’ foreign language enjoyment and anxiety

ABSTRACT Purpose Learners’ emotions are crucial because they contribute to learners’ being active and their achievement in foreign language learning. Considering the importance of emotions, this study aimed to measure both foreign language enjoyment and anxiety and determine the underlying of these emotions. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods approach was adopted. Quantitative data were gathered from 305 university students of English as a foreign language (EFL) through a scale. Regarding a qualitative part, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 learners to further investigate the variables of foreign language enjoyment and anxiety. Findings Quantitative results confirm the previous research, emphasizing that enjoyment and anxiety are separate dimensions, and foreign language enjoyment is shaped by both learner and social variables. However, qualitative data provide a new understanding, indicating that learner-external variables might overweigh internal variables in a Turkish context in terms of enjoyment. Extrinsic motivational variables (e.g. guidance and role model teachers), institutional variables (e.g. facilities and location) and methodological variables (e.g. teaching methodology) were dominant as different from the findings of the previous research. Originality/value The study found new sources, emphasizing the impact of external variables over emotions. Unlike previous research, this study interestingly suggests that external sources are more influential in Turkish EFL learners, which might be an indication of culture. This is because Turkish learners are mostly not autonomous and dependent on cultural values, expectations, and guidance rather than individualistic perspectives. Thus, the dimensions of the foreign language enjoyment scale might show variance by context, and it is suggested to be adapted appropriately to the different cultures.

Turkish intermediate EFL learners' perceptual learning style preferences and willingness to communicate across gender

In the educational setting, learning style plays an important role since individuals are unlike in terms of their learning styles. As the area of modern language, teaching and learning has evolved over the last several decades. The instructors and students have seen a number of significant shifts in language teaching, learning techniques and approaches. The late 1970s saw the emergence of perceptual learning style theory in educational discourse. This research included one hundred English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students who were studying English at a public university in Turkey. The current research examined the link between learners' perceptual learning style and readiness to communicate, as well as the influence of gender on these relationships. After obtaining agreement from the participants, two questionnaires were sent to the students. Having ascertained the assumptions of normality of data, the researchers used Pearson correlation coefficient and Independent sample t-test as a parametric test for relationship and difference analysis. The results of the analysis revealed a positive and significant correlation between the participants' visual learning style, group learning style and kinesthetic learning style preferences and their willingness to communicate. Moreover, it was revealed that there was not any significant relationship between tactile learning style, auditory learning style and individual learning style preferences of participants and their willingness to communicate. Moreover, it was found that, gender does not make any significant difference on perceptual learning style preference of learners and their willingness to communicate.

Research Perspectives on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learning Motivation in Turkish Context: A Systematic Review of Studies between 2010 and 2021

Motivation has been demonstrated to be an important affective factor in language learning process and its importance has led to the emergence of diverse research perspectives in both foreign and second language learning contexts. In addition to the research studies investigating language learning motivation of learners, review studies presenting the picture of how and in what ways this phenomenon has been studied as a research focus make a significant contribution to the understanding of it. Based on this, this study aims to scrutinize how English as a foreign language (EFL) motivation has been studied as a research matter in Turkish context. Aims of the studies, the participant groups and contexts, research methodologies, motivational frameworks followed and major findings were examined to find out the general trends in EFL motivation research. For these purposes, 14 research studies and nine master’s thesis and doctoral dissertations in the last 10-year period were selected based on certain criteria, and they were systematically analyzed in the light of the research questions. The findings showed that motivational research in Turkish EFL context mainly concentrate on university context, and some of the findings related to motivational orientations of Turkish EFL learners are inconsistent and need more investigation.

EFL Teachers’ Perceptions on Learner Autonomy in Online Instruction during the Lockdown Period

Teaching English has been one of the subjects deeply affected by the lockdown and physical isolation period caused by COVID-19, and schools around the world had to switch to online instruction at short notice. Students engaged in this distance learning process with different autonomy levels; some adapted to the new learning system easily, while others felt lost and depended solely on what the teachers said. This descriptive study aims to discover the perception of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers on learner autonomy levels of Turkish EFL learners during online instruction throughout the lockdown period; what the biggest barriers that blocked their students’ autonomous study habits were; and what strategies teachers/ instructors followed to enhance the students’ autonomy levels. In order to analyse the data collected through an online questionnaire from 66 teacher participants, a descriptive study design with a mixed method approach was adopted. Correlational analysis was performed on the quantitative data, and qualitative data was open coded with content analysis. Findings showed that Turkish EFL learners were perceived to be autonomous at a rate of 55% by their teachers during the online instruction period, and self-access materials, technology, motivation, and the affective factors played a significant role in the development, degree, and perception of autonomy in online learning.

