M.A. Theses
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Item Turkish digital linguaculture :|intertextual practices of a facebook community(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Çetin, Mervenur.; Erduyan, Işıl.This discourse-based study aims to provide a perspective on online Turkish linguaculture through the practices of a Facebook Specific Interests Group (SIG) and the possible implications of these practices in context. Focusing on posts and comments of the SIG members, the study investigates how the heteroglot practices and intertextual references made through diverse semiotic resources such as text and visuals including GIFs, images, videos and emoticons, and also the original contexts where these references are used and taken from. The analysis draws on the content produced on the SIG in a 3-month data collection period. The findings of the study demonstrate that members’ linguacultural practices manifest themselves commonly in their use of figurative language, multimodal resources and English that reflect their multiliteracies. Thanks to these practices, a hybrid digital discourse and the linguaculture of the SIG are constructed through multilayered heteroglot and intertextual relations.Item The comparative effects of direct DDL and indirect DDL on constructing vocabulary knowledge(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Candan, Dilay Nur.; Yıldız, Senem.This study investigated comparative effects of direct data-driven learning (D-DDL) and indirect data-driven learning (I-DDL) on learning new vocabulary. The participants were 52 university prep students with intermediate level of proficiency who were randomly assigned into one of the experimental conditions as D-DDL and I-DDL. Participants in D-DDL group studied the twenty target words inductively using online corpora, whereas the participants in I-DDL group studied the same target words inductively on paper-based concordances pre-selected from corpora by teachers. Adopting a quasi-experimental mixed methods design, the study utilized pre-tests and post-tests, individual think-aloud protocol, and focus group interviews in order to collect data. The collected data was analyzed in order to explore (1) how I-DDL compares to D-DDL on vocabulary recall and recognition, (2) how I-DDL compares to D-DDL on students’ constructing vocabulary knowledge behaviors using corpus data, (3) how pair work and individual work differs in I-DDL and D-DDL practices, and (4) how students’ attitudes towards I-DDL compare to D-DDL. The study filled in the gap in the literature by concluding that there was no significant difference between I-DDL and D-DDL on students’ vocabulary gains according to pre-test post-test results. Qualitative data from think-aloud protocol and focus group interviews uncovered some differences and similarities between the two groups.Item Task complexity and working memory in performing listen-to-speak integrated tasks in a second language(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Yücel, Ayşe Gül.; Erçetin, Naciye Gülcan.; Akıncı, Mehmet.This study aimed to explore the effects of task complexity, perceived task difficulty, and working memory capacity (WMC) in listen-to-speak tasks, in second language (L2) English. 40 university students with Turkish as their first language (L1) participated in this study. Adopting the framework offered by the cognition hypothesis, this study manipulated the structural demands of the listen-to-speak tasks using an outline. Listen to-speak tasks are taken and adapted from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT) official website. Perception of task difficulty was measured using a 10- item Likert scale questionnaire. WMC was measured through Turkish translations of operation span (OSpan) and running span (Run Span) tasks. Dimensions of L2 performance i.e., syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, accuracy, fluency, and content were separately measured. Multivariate and univariate repeated measures ANOVA analyses revealed that task complexity had a significant effect on all the above mentioned dimensions of L2 performance as well as the content. Stepwise multiple regression results demonstrated that task complexity could explain syntactic complexity, accuracy, and content while perceived task difficulty could account for lexical complexity. WMC, on the other hand, could explain fluency. The study concluded that task complexity influences all aspects of task performance; however, its effect is moderated when learner factors (perceived task difficulty and WMC) are considered.Item A case study on the development of Turkish pre-service EFL teachers’ digital competence(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Canbulat, Gizem.; Yıldız, Senem.The present qualitative case study aims to explore the impact of a technology enhanced language teaching course on pre-service EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers’ digital competence development from the perspective of the Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu). The participants were six pre-service EFL teachers at a state university in Turkey. The data collected during the course was enriched with data collected during participants’ teaching practicum to fill the gap in the