Yabancı Dil Eğitimi
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Browsing Yabancı Dil Eğitimi by Author "Bayyurt, Yasemin."
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Item A case study of a Turkish English learner in an EFL setting: investment, imagined community, and identity(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2014., 2014.) Ersin, Pınar.; Bayyurt, Yasemin.; Nelson, Gayle,The present study investigates the learner identity construction of one particular learner. More specifically, the study aims to examine the relationship between a learner‟s English language learning and her learner identity. The key participant was a 19-year-old learner, Gamze (pseudonym), enrolled in a one-year intensive English language program at a state university in Istanbul, Turkey. Qualitative data sources for this single case study were interviews with the key participant, interviews with the key participant‟s instructors, the key participant‟s language journal, video recordings of the key participant‟s classes, stimulated recall protocols with the key participant and researcher journal. Thematic analysis was applied to the data in order to categorize emerging themes. The analysis revealed that initially the key participant seemed to invest in English language practice in and outside the classroom to become a member of her imagined community. However, her investment appeared to decrease gradually, throughout the semester. Thus, her decreased investment seemed to be reflected in her shifting learner identity construction. In conclusion, Gamze seemed to improve less and slower in the class because there were multiple reasons that kept her from investing enough, which influenced her learner identity along her language learning journey.Item Computer-mediated communication acts in non-native English speakers' electronic mail exchanges(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Sevingil, Eray.; Bayyurt, Yasemin.The basic aim of this study is to examine the Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) acts of Turkish non-native speakers of English (NNSsT), native speakers of English (NSs) and non-native speakers of English in different countries (NNSsO) within online e-mail exchanges in English on preset topics between February 2008 and May 2008. This study explores whether NNSsT‟ CMC acts resemble or differ from NSs‟ and NNSsO‟ CMC acts. The study examines what types of CMC acts NNSsT use in their e-mail exchanges when they address NNSsO or NSs in the study. Besides, the perceptions of NNSsT about the contribution of CMC to their cross-cultural communication, understanding and their foreign language learning are discussed. Computer-Mediated-Discourse Analysis (CMDA) was conducted with respect to qualitative e-mail exchanges in the e-mail group. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data generated by the CMC acts of all groups. The analyses reveal that the difference between the frequencies of NNST and NNSO CMC acts is not statistically significant. However, there is a statistically significant difference between the frequencies NNST and NS CMC acts. In addition, NNSsT‟ CMC acts addressed to NNSsO or NSs are not statistically significant. NNST regard the use of e-mails as a beneficial tool for Foreign Language Education and intercultural understanding. The findings of this study offer a pragmatic view of foreign language education to develop linguistic, social and cultural competencies in the target language and show how to combine CMC tools and foreign language learning.Item Hedging in academic writing: the use of “can” in university students’ argumentative essays at an English Medium University in Turkey(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2013., 2013.) Tıkaç, Saadet.; Bayyurt, Yasemin.This study aims to shed light on the ways of using hedging devices in academic writing by a group of first year university students studying in the department of English language education at a Turkish state university. The main objective of this study is to explore the nature of hedges and modal auxiliaries with a specific focus on the use of “can” as a hedging device in students’ argumentative essays. The secondary focus of the study is to investigate how student writers build their authorial stance in regard to the argument they develop in their texts. The first data set of the study comprises 22 argumentative essays. The data are collected in the English Composition class. The second data set comprises interviews with the aforementioned student writers who participated in the study. The first data set was analyzed both manually and with the “Simple Concordancing Program”. The second data set was transcribed and analyzed with the qualitative research analysis software, “NVivo”. The results of the study revealed that Turkish students had a tendency to hide their authorial stance with regard to the argument they developed in their essays through use of various hedging devices. When the functions of the modal verb “can” were analyzed, it was observed that the frequency of use of “can” as an ability marker was higher than the use of “can” as a possibility marker. In addition, in the interviews, the students stated that they did not receive explicit instruction on different functions of “can” except its use as an ability marker in their earlier English language learning experience.Item High school ninth Grade students' awareness and preferences for the cultural content of the EFL textbooks: a case in Turkey(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2009., 2009.) Danacı, Seda.; Bayyurt, Yasemin.This thesis investigates the cultural content of an EFL textbook (i.e. The New English File Elementary) and high school ninth grade students’ awareness of and preferences for the cultural content of this textbook. The study consists of two parts. The first part involves content analysis of the textbook in question. In this part, pictures and reading texts of the book are searched for cultural elements. In this study, culture is examined in