DISCOVERING SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS OF EFL LEARNERS AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-EFFICACY AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

The main purpose of the study was to investigate a) the self-efficacy level of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the process of learning English, b) whether their self-efficacy levels differ according to variables, such as proficiency levels and gender. It also targets c) to explore how self-efficient EFL learners are in terms of listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills. In addition, the study also aims at d) investigating whether there is a relationship between the self-efficacy level of Turkish EFL learners and their academic achievement. The setting of the study is a preparatory program. This study was implemented with 525 students enrolled at a state university in Turkey and carried out during the spring semester of the 2016- 2017 academic year. The study followed a mixed-method design; first, quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire, “Questionnaire of English Self-efficacy”, developed by Acikel (2011) and adapted by the researcher. The results of the questionnaire were analysed via Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0. Secondly, semi-structured interviews, whose protocol was developed by the researcher, with randomly selected 24 participants were carried out to assist the quantitative data with the qualitative one.

The impact of L1 ınterference on foreign language writing: A contrastive error analysis

In today’s world, educational contexts are getting increasingly multicultural. Although EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classes in Turkey were mostly composed of Turkish students a decade ago, today students from any part of the world are brought together within the frame of various student exchange programs. In Turkish EFL contexts, students coming from Middle Eastern countries make up a huge part of classes (A–zer, 2016). The objective of the current study is to examine L1 negative interference errors of Turkish and Arabic EFL learners. Accordingly, 30 B1 (Intermediate) EFL students’ written assignments were examined and divided into categories. Besides, this study makes a comparative analysis of Turkish and Arabic EFL learners' grammatical and lexical errors within the frame of L1 negative transfer. When the results of the Mann-Whitney U test are analyzed, it is understood that Turkish and Arabic students' grammatical interference exam scores differ statistically (p <0.05). When the total amount of errors is analyzed, Turkish students’ grammar errors (n=164) stem from, majority of which are articles, preposition and tense errors, respectively as 18.82%, 17.65% and 11.76 whilst Arabic students make a huge part of their errors (n=352) on capitalization, punctuation and tenses/articles, respectively as 16.19%, 15.06%, and 12.78%. In the frame of the lexical category, Turkish students performed 48 lexical errors, the majority of which are spelling and collocation errors. On the other hand, Arabic students committed 96 lexical errors in total, the majority of which are spelling errors (60.4%) while 15.5% of the errors are wrong word choice. In general, lexical errors were fewer than grammatical errors.   © 2020 JLLS and the Authors - Published by JLLS.

The emergence and influence of group leaders in web-based collaborative writing: self-reported accounts of EFL learners

Web-based collaborative writing (CW) has been widely used in the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) during the last decade. Previous studies have mainly focused on how online platforms have facilitated the CW process for EFL learners, how web-based CW has shown progress in EFL learners’ writing development, and how EFL learners in groups interact with one another during web-based CW. However, there are limited studies on web-based CW among Turkish EFL learners. The aim of this study was to analyse Turkish high school EFL learners’ self-reported accounts of their writing process in English with the support of group leaders in a web-based CW activity. The key findings were that first, the groups found the need to elect a group leader to act as a facilitator for other group members, and that group members found their group leader’s help in planning their writing tasks and corrective feedback useful for their learning; second, group leaders provided affective support during the writing activity, with group members reporting that praise and motivational phrases received from their group leaders increased their self-confidence and motivation towards writing in English. This study contributes to knowledge about improving high school EFL learners’ writing through a web-based CW activity. The peer leadership approach is promising in supporting student’s self-efficacy and self-regulation in learning and is easily applicable to teachers in other contexts who wish to promote writing activities outside of the classroom setting.