literature. The research questions aimed to explore (1) the participants’ perceived digital competence before and after the study, the DigCompEdu areas where the participants made the most and least progress during the course, (2) whether and how the participants’ digital competence developed in practice, (3) whether and how the participants planned to benefit from their digital competence training in the future, (4) whether and how the participants could transfer their digital competence to teaching practicum and their reflections on using technology in macro teachings. Data were gathered through surveys, interviews, reflection papers, and performance tasks. The findings revealed that the participants’ perceived competence increased after the study, and they planned to reflect their competence to their future teachings. It was also found that the development of digital competence is a complex process affected by several factors, and the participants could not transfer their digital competence to their performance tasks during coursework and practicum in the same way.Item Enhancing ELT pre-service teachers’ reflective thinking skills :|going beyond descriptive writing(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Yenisoy, İzel.; Tatar, Sibel.The study investigated the pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) reflective writing experiences within a learning environment in which guidance was provided with explicit instruction, reflective tasks with critical friends, and constructive feedback. Within this learning context, the study aimed to explore (1) the nature of the incidents that PSTs mostly reflected on in their observation reports, (2) the development of the PSTs’ criticality in time, and (3) their overall reflective writing experiences. In the study, a qualitative research paradigm was adopted, and the study was conducted with 26 ELT PSTs who were doing their practicum. The data were mainly gathered from the participants’ observation reports and a semi-structured interview, and the documents collected from the participants in the workshop sessions were used as supplementary tools. The data were analyzed with an interpretive framework, and it was found that PSTs mostly reflected on the issues related to teachers’ instructional practices, the conduct of the lesson, and the classroom management in their observation reports. Concerning PSTs’ criticality, although they were inclined to reflect at superficial levels in their reports, they started to demonstrate some reflective features during the provision of guidance. In addition, it was revealed that PSTs found reflective writing productive, and they could overcome their challenges in reflective writing thanks to the guidance and their critical friends in time. In this sense, the study contributes to the literature by indicating that PSTs’ reflective writing experiences and their reflective thinking skills could be enhanced in a learning environment that is designed with multifaceted guidance.Item Linguistic complexity in EFL teaching materials :|a grade level comparison of EFL textbooks in Turkey(Thesis (M.S.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Science and Engineering, 2022., 2022.) Taşpınar, Emine.; Yalçın, Şebnem.The present study aimed to measure text difficulty of the L2 English textbooks used in the state schools in Turkey in terms of their readability and linguistic complexity (i.e., syntactic and lexical complexity). It further compared two locally published textbooks to two internationally published comparable textbooks to check the similarity of the texts in terms of their readability and linguistic complexity. A corpus of 765 texts, more specifically 329 reading texts and 436 listening texts, were extracted from one series of L2 English textbooks currently used in Turkish state schools from Grade 2 to 12 and two internationally published textbooks (i.e., Interchange3 and Passages1). Overall, 3 readability formulas, 12 syntactic complexity measures and 8 measures of lexical complexity were used to analyze the texts through three online computational tools (i.e., Coh-Metrix, L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) and Lexical Complexity Analyzer (LCA)). The results indicated that linguistic complexity of both reading and listening texts showed a gradual increase along with the increase in the grade levels while, with some exceptions, many measures stabilized across adjacent grades or clusters of grade levels. Although the results of the comparisons among locally and internationally published textbooks were mixed, they supported the findings of the comparisons of the textbooks used in state schools. The results of the study may have implications for the design and evaluation of L2 English teaching materials.Item Students' opinions of the role of 'culture' in learning English as a foreign language(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2006., 2006.) Yılmaz, Devrim.; Bayyurt, Yasemin.This thesis examines the students' opinions of the role of 'culture' in learning English as a foreign language. The first aim of the thesis is to develop an instrument to investigate students' opinions. The second aim is to explore whether there are similarities and differences among high school students regarding their opinions of the role of 'culture'. In order to do this, the instrument developed by the researcher was applied to 385 senior Anatolian high school students from five different high schools in Edirne, Istanbul, and Diyarbakır in the academic year of 2005-2006. Descriptive statistics for the responses to the questionnaire items suggested that learning English for instrumental purposes, practicing aspects and skills of language, and inclusion of international topics in English language learning process were important. The participants alsostated that native English speaking teachers teach English better than Turkish teachers. However, being familiar with Turkish culture and being able to speak Turkish were regarded as important characteristics of English language teachers by the students. Similarities and differences among different parts of Turkey were explored using analysisof variance (ANOVA) procedures. The results of the analysis suggested that the regions differed on three components extracted by Principal Component Analysis. The responses provided by the participants to the open ended question revealed that mostof the students agreed with the idea of teaching target language culture along with English. However, a considerable number of students disagreed or partially agreed with the idea.Item Rater effects and foci in the oral assessment process of English test for aviation personnel(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Rahtuvan, Elif.; Erçetin, Naciye Gülcan.Miscommunication in global aeronautical transmissions may lead to severe incidents and accidents in the aviation sector. In order to maintain flawless communication, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) introduced Language Proficiency Requirements (LPR) and a Proficiency Rating Scale to aviation English test holders in 2003 (Alderson, 2009). However, several aviation English tests fail to provide detailed information about their reliability and validity (Alderson, 2011). Thus, this study intends to present evidence for rater effects and the areas they focus in the oral assessment part of English Test for Aviation Personnel (ETAP). Based on a theoretical model of a language for specific purposes (LSP) system by O’Sullivan and Weir (2011), the accuracy of raters’ decisions in ETAP was investigated. Four ETAP raters participated in the study and evaluated eight pilots’ oral performances while they were taking an eight-week-long online rater training. The assigned scores by ETAP raters were analyzed via Multi-Faceted Rasch Model (MFRM) (Linacre, 1989) by concentrating on rater severity/leniency, consistency, bias and central tendency effect. Through qualitative data including the raters’ verbal reports, the study also aimed to explore ETAP raters’ foci when evaluating oral performances. The results demonstrated raters’ rating consistency with rare rater effects and high rater reliability. Besides, six common foci were drawn from the study that can be utilized in future rater training sessions in order to improve ETAP, its testing process and ETAP rating scale.Item Fluctuations in epistemic (a)symmetry in video-mediated post-observation conversations(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Topal, Pınar.; Yiğitoğlu, Nur,Evidence-based reflective practices are promoted in all recent frameworks for language teacher education (LTE). However, the research into how the mentor and trainees sequentially and relationally orient to these data-led sequences remains scarce. Similarly, video-mediated pedagogical interactions need to move forward from the first aid approach to have a sustainable understanding of the video-mediated LTE. With this in mind, this thesis primarily investigates epistemic asymmetries unfolding in video-mediated post-observation conversations (POC) in language teaching practicum. The video-recordings of 17 video-mediated POCs are micro analysed using the theoretical and methodological tenets of multimodal conversation analysis. Data suggests that the fluctuations in epistemic (a)symmetry serve as a catalyst for the progression of reflection and evaluation-oriented sequences. That is, the mentors strategically downgrade their epistemic position to index the trainees’ experiential knowledge and invite for reflection. However, the tide turns when the mentors initiate evaluation-oriented sequences in which the volume of trainee voice is turned down. They systematically insert their epistemic authority to limit any potential resistance that would challenge their epistemic, as well as deontic authority to do evaluation. The video medium also creates unique multimodal opportunities for mutual orientation to evidence. The findings are conducive to the expanding research into the affordances and challenges of video-mediated language teacher education and have possible pedagogical and research implications for our understanding of the sequential and relational organization of epistemics in feedback conversations.Item Heritage language ideologies :|speakers’ perspectives(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2022., 2022.) Çakıroğlu, Uğur.; Erduyan, Işıl.The present thesis study aims to investigate the language ideologies held by speakers of Western Armenian, one of the heritage languages of Turkey, by means of data obtained through online interviews. Analysis of the data obtained from interview interactions reveals heritage language speakers’ lived experiences with and perspectives of their heritage language in respect to the past, present and future of Western Armenian as a heritage language. The language ideology framework sheds light on the ideations of heritage language speakers in relation to their heritage language situated within interview interactions. The findings of the study reveal multiple and diverse language ideologies that span across different time periods, which are in a two-way relationship with the social and linguistic contexts and practices.Item Linguistic construction of oral narratives in Turkish :|women’s stories of survival and power(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Özçelik, Merve.; Erduyan, Işıl.This thesis project investigates the linguistic construction of oral narratives recounted by violence survivor women residing in a small city of Central Anatolia in Turkey. Based on micro-ethnographic analysis of audio-recorded interview data, the study reveals how women construct violence, emancipation, and gender norms within their stories and thereby negotiate and construct power in the realm of patriarchy. Discussed in line with the poststructuralist and social constructionist perspectives, the findings demonstrate how violence, symbolic power, and empowerment are constructed in the polyphonic and dialogic discourse of Turkish oral narratives. Furthermore, the findings elucidate the gender-related messages in the oral discourse of survivor women as well as the shifting roles and positions they adopt.Item Investigating agency in discourse :|multilingual Iranian immigrants in Istanbul(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Sönmez, Elanur.; Erduyan, Işıl.This thesis aims to provide a detailed examination of the agency construction of multilingual Iranian migrants living in Istanbul. Focusing on three Iranian women’s multilingual practices and daily experiences for one year, this linguistic ethnographic study explores the effect of different socio-political and personal factors in the agency construction of young Iranian women whose migratory movement is defined as lifestyle migration. The study investigates the concept of lifestyle migration in a relatively novel, non-Western context by comparing the experiences of the participants with the experiences of other lifestyle migrants. Participants observation supplemented with detailed fieldnotes along with the recordings of naturally occurring interactions and semi-structured interviews constituted the data set analyzed in this study. The findings suggest that the construction of agentive identities occur throughout different time spans and life events and these time spans expand into the past and present experiences and future plans of the individuals in an interlinked manner. All these factors operate hand in hand in order to shape and be shaped by the agentive actions of the individuals.Item Linguistic ethnography in a multilingual workplace :|the Japanese language office at an English-Medium State University in Turkey(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Bozer, Emre Murat.; Erduyan, Işıl.This thesis study investigates the multilingual identity construction of expatriate Japanese instructors at a multilingual workplace. Focusing on two Japanese instructors’ workplace interactions at an English-medium university, the study explores the identity positions constructed in workplace interactions. The ethnographic analysis draws on audio-recordings of naturally occurring multilingual interactions, participant observations, fieldnotes, and semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study demonstrate how identities are constructed in workplace interactions through positioning oneself in relation to others.Item Processing Turkish center-embeddings :|an investigation of case interference and prosodic phrase lengths(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Bakay, Özge.; Dinçtopal, Nazik.This study investigated the processing difficulty associated with Turkish center-embeddings. Two off-line end-of-sentence acceptability judgment tasks (Experiments 1 and 2) and an eye-tracking experiment were conducted to examine (i) if the processing difficulty of Turkish center-embeddings is influenced by similarity-based interference (e.g., Lewis & Vasishth, 2005) and/or prosodic phrase lengths (Fodor, 2013), (ii) if missing-VP2 illusion (Frazier, 1985) exists in Turkish center-embeddings, and (iii) if the illusion (if it existed) is modulated by similarity-based interference and/or prosodic phrase lengths. The judgment tasks showed that contra the predictions of the similarity-based interference decreasing syntactic interference did not ease the processing difficulty of Turkish center-embeddings, but prosodic phrase lengths encouraging optimal phrasing of the sentence resulted in an easier processing of the construction. There was overall no missing-VP2 illusion in Turkish center-embeddings, but the illusion was observed in the sentences with decreased syntactic interference and discouraging phrase lengths, suggesting that missing-VP2 illusion may be cross-linguistic (Gibson & Thomas, 1999). The results from the eye-tracking experiment showed that decreasing syntactic interference and encouraging phrase lengths facilitated processing Turkish center-embeddings; phonological interference did not affect their processing difficulty, though. Overall, the findings supported the predictions of the similarity-based interference and prosodic phrase lengths accounts and extend them to Turkish.Item Linguistic construction of translocal identities :|multilingual Ugandans in İstanbul(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Deniz, Özge.; Erduyan, Işıl.This thesis project investigates the linguistic identity practices of multilingual Ugandans living in İstanbul as translocal migrants. Focusing on the everyday language practices of two Ugandan women in various social spaces for a year, this linguistic ethnographic study draws on data from field observations, interviews, and audio-recordings of spontaneous conversations across the Turkish, English, and African local languages. Based on chronotopic data analysis, findings reveal how these women construct their translocal identities in İstanbul by evoking multiple chronotopes in their speech. They also demonstrate how a chronotopic shift in discourse leads to a change in what is perceived as linguistic capital.Item The role of captioning and focused practice in vocabulary learning through video viewing(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Kaykaç, Yağmur.; Yalçın, Şebnem.This study examines the effects of watching captioned and non-captioned five successive episodes of a TV show and the pre-teaching of vocabulary on L2 (foreign language) vocabulary acquisition by young EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in Turkey. The participants were L1 Turkish and L2 English 6th graders studying in a state school. Four whole classes were randomly assigned to one control group and three different experimental groups: (1) captions with pre-teaching, (2) captions with no-pre-teaching, (3) no caption, and no preteaching. A pre-/post-/delayed-posttest design was used. Following the delayedpost- tests, a questionnaire investigating exposure to English outside the classroom was administered to the same group of participants. The results of the study showed that there was no significant difference between the groups in relative and raw vocabulary gains in the meaning recognition tests. The results of both post- and delayed-post-tests revealed that there was a significant difference between groups in terms of meaning and from recall tests. The group that was pre-taught the target items (TIs) and watched the videos with captions performed better than the other groups. Relative and raw vocabulary gains were retained as there was no decrease in overall vocabulary gains of the three experimental groups based on the delayed-post-test scores. Furthermore, the English exposure survey revealed English TV watching behaviors of the participants in relation to the use of L1 and L2 subtitles.Item Processing focus in Turkish and English :|a study on monolingual and bilingual language processing(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Kurt, Didem.; Dinçtopal, Nazik.This study investigated how focus (broad and narrow) was processed in Turkish as a first language (L1) and English as a second language (L2). Two sentence completion tasks (Experiment 1 in Turkish, Experiment 3 in English) and two eye-tracking experiments (Experiment 2 in Turkish, Experiment 4 in English) were conducted to examine whether or not readers assign broad focus to the constituent receiving sentential stress and whether or not changes to word-order are taken as cues to mark narrow focus. The sentence completion data showed that, in sentences with ditransitive verbs, the immediately preverbal object in L1 Turkish and the rightmost object in L1 and L2 English received focus. The results of the eye-tracking experiments further supported this. Experiment 2 also showed that Turkish speakers were sensitive to word-order cues for broad/narrow focus; and processing and revision of the narrowly-focused constituent was costlier, which is attributed to its deeper encoding in memory. The results for Experiment 4 indicated that although Turkish L2 learners assigned sentential stress to the rightmost object, they were not sensitive to the word-order cues for broad and narrow focus. This could be due to the limited input for scrambling in the L2. Alternatively, the L2 learners could be unable to process information at the syntax-discourse interface which requires integration of syntactic (word-order) and discourse-level (given-before-new) information (Sorace & Filiaci, 2006).Item Portfolio assessment versus traditional assessment techniques: a case study on the proficiency development and classroom practices of EFL students in a Turkish Military high school(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Sağlam, Mustafa.; Bayyurt, Yasemin.This thesis aims at investigating the possible effects of portfolio assessment on proficiency development and classroom practices of EFL students as opposed to traditional assessment techniques. There were two types of assessment procedures used in the study: portfolio assessment and traditional assessment. 