This paper following a mixed-method research design investigates the role of L1 use in L2 teaching from the perspectives of Turkish prospective English teachers. Data were collected from 374 Turkish prospective teachers in ELT department of four state universities in Turkey through a questionnaire. It was aimed to obtain a general view about whether Turkish should be used in teaching English; and if used, to what extent it should be used in the situations specified in the questionnaire, and for what purposes Turkish should be used in these situations. According to the results of the study, some of the participants proposed that L1 use should have no place in language learning/teaching since it exists as a barrier to the process of language learning and hinders the exposure to L2 and the chance to practice it whereas a great majority of them (N=243) considered L1 use as a contributing factor to ease the process of language learning and comprehension of learners.

This study is an attempt to present the reflections of prospective English teachers in Turkey on teaching practice over their experiences and perceptions. A mixed-method research design was conducted through the use of a questionnaire involving a 5-Likert scale and one open-ended question. The participants were 120 senior students at ELT department of Atatürk University. According to the findings, prospective teachers are of the opinion that teaching practice greatly contributed to the development of self-confidence and competency in teaching and coping up with the challenges of the profession, and that they began to regard themselves like a teacher.

This study aims at drawing a conclusion about the use of the first language (L1) in language classes on which there is still no consensus among researchers. In line with this aim, the qualitative studies involving participants' views or practices obtained through interviews or observations were analyzed and then synthesized. Firstly, two basic themes were obtained as "Avoidance of L1 in language classes" and "Use of L1 in language classes". Based on the findings of those studies, the factors such as educational context, the language proficiency of teachers and students, the subject to be taught were pointed out to affect their language choices and also the amount of L1 use in L2 classes. Furthermore, the studies revealed that L1 was used or suggested to be used in various functions which were grouped under three themes as academic functions, managerial functions, and socio-cultural functions. Though no distinct decision to be taken according to the studies analyzed, it can be suggested that L1 may be used if necessary, although language instruction should mostly depend on the target language.

This case study aims at revealing EAP (English for academic purposes) learners’ experiences in and perceptions about using ubiquitous computing technology. Data were collected through interviews carried out with eleven people being prepared for the foreign language (English) exams for academic purposes in a private language course in Turkey. Fifteen open-ended questions were involved in face-to-face interviews. Data were collected through the audio recordings of interviews and then examined by content analysis method, and afterwards, codes, categories and themes were obtained. The findings of this study revealed that all of the participants were continuously and actively using ubiquitous computing technologies, they thought ubiquitous computing technologies had several advantages in learning English for academic purposes such as continuous and permanent learning, quick access to information, preventing waste of time, and interacting with other learners. However, some disadvantages and limitations of ubiquitous computing technologies such as technical and infrastructural problems, information pollution, and inadequacies in translation of terms were also tackled.

This study was carried out to examine the effects of task complexity on text easibility and coherence in narrative writing of EFL learners. Data were collected from 41 Turkish EFL learners during a writing course. Task complexity was operationalized at two levels as a complex and simple task based on the resource-dispersing variables of Robinson"s the Triadic Componential Framework, +/-task structure. Accordingly, a colorful picture was first illustrated on the board, and students were asked to examine the picture for five minutes (complex task /-TS). They were then asked to write a story based on the picture they had seen (simple task /+TS). Two weeks later, they were given a sheet involving 16 pictures designed in an order and asked to narrate a story based on these pictures. Their essays were analyzed by the researcher and another rater in terms of coherence through an analytic rubric. An automated program was used to evaluate the essays for text easibility indices involving the indices of narrativity, syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, referential cohesion, and deep cohesion. The results analyzed with a Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that complexity of the task had a statistically significant effect on some indices of text easibility such as word concreteness, and referential cohesion, whereas other indices, narrativity, syntactic simplicity, and deep cohesion, and coherence in their writing production were not affected by the complexity of the task at a significant level. However, it can be concluded that students" texts produced in simple tasks are easier to comprehend.