terms of target language culture, local culture, international culture and other countries’ cultures. The definition of culture adopted by the study involves four senses of culture (aesthetic, sociological, semantic and sociolinguistic) by Adaskou, Brittten and Fahsi (1990). The content of ‘culture’ concept in the study was determined with a pilot study. The second part of the study involves the investigation of the opinions of high school students with respect to their awareness of and preferences for the cultural content of their EFL textbook. High school ninth grade students from an Anatolian high school in İstanbul, Turkey participated in the study. Data are collected through questionnaires and interviews. Results of the study revealed that the textbook in question represented the international culture and the sociological sense of culture in general. Results of the questionnaire and interviews conducted with the students indicated that participants were highly aware of the origin of the cultural elements in their EFL textbook. Results showed that students were more aware of the origin of cultural elements reflecting the sociological sense of culture while more content with the ones reflecting the aesthetic sense of culture. Results of the questionnaire about their preferences for the cultural content of an EFL textbook revealed that students wanted to see topics about social life more frequently. Most of the students having participated in the interviews stated that they liked the textbook “The New English File Elementary”, target language culture and international culture were represented in the textbook while local culture was not, they would like to change the book and add topics about the local culture. In sum, this study suggests preparing ELT textbooks and materials for a specific group of learners by taking their local culture and preferences into consideration.Item Refusing invitations via email: strategy use in Turkish and American-English refusals(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2013., 2013.) Merdin, Emine.; Bayyurt, Yasemin.The aim of this study is to analyze the similarities and differences between Turkish and American English in the speech acts of refusal via email. It aims to uncover Turkish and American English refusal strategies employed in emails sent to refuse invitations, and examine whether social distance between the interlocutors has an impact on strategy use by Turkish L1 speakers (TSs) and American English L1 speakers (AESs). It further investigates the content of refusals and the effect of data collection method on strategy use. To this end, the data have been collected through natural emails and discourse completion tasks (DCT) from TSs and AESs. Each refusal in the data has been coded and counted. The data have been analyzed to compare the frequencies of refusal strategies, the effect of social distance on strategy use across groups, the content of refusals, and the effect of the data collection method. PASW has been used to run descriptive statistics and repeated measures of ANOVA. The results show more similarities than differences in strategy use in Turkish and American English refusal emails. Thus, pragmatic failure might be unlikely for American learners of Turkish and Turkish learners of American English. However, the findings also reveal that there are differences that are language-specific and culturally-shaped. The findings also suggest that natural emails tend to be more elaborated in that they have more strategies, thus DCTs may not thoroughly reflect the language in use and should be complemented with methods.Item Writer visibility and reader engagement in university students’ argumentative essays(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2013., 2013.) Çandarlı, Duygu.; Bayyurt, Yasemin.; Martı, Leyla Mesude.This study investigates interactional metadiscourse markers in the argumentative essays of Turkish and American students. It attempts to find out to what extent L1 and L2 essays of Turkish learners of English show the features of writer and reader presence in comparison with the essays of monolingual American students. Learner corpora consist of 48 English and 45 Turkish academic essays written by first year Turkish university students. These corpora are compared with the sub-corpus of the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS). Corpus-based textual analysis is carried out to uncover the frequency and functions of first person pronouns, boosters, attitude markers, reader pronouns, directives, shared knowledge references, questions and personal asides. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 10 volunteer students to gain a more in-depth understanding of their opinions on their own use of metadiscourse items and their general views about selfrepresentation and reader engagement in academic writing. The analysis is done by using the concordance program, AntConc 3.2.4. Additionally NVivo 9, qualitative analysis software program, is used to code the functions of the first personal pronouns and directives as well as the interviews. The results suggest a statistically significant difference between L1 and L2 essays of Turkish students in terms of boosters, attitude markers, directives and questions. There is also a statistically significant difference between the English essays of Turkish and American students with regard to first person singular pronouns, attitude markers, personal asides and questions. Turkish essays have both reader and writer visibility features at the highest level. This study shows that the level of writer visibility and reader engagement of Turkish students’ writing in English is far more close to native English writers than their own writing in Turkish. Textual analysis and interviews have provided evidence for the fact that Turkish students’ writing in English may rely on both their cultural tendencies and English language rhetorical conventions. The results shed light on the interplay of writing instruction, cultural factors and audience awareness.