The English language used to be specific to English-speaking countries such as the U.S.; however, it has evolved to become the new lingua franca all around the world. Considering the growing number of students studying abroad in English as a lingua franca (ELF) communities, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between Turkish exchange students' beliefs about English language learning and their study abroad sojourns in ELF contexts. The data were collected mainly through three instruments: language learner belief questionnaire (LLBQ), elicited journals, and a study abroad perception questionnaire (SAPQ). The quantitative and qualitative results revealed three important findings. First, there is a bi-directional relationship between students' pre- and post-beliefs about English language learning and their perceptions of study abroad experiences. Second, Turkish exchange students' overall beliefs remained almost the same across pre- and post-study abroad, suggesting that students might need stays longer than five months to have any observable changes in their beliefs about language learning. Third, although the current study's participants reported a commitment toward native-speaker norms, they shifted their focus from accuracy to intelligibility, which helped them achieve their ultimate goal, that is, successful interaction in ELF communities. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

h i g h l i g h t s Nine in-service EFL teachers' reflective discussions were examined. They simultaneously and collaboratively engaged in reflection on, in, and for-action. Online discussions served as a platform for an online community of practice. The level of intertextuality in their discussions depended on their training and experience.

The purpose of the present study is twofold: (1) to investigate the relationship between the efficacy of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) and their self‐reported practice of communicative language teaching (CLT) and (2) to examine the impact of an in‐service teacher education program on teachers’ efficacy and self‐reported and actual practice of CLT. Data came from a Teachers’ Background Questionnaire, English Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Chacon, ), Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT; Spada & Frönlich, ), and the questionnaire version of COLT. Fifty Turkish EFL teachers working in eight schools responded to the questionnaires, and 20 of them were observed. The findings indicate that after the in‐service education program, the teachers not only improved their practice of CLT but also became more efficacious. The findings highlight the importance of awareness‐raising activities for professional development programs as well as the need for multiple instruments to analyse the extent to which teachers’ self‐reported beliefs and practices concur with their observed teaching practice.

The Turkish Disability Act introduced inclusive education to Turkey as a solution to the problems experienced by students with disabilities, including visually impaired students. The main purpose of this study was to explore the challenges faced by visually impaired students learning high school mathematics in inclusive classrooms in Turkey. The data were qualitative, consisting of interviews conducted with three high school graduates; they were analysed using the constant comparison method. In the interviews, students described the effects of various teaching methods on their learning and evaluated the social aspect (broadly speaking) of inclusive education. The results show that while the social needs of visually impaired Turkish students were adequately met through inclusive education, their academic needs were not, which we speculate to be partly because of mathematics teachers' negative attitudes towards inclusive education.

Adapting Norton’s (2000) notion of investment as an analytical lens along with thematic analysis, this longitudinal/narrative inquiry explores how 2 EFL teachers’ language socialization in the United States resulted in an identity (re)construction as teachers of intercultural competence. Baris and Serkan’s language socialization in the United States was marked with 3 identity investments: as an experienced EFL teacher, as an L2 user, and as a burgeoning scholar. The findings highlighted that teacher identities are not unitary, fixed, or stable but dynamic, situated, multiple (e.g., Norton Peirce, 1995; Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, & Johnson, 2005), and even sometimes blurred (e.g., Ochs, 1993). Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC