This study aims to define the roles of cooperating teachers as mentors in the context of distance-learning teacher education. The participants included 358 cooperating teachers who mentored 4th-year student teachers in a Distance English Language Teacher Training Program in Turkey. To determine the roles that were perceived as mentoring roles by the cooperating teachers in the distance practicum, an inventory of 10 primary mentoring functions was constructed. These functions included five primary mentoring roles: 'self-trainer', 'networker, 'social supporter', 'academic supporter', and 'psychological supporter'. The results will contribute to an increased understanding of how cooperating teachers perceive their mentoring roles during distance practicums.

This study aimed to develop and investigate the validity and reliability of the Mentor Teacher Role Inventory (MTRI). A total of 1843 student teachers in the Distance English Teacher Training Program participated in the study. The 58 items of the Mentor Teacher Role Inventory underwent principal factor analysis, which revealed nine factors relating to mentorship and explained 52.971% of the total variance. The KMO value of the MTRI was calculated as .968. The Cronbach's alpha was .951. These results indicated that a reliable and valid MTRI could be used for both the distance English teacher training programme and other distance teacher education programmes.

The present study aims to investigate the elementary, secondary and high school students’ perceptions on a good language teacher. The participants are 365 Turkish school students who are learning English as a foreign language. The present study has revealed that most of the student groups generally differ in terms of issues related to teaching skills when compared with the issues related to the affective skills. In the present study it has been also found that what students expect from a good English teacher is to have the ability to maintain discipline, motivate students, learn about the learner’ needs and establish good relations with them. The study also reveals striking results with respect to classroom discipline and teacher subject knowledge.

This study aims to investigate the views of English-language teachers and their students with respect to collaborative learning (CL) and more specifically, with respect to group activities. The study included 25 Turkish English-language teachers and their 486 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. The data were collected from separate questionnaires completed by the students and the teachers. Additionally, four teachers and 10 students were interviewed. The percentage of responses for each option of each question was calculated for each item on both questionnaires. The recorded interviews were analysed through content analysis. The results indicate that most of the students favor group activities in the classroom, whereas the teachers exhibit far less enthusiasm for group activities because of difficulties associated with classroom management and excessive noise levels generated during group activities. It is suggested that teachers receive training in CL so that they can effectively implement the technique in the classroom and teach their students how to effectively use their interactional skills during CL activities.

The aim of the present study was to explore what types of difficulties student teachers enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English Language Teacher Education program offered in a blended format and their cooperating teachers encountered during the student teacher practicum. The participants were 21 fourth grade student teachers and 12 cooperating teachers. Semi-structured interview questions were used to collect data. The interviews were tape-recorded and then transcribed to be analyzed. According to the findings, the problems student teachers faced were grouped into four areas: assessment systems, computer-assisted communication, challenges with mentors, and psychological issues. Cooperating teachers' problems were categorized as problems associated with the program and problems associated with the student teachers. The results of this study contribute to an increased understanding of the problems that student teachers and their cooperating teachers face during field experience at an English language teacher education program offered in a distance format. This study provides suggestions for establishing more effective mentorship during the field experience.