International Journal of Language Academy

3-13

Authors: Gülden İLİN

This case study explores an ELT supervisor’s constructs on effective supervision. In order to achieve this aim, repertory grid technique, a non-directive elicitation technique which is originally used in clinical psychology was utilised. Having acquired the espoused theories of the supervisor, to find evidence on whether or not and the extent to which, if any, the participant supervisor puts these espoused theories in action, the supervisor’s feedback sessions he held with his student-teachers at teaching practice period were recorded. The recorded sessions were later transcribed and subjected to content analysis. The analysis of the transcriptions revealed evidence on the observable similarities and discrepancies between his personal and actual theories regarding the issue under investigation. Next, a follow-up interview based on the supervisor’s constructs in his grid was held. The interview had an emergent style and it had a twofold purpose. First, it served to the triangulation and validation of the data obtained by means of repertory grid elicitation technique and the recordings of the feedback sessions. Second, the interview constituted a ground for discussion and a mutual understanding on what meanings the participant attached to his constructs. The findings demonstrate that the supervisor is able to put the majority of his theories into practice while supervising the student-teachers. In terms of the significant themes that stand out in all three data collection tools used for the study, we find out that the supervisor views “reflection” and “self-assessment” as effective tools for teachers’ professional development.

30-37

Authors: İskender Hakkı SARIGÖZ

This case study was designed to increase the language level adjustment awareness of the teacher trainees who were microteaching English as a foreign language in methodology courses conducted in ELT (English Language Teaching) departments. Although there is a predetermined language level during any microteaching, there may be unintended mismatch between the levels of teacher talk and class interlanguage. If such an inequality occurs and persists in a class, the teacher and the students may experience communication problems in the interactive setting of the classroom. In this respect, methodology courses should direct pre-service teachers to pay utmost attention to this subject and offer training. This case study displays a research on microteachings where ELT trainees act as students who are learning Russian, and Russian language trainees act as teachers and perform microteachings. They teach beginners level daily Russian in twenty-five minute sessions. ELT department teacher trainees who are the subject group try to learn Russian and observe the language level adjustment performed by the Russian language teacher trainees. Shortly, this study focuses on the reflections of the interaction between two teacher trainee groups. According to the data gathered in this case study, the level of teacher talk performed by teacher trainees in microteachings must be among the important methodological aspects to be focused on during teacher training. In the preparation, presentation, and assessment stages of microteachings the minor and major factors affecting the adjustment of teacher talk must be handled in an applied manner as well as theoretical.

48-69

Authors: Süleyman BAŞARAN & Neşe CABAROĞLU

Based on earlier research findings that experience affects self-efficacy perception, the present study probes into possible effects of E-learning experiences on English self-efficacy by enabling participants to listen to language learning podcasts repetitively and do related task-based activities. It focuses on first-year university students’ self-efficacy perceptions of listening, speaking, reading and writing at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Participants’ self-efficacy perceptions concerning motivation and expectations are also analyzed. The quasi-experimental study has a pretest-posttest research design, in which a non-random convenience sample of 187 university students were given the English Self-Efficacy Scale before and after a 12-week podcast-based language learning program. Collected data are analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Wilcoxon test results show that there is a statistically significant difference in participants’ perceptions of their listening comprehension, speaking, and reading skills. Self-efficacy perceptions concerning writing have improved significantly, as well. These findings support the idea that novel technology-based applications can have positive outcomes for language learning. However, participants’ self-efficacy perception concerning reading and understanding advanced level stories did not improve significantly. The finding that participants’ self-efficacy perceptions concerning advanced level of proficiency did not improve may be due to the fact that the level of the podcasts and related tasks covered by the program was elementary and that the program duration was insufficient for gaining high self-efficacy for advanced level skills in English.

