Ph.D. Theses
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Browsing Ph.D. Theses by Author "Erçetin, Naciye Gülcan."
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Item Annotation and working memory in second language reading, incidental vocabulary learning, and perceived cognitive load(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Varol, Burcu.; Erçetin, Naciye Gülcan.This study attempts to explore the role of annotations and working memory capacity (WM capacity) in reading comprehension, incidental vocabulary learning, and the perceived cognitive load (CL) through a between groups design. The independent variables investigated in this study were annotation type (lexical versus topic-level) and annotation location (pop-up window versus separate window). One hundred twenty high proficiency level second language learners were assigned to one of the four treatment conditions and were asked to read an electronic text wherein a built-in tracking software recorded their interactions. Upon reading, they were given free recall, multiple choice comprehension, vocabulary recognition, and vocabulary production tasks. Findings showed that the effects of annotation type changed according to the task used to gauge comprehension while lexical annotations were found to be the consistent determinant of short-term vocabulary learning. The effect of annotation location was less clear-cut as it produced different results in conjunction with different annotation types for different measures. WM capacity played a major role in reading comprehension, and especially when combined with the effect of pop-up window glossing conditions, it led to the best results. As for the results on CL, no significant effects were observed in the self-ratings and only a significant gloss type effect was detected in terms of the recorded annotation use. Implications drawn from this study can inform instructional designers as to the facilitative effects of annotation use that would not overload limited capacities of readers.Item Interrelationships among L2 linguistic knowledge, working memory functions, and L2 reading(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Çeçen Besimoğlu, Sevdeğer.; Erçetin, Naciye Gülcan.The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationships between processing/storage functions of working memory (WM) and explicit/implicit second language (L2) knowledge as well as the contributions of these variables to L2 reading comprehension. Participants were 84 moderately proficient late adult learners of English. WM capacity was measured through reading span tasks administered in L1 and L2 and an operation span task. An untimed grammaticality judgment test (GJT) and a metalinguistic knowledge test were administered to measure explicit linguistic knowledge in the L2 while a timed GJT and an elicited oral imitation test were used to measure implicit linguistic knowledge. Reading comprehension scores were obtained from a retired paper-based TOEFL. Results suggest that WM’s storage function is language independent and it is not affected by the type of secondary task employed. The findings also suggest that WM's processing function is not task-dependent. Furthermore, results corroborate previous studies arguing against a trade-off between the processing and storage functions of WM. Based on the findings regarding the relationship between linguistic knowledge and WM capacity, it can be argued that the type of knowledge assessed by the so called implicit knowledge tests could actually be automatized explicit linguistic knowledge resulting from large amounts of practice in late adults learners of advanced proficiency in an instructional context. This automatized and primarily explicit L2 linguistic knowledge and WM's processing function are the best predictors of L2 reading comprehension, demonstrating the dominant role of automatized knowledge in efficient L2 reading comprehension for instructed L2 learners.Item Language aptitude and working memory in third language learning(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2023., 2023) Öztekin, Elifcan.; Erçetin, Naciye Gülcan.This study investigated the relationships of visuospatial and verbal working memory (WM) tasks with language aptitude (LA) and their predictive roles in explaining third language (L3) comprehension. The participants were 110 L1 Turkish-speaking majors in English language teaching, who studied various additional foreign languages for varying numbers of semesters at beginner, intermediate, and upper-intermediate / advanced levels, including a control group with no L3. They took the LLAMA version 3 (Meara & Rogers, 2019), forward digit span, rotation, symmetry, and operation span tasks (Foster et al., 2015). Participants learning one of the four designated European languages (i.e., German, French, Italian, and Spanish) also took reading and listening comprehension sections of general proficiency tests created by the certified cultural institutes. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a three-factor solution, interpreted as verbal/phonological memory (digit span, operation span, and partially LLAMA D), visuospatial WM (symmetry and rotation span), and LA (LLAMA B, E, F, partially D). Univariate analyses of variance on the three factors did not reveal any significant relationships with L3 experience. The hierarchical regression on L3 listening comprehension indicated that L3 experience and the LA factor cumulatively explained 45% of the variance, with the LA factor contributing an additional 15% of the variance. The same set of predictors did not explain any significant variance in L3 reading comprehension. The study confirmed the dissociation between certain LA and WM abilities, but some overlap in verbal/phonological/memory abilities. The distinctive LA factor was considerably influential for L3 listening but not reading comprehension.Item Literacy development in Turkish-Arabic speaking bilingual children(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) İlerten, Ferda.; Erçetin, Naciye Gülcan.; Babür, Fatma Nalan.; Ph.D. Program in English Language Education.This study explored the role of cognitive and linguistic variables in the development of word reading and reading comprehension in Turkish-Arabic bilingual children. Ninety-two 2nd grade Turkish-Arabic simultaneous bilingual and thirty-five Turkish monolingual children participated in the study. The performance of both groups in phonological awareness (PA), phonological memory (PM), rapid automatized naming (RAN), morphosyntactic awareness (MA), morphological awareness test time (MATT), processing speed (PS) and vocabulary knowledge (VK) was examined and compared through independent samples t-test with bootstrapping function. Bilingual children outperformed monolingual children in PA and PS. The performance of both groups was similar in other tasks. The predictors of reading skills were investigated separately for both groups of participants through stepwise regression analyses. The results revealed that while MATT and RAN predicted word reading efficiency in the bilingual group, MATT and PA were the significant predictors of word reading in the Turkish monolingual group. As for reading comprehension, the groups displayed different patterns. While WRead, VK and PM were the most powerful indicators of comprehension in the Turkish-Arabic bilingual group, MA was the only significant precursor of reading comprehension in the Turkish monolingual children. These differences indicated that the reliance of the monolingual and bilingual children on linguistic and cognitive mechanisms ranged in word reading and reading comprehension.Item Predictors of reading skills in Turkish-speaking fourth grade children(Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Candan, Ecehan.; Erçetin, Naciye Gülcan.; Babür, Fatma Nalan.The present study aimed to investigate the concurrent contributions of phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), vocabulary, morphological awareness (MA), processing speed (PS), working memory (WM), and inhibitory control (IC) to reading skills in Turkish. It also examined the complex network of relationships among the variables by focusing on RAN, text reading fluency (TRF) and reading comprehension (RC). In the data collection process, a variety of cognitive and linguistic measures were administered to 112 Turkish-speaking Grade 4 children. Based on previous research, a preliminary model of reading was developed and tested through multiple regression analyses as part of a classical path analysis. The results showed that IC was the strongest predictor of RAN, followed by PS. In the next layer of the analysis, RAN explained the largest amount of variance in TRF, followed by MA and PS. In the ultimate model, MA was the most powerful predictor of RC, followed by PA, TRF and vocabulary. MA also explained a considerable amount of variance in vocabulary, which highlighted the interface between morphological and semantic processes involved in RC. Additional analyses revealed that the predictor variables also made a multitude of indirect contributions to RAN, TRF and RC in the highly agglutinative and morphologically rich structure of Turkish.