42 eleventh grader EFL students (two sections) in a Turkish military high school were elected by means of Oxford Placement Test 1 B1 & B2 and randomly assigned as experimental and control groups. In the middle and at the end of the treatment they were given an abbreviated version of Cambridge First Certificate Examination (CFCE). The teacher of these sections also kept a teacher log during the twelve-week period when the study was conducted. Data were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (Pearson r), and t-test procedures. Qualitative data were analyzed via content analysis suggested by Bordens and Bruce (2002). The results of the analyses indicated that students receiving portfolio assessment performed significantly higher than those of the ones who received traditional assessments in two different administrations of CFCE. Portfolio assessment scores were also consistent with the scores received in CFCE. On the other hand, first and second administration of CFCE indicated that students' scores did not differ within the experimental group. In other words, there was little or no proficiency development on repeated measures. Finally, the qualitative data revealed that portfolio assessment had a positive impact on students' classroom practices, improvement in the course, and feelings of monitoring their own progress.The results are interpreted in the light of profits of portfolio assessment in the literature (Barootchi & Kehsavarz, 2002; Fourie & Niekerk, 2001; Lockledge & Weinmann, 2001 and Simon & Forgette-Giroux, 2000 and Underwood, 1998). The students in the study benefited from the use of portfolio assessment through several aspects. They had higher grades, better tracked their development, and had higher amount of interaction than those of the students who received traditional assessment.Item The effects of planning time on English language learners' complexity, accuracy, and fluency in writing(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Tümer Görgülü, İrem.; Yalçın, Şebnem.The aim of study is to find out if elementary level English as a foreign language students` written accuracy, fluency, and syntactic complexity levels are affected by planning condition of a task. Secondarily, the relationship between writing anxiety and the three language dimensions is examined. The results of study are reported by following two influential task complexity hypotheses: the Cognition and the Limited Attentional Capacity. The former claims that increasing complexity level of a task leads to an increase in accuracy and complexity thanks to multiple attentional capacity of human brain. The latter supports limited attentional capacity models and states that paying simultaneous attention to both accuracy and syntactic complexity is not probable. In the study, twenty university students studying English produced two different narratives based on two sets of pictures under two different task conditions: pre-task planning (PTP) and no pre-task planning (NP). Accuracy of written language production was measured by ratio of errors per T-unit and errors per 100 words. On the other hand, written fluency was measured by counting words and syllables per minute. Syntactic complexity was measured by mean length of T-units and clauses per T-units. Moreover, writing anxiety was measured by Second Language Writing Apprehension Inventory. As a result of the analysis, it was found out that students produced more error free narratives under simpler task condition (PTP) but the planning type did not impact either fluency or syntactic complexity levels. Regarding writing anxiety, correlation was only found with accuracy.Item Graduate-level thesis writing in a second language :|perspectives of students and advisors(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Yıldırım, Selin.; Yiğitoğlu, Nur,This study explores (1) the difficulties experienced by graduate students in writing their thesis, (2) perceptions of students and advisors regarding responsibilities in thesis supervision and (3) the expectations of graduate students and thesis advisors from each other and from the university in this writing process. The participants were master’s students and thesis advisors in social sciences disciplines at an Englishmedium state university in Turkey. Data of the study was obtained from surveys and semi-structured interviews. Sixty-three students and 35 advisors completed the surveys and a subset from each group (n=16 and n=9, respectively) were interviewed subsequently. The findings indicate that students experience major writing problems related to English language, rhetorical organization and functions of thesis genre and its chapters. Perceptions of students and advisors with respect to their responsibilities converge largely on various aspects such as finding a research subject or adopting a systematic study approach, but for a better time management, students expect more meeting initiation, frequent feedback and guidance from their advisors. Furthermore, advisors do not consider dealing with language-related problems of students as a part of advisor responsibilities. The findings of the study reveal that second language graduate student writers need urgent support in their thesis writing processes and that both students and advisors agree on the need for opportunities such as an academic