95-108

Authors: Monireh AZİMZADEH

This study aims to investigate the learners’ ability in using their L2 knowledge in production. We investigated if there is a native like production when the need to focus on meaning has been decreased through task repetition, thus learners are free to attend to form, not from input which they receive but from their own internal system. Thus, the main concern of this research was to explore the impacts of task repetition on accuracy, fluency and complexity of EFL learners’ oral production. We tried to investigate if learners were more accurate, more fluent or more complex as we repeated the same tasks for the second time after one week. This study was conducted with 60 EFL students (males and females) who were ELT students and medicine students at Ataturk University .To examine the effects of task repetition on fluency, accuracy, and complexity of learners, participants’ performances on the first attempt and second attempt of the same task were recorded and scored. In order to answer research questions the data were submitted to statistical analysis including paired t-test. The results of t-test indicate that task repetition has a significant impact on the development of learners’ oral production in terms of fluency and accuracy.

127-143

Authors: Hayrettin TUNÇEL

The aim of this study was to outline the Natural Approach, a foreign language teaching method, and to describe how the foreign language teaching principles of the Natural Approach can be used in Turkish teaching. Document analysis as a qualitative research method was used. Document analysis can be used as a stand alone data collection method. In document analysis, written materials containing information on the target subject or subjects to be studied are used (Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2011). In document analysis, reaching the original sources of the documents are considered very important. In this context, the original copy of the book The Natural Approach- Language Acquisition in the Classroom written by Karshen and Terrel, printed in 1983 was taken as reference. The original language of the book is English. In this study, it was aimed to describe the history and general principles of the Natural Approach, and its approaches to grammar teaching, curriculum and language classes, and recommendations on classroom management, the strategies developed for individual differences in languages classes, the view of the using a second language in class and how to adapt them to Turkish as a foreign language classes. According to the study results, many principles of the Natural Approach are still useful, and can be applied in classrooms where Turkish as a foreign language is taught. Some examples regarding the adaptations of some basic principles of the Natural Approach to Turkish as a foreign language classes and teaching Turkish are presented at the end of this study

165-181

Authors: Fehmi Can Sendan & Dönercan Dönük

Voices of the novice teachers serve as the evidence that pure theoretical knowledge remains somewhere at the very top, superficial, and it does not always go hand in hand with the reality in the classroom. In the light of this information, this study aims to throw light upon the fact that there might be occasional gaps between the curricula of Language Teacher Education (LTE) programs, and real classroom applications, which can be abridged through constructivist approaches. The participants in this research are fifty novice teachers (twenty took part in further research) currently employed at schools. The majority of the teachers have been engaged in the profession for at least one year, the experience ranging from one to five years; in other words, they are already familiar with the conditions of classroom settings. The study indicates that these teachers sometimes encounter classroom management problems. The books that show how classroom management strategies can be improved may help the teacher to a certain extent; however, in some cases theory remains de-contextualized, for each classroom environment displays a unique feature. Under the circumstances, the teachers should be equipped with some constructivist approaches such as ‘reflection’ to cope with the problems arising in the classroom.

195-203

Authors: Önder ÇAKIRTAŞ & Ömer ŞEKERCİ

Samuel Beckett’s plays are regarded as ‘theatre of menace’; Endgame, one of the masterpieces of Beckett, is a typical example of it. Beckett's characters have contradictory and ambivalent relationships with each other. Their search for their identity through their inner thoughts’ interaction with the external world—the world of ‘existence and non-existence’—their necessity for ‘trust’ and the relatedness between age and ego are dealt with in this paper. Although these efforts are attempts to cover prospective contingency, the negativity of the past responds to the brokenness of the same life, in the same breath. Flashbacks turn identity search inside out, and the feeling of 'self-integrity versus despair' gains intensity in the process of old age. Needs vary from childhood to old age; accordingly, the reaction-based inferences relieve not only the ontological existence of the characters, but also their mental and spiritual beings. These reaction-based inferences lead sometimes to identity distortion, and sometimes bodily/physical depressions, and sometimes spiritual meltdowns; so, Beckett refers to the vital skills of the characters/ in modern/post-modern world order. This paper aims to reveal the probable reasons behind the identity crises of these characters as in line with Erikson’s psychological development stratagem such as self-actualization, esteem, love/belonging, safety and physiology. The psychological development of Beckett’s characters striving for concrete answers to their fragmented souls in the meaningless world in Endgame are depicted as fragmented psyches. ‘Ego integrity versus despair’ has been covered from a psychological perspective.