English education in Turkey: Why are we ‘very low level’?

Eken, Derya Tuzcu

doi:10.29000/rumelide.949700

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…When communicative proficiency is mentioned, within the Turkish context, it is meant that students should be able to converse in one or more foreign languages to excel in both higher education and the workforce after graduation, which is crucial to remain current with science and technology (Council of Higher Education, 2007). Nonetheless, a number of studies on the topic (British Council & TEPAV, 2013, 2015Kara et al, 2017;Solak & Bayar, 2015;Tuzcu Eken, 2021) and PISA scores of Turkish students (Kaplan, 2011) indicate that their EFL proficiency levels remain far from desirable, which shows that quality matters more than quantity, and a key component of high-quality EFL instruction would, therefore, be teacher education.…”

Section: English Language Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

'I'm a Teacher Material!': Reasons of Preservice English Teachers for Choosing to Become a Teacher

Uygun¹,

Karakaş²

2023

IJIAPE

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This qualitative single-case study aimed to explain the reasons why individuals choose teaching from the viewpoint of preservice English teachers, on which the number of qualitative studies with this study population are scarce. The case, in this direction, was a Turkish state university's Department of English Language Teaching, and the sampled group comprised of 10 preservice teachers of English as a foreign language. Qualitative data was obtained through an online form, which included ten sentence completion prompts starting with the statement, "I want to be a teacher because…". Then, through a rigorous coding and notetaking process, categorical analyses were done to identify the reasons why preservice teachers chose this career path. Out of 100 statements provided by the participants, 131 coding references emerged, fitting under a total number of 11 themes and 13 subthemes, categorized as intrinsic, altruistic, and extrinsic motivational reasons. Overall finding in the study was that preservice teachers were mostly intrinsically and altruistically motivated for being a teacher since the majority of them expressed their interest in teaching with personal values and commented on the place of the profession as a contributory element for the growth of the community and its members. On the other hand, one subcase exhibited immoderately elevated levels of altruistic motives, which may lead to job burnout or dropout in the future. As for extrinsic motivations, such as prestige, financial gains, or external influences like family members or peers, they held the least importance among the study's participants, and only one subcase reported to have chosen teaching as a fallback career. The study's results, in this regard, are anticipated to provide valuable insights into EFL preservice teachers' own justifications for choosing a career path in teaching.

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Section: English Language Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

'I'm a Teacher Material!': Reasons of Preservice English Teachers for Choosing to Become a Teacher

Uygun¹,

Karakaş²

2023

IJIAPE

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“…English teachers in Türkiye, who already encounter various challenges daily, experience intense stress and demotivation when they also observe low learning outcomes. Although numerous studies on the causes of these low English learning outcomes in Türkiye have revealed various findings, the commonly determined factors have been reported as teaching methods (Çağanağa, 2014), curriculum (Tuzcu Eken, 2021), motivation (Çimen, 2017), assessment (Özmat & Senemoğlu, 2021), and anxiety (Öz, Demirezen, & Pourfeiz, 2015). English teachers' perceptions of the factors that affect learning outcomes are a crucial issue as they are likely to play a major role in shaping instructional strategies and overall educational reforms to enhance student achievement and educational outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Is in Control? A Qualitative Inquiry Into Efl Teachers' Perceptions of Locus of Control and Its Predictors

DELİVELİ,

BALÇIKANLI

2023

ijla

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Teachers' perceptions of control over student performance and learning outcomes play a crucial role in educational settings as these perceptions shape teachers' decision-making processes and overall practices. Teacher locus of control, therefore, has long been a focus of research. However, there are relatively limited qualitative investigations into the concept, leaving a gap in the existing literature. This qualitative study was conducted to gain deeper insights into how EFL teachers would perceive their personal control over language learning outcomes and the factors that shape their locus of control orientations. The study involved 22 EFL teachers from preparatory schools in 16 universities in Türkiye. Data collection was done through written interviews, and the collected responses were analyzed using qualitative analysis techniques. The findings revealed that EFL teachers perceive a significant degree of personal control over the learning environment, motivation, and learner attributes. The study also identified several institutional and systematic factors, as well as teacher and student-related factors, that influence teachers' locus of control orientations. These findings confirmed the importance of understanding and supporting EFL teachers' locus of control orientations and held implications for teacher training, professional development, and educational policies to empower their sense of control and responsibility over language learning outcomes.

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“…Despite the best efforts, Türkiye's performance in English proficiency has been ranked among the 'low' or 'very low proficiency' countries in international indices (Tuzcu Eken, 2021). Since peoples' poor proficiency skills in English may stem from the deficiencies of the ELTE programs (Şenol & Cesur, 2021), the number of studies addressing various aspects of these programs has increased recently (see Asmalı, 2020;Asmalı & Çelik, 2021;Ataş & Balıkçı, 2021;Balbay & Doğan, 2021;Karakaş & Yavuz, 2018;Kic-Drgas & Comoglu, 2017;Öztürk & Aydın, 2018;Şenol & Cesur, 2021;Uzun, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

English Language Teacher Education Programs at Turkish Universities: A Statistical Overview

Asmali¹

2023

Higher Education Governance and Policy

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Considering the significant role of English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) programs on future English teachers’ teaching skills and eventually on the English proficiency of future generations, the present study investigated some statistics concerning the academics and students of these programs. All the statistics were gathered from YÖK Atlas, a website initiated by Council of Higher Education (CoHE) in Turkey. The data were analyzed to find out the differences between public and private universities’ ELTE programs, and to find out correlations among various elements of the ELTE programs regardless of the type of universities. The findings revealed the superiority of the ELTE programs at public universities over the ones at private universities on various aspects. However, students’ decreasing number of ELTE program preferences in recent years at both public and private universities were among the major findings of the present study. Moreover, some positive correlations among the variables were reported. The findings were discussed in the light of the related literature.

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English education in Turkey: Why are we ‘very low level’?

Cited by 3 publications

References 21 publications

'I'm a Teacher Material!': Reasons of Preservice English Teachers for Choosing to Become a Teacher

'I'm a Teacher Material!': Reasons of Preservice English Teachers for Choosing to Become a Teacher

Who Is in Control? A Qualitative Inquiry Into Efl Teachers' Perceptions of Locus of Control and Its Predictors

English Language Teacher Education Programs at Turkish Universities: A Statistical Overview

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