Revisiting the socio-educational model of second language acquisition in Turkish tertiary EFL context

The aim of this study is to analyze and determine the various socio-psychological orientations of undergraduate students in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to have a comprehensive overview. Â The study was originally intended by the school administration to improve the quality of instruction and promote positive attitudes by understanding individual students, mainly in terms of their language learning motivation and attitudes towards learning English. The participants were 793 university prep-year students studying a one-year EFL program to complete their postsecondary education in an English-medium state university in Turkey. The data were collected using Attitude-Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) (adapted Turkish version, Gardner, 2004). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 23 software firstly to be able to display the current situation regarding the 6 constructs measured by AMTB, mainly; integrativeness, attitudes toward the learning situation, motivation, language anxiety, instrumental orientation and parental encouragement levels of Turkish tertiary students in EFL learning by gender and level of proficiency. The results of this study identified that Turkish EFL learners at tertiary level showed relatively high levels of the qualities measured by the AMTB constructs and their sub-scales, except in attitudes toward English speaking people and anxiety . As an interesting finding, the participating students of the study were found to be often anxious in participating the English classes and using English, while female students felt more discomfort concerning these issues.

The Role of Vocabulary vs. Syntactic Knowledge in L2 Reading Comprehension

Research in literature reports the importance of L2 vocabulary and syntactic knowledge on the learners’ reading comprehension. In this regard, the current study investigated the role of vocabulary knowledge that is disunited into depth and breadth dimensions and syntactic knowledge in the reading comprehension scores of an advanced cohort of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. In particular, this study examined the relationship of vocabulary knowledge (with its two dimensions) and syntactic knowledge with reading comprehension scores of 30 Turkish EFL learners and the extent to which these knowledge types explain the variance in reading comprehension scores. Measures of vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, syntactic knowledge and reading comprehension were used. The data analysis procedure included the descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that the depth of vocabulary knowledge predicts the L2 reading comprehension the best when the effect of vocabulary size and syntactic knowledge is controlled. These findings are discussed at the end of the study with future research suggestions and limitations.

Self-Efficacy and the Use of Compensatory Strategies: A Study on EFL Learners

&lt;p style="text-align:justify"&gt;This study aimed to explore the relationship between Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ self-efficacy level and their use of compensatory strategies (CSs). The study further searched into the most and the least frequently used CSs by Turkish EFL learners. The participants of the study were fifty university students enrolled in the department of English Language Teaching at a private university in Istanbul, Turkey. Results indicated that the level of self-efficacy among Turkish learners of EFL was high. The top two most frequently used CSs by the learners were concluded to be the use of non-verbal signals (i.e., mime, gesture, facial expression) and circumlocution (i.e., describing an object or idea with a definition). In addition, the two least frequently used strategies were word coinage (i.e., creating a non-existent second language word based on a supposed rule) and avoidance (i.e., avoiding a topic, concept, grammatical construction, or phonological element that poses difficulty). The findings also revealed that the participants’ strategy use was not related to their degree of self-confidence.&lt;/p&gt;

Turkish EFL Learners' Willingness to Communicate in L2 and Motivation

Willingness to communicate in a second language has become an important area of research recently. However, different factors which influence learners' willingness to communicate have not been widely investigated in the Turkish classroom context. Motivation is considered as an important factor which has a direct influence on learners' willingness to communicate. Thus, this study will look into the relationship between English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) in Turkish EFL context and their motivation about English learning through the participation of 106 EFL students who were registered in the one-year preparatory school at Usak University, Turkey. Language Learning Orientation Scale and Willingness to Communicate Scale were adopted for the study. Descriptive statistics and simple linear regression analysis were carried out to find out the relationship between WTC and motivation. Findings indicated that participants were somewhat willing to communicate and there was a significant correlation between learners' WTC and motivation. The findings of this study is useful in terms of the pedagogical and theoretical implications which emphasize the role of motivation in encouraging L2 learners' willingness to communicate.

An exploratory study on Turkish EFL learners’ readiness for autonomy and attitudes toward self‐access centers

This study investigated attitudes toward self‐access centers (SACs) and readiness for autonomous language learning among Turkish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). It also explored whether learners’ attitudes toward the SACs and their readiness for autonomy were related to frequency of SAC use. The study was carried out with 250 Turkish EFL learners at a preparatory language school at a state university in Ankara, Turkey. The researchers employed a SAC attitude questionnaire and a learner autonomy readiness questionnaire to collect data. The results revealed a statistically significant difference between the attitudes of infrequent users and regular SAC users, suggesting that learners’ attitudes toward the SAC and the frequency of SAC use were interrelated. The findings of the study also show that Turkish EFL learners were ready to take responsibility for their own learning despite their inclination to accept the teacher's power and authority in the learning process. Additionally, the SAC users were not necessarily the autonomous learners who made decisions about their own learning. The findings suggest the necessity of training EFL learners for independent learning and raising their awareness about the advantages of SACs so as to increase the effective use of the centers.