Conference programme

The Teacher’s Use of L1 in English Language Classrooms Ceylin Özünlü (Gediz University)

This study is an action research which leans on the use of L1 by the teacher in English classrooms. It is generally formed as a process rather than an outcome. Throughout the study, main course lessons in A1 and A2 levels observed and recorded. The data collection is carried out by recording one lesson, keeping a diary and brainstorming with the colleagues. Because it is a qualitative study, the data analysis and the findings has changed during the research process. For instance, although the research questions were previously based on lessening L1 use, after some period of time, they were about taking the advantage of L1 use. In the research paper, one can find the flows of the study by means of charts (explanations of change, conscious and unconscious L1 use) and classroom language lists. This research may lead to further studies of L1 use in different levels and in different skills.

Overcoming Reticence of EFL Learners in Language Classrooms: A Teacher Research at University Context Hasan Savaş (Gediz University)

In language classrooms, students are observed silent and/or somehow reluctant to attend communication/discussion situations (Chen, 2004; Liu, 2005; Zou, 2004). Silence of students in classroom refers to ‘reticence’. I decided to study on this particular topic in order to investigate the underlying reasons of student-silence in my classes and to provide possible solutions to this phenomenon. With these particular aims in mind, I implemented two specific techniques, which I named as ‘Take Notes and Speak (TNAS) and Think and Speak’ (TAS), to engage my students in communicative speaking and discussion activities. During a two-month long period; before starting discussions in classes, my students first took notes and/or thought for a while on a given topic and then participated in discussion/speaking activities by looking at their notes as reference. Before the study, I collected student reports in order to understand reasons why my students tended to stay silent. By having semi-structured interviews after the study, my aim was to see how my students found the TNAS and the TAS techniques. The findings of the study showed that students took advantage of a thinking time before attending communicative activities, and they felt more comfortable to speak up when they were given chance to take notes beforehand.

Reflections on Second Language Acquisition of Turkish Students from a Native Speaker's Perspective J. Scott Willis (Gediz University)

Because the traditional instructional methodology employed in the Turkish educational system, students do not acquire the critical thinking skills necessary to become outside-the-box thinkers during their K-12 education. I noticed this when I first started teaching in Turkey and have been trying to devise a methodology to help students become analytical and critical thinkers ever since. This study was designed to observe how students progressed towards becoming critical thinkers with the help of the cues and rhetorical devices I used in my classes. These tools can be summarized as effective approaches in formulating arguments, 2nd draft checks with detailed constructive feedback, and modelling speaking portfolio via video and audio assignment submissions. The assessment device implemented throughout the study is changing portfolio scores over a period of 1 to 2 quarters.

Critical Thinking in Intensive Reading Lessons through Advance Organizers Gülizar Aydemir & Elif Başak Günbay (Gediz University)

This study explores students’ experiences in creating advance organizers such as listing, tabulating, charting in intensive reading lessons. We organized critical thinking activities as a while reading activities for 6 weeks by encouraging groups of students’ sorting out the main points in the reading passages and put them in charts, lists, or tables in logical order. By this way we aim to promote in students an ability to relate ideas in reading passages and to collaborate with peers in order to look at reading comprehension as an interactive process. The session will provide concrete examples from students’ in-class tasks as well as their post-project comments on their own development of reading comprehension ability as a result of involvement into a series of critical thinking activities.

The Effect of Lesson Study/Research Lesson on Teachers' Professional Development Seyit Ömer Gök (Gediz University)

This talk reports on the impact of the implementation of Lesson Study (LS), also known as Research lesson, as a model of PD with a group of instructors at Gediz University Preparatory School. This new project has been conducted in collaboration with the LS Research Group (LSRG) at the University of Leicester, School of Education. LS requires teachers to plan, teach and evaluate lessons collaboratively. It offers opportunities to share subject knowledge, improve teaching skills, and has the potential to challenge beliefs that directly influence the way teachers teach. In addition, LS fosters an environment in which teachers continually give constructive feedback to each other and improve their practice. There are very few studies which report on the application of LS in ELT contexts (Stilwall et al., 2010) , as it is mainly practiced in mainstream education. This study, therefore, has the potential to bridge these two worlds and raise awareness of the enormous potential of Lesson Study for English language teachers. Reference: Stillwell, C., McMillan, B., Gillies, and Waller, T. (2010) Four Teachers Looking for a Lesson: Developing Materials with Lesson Study in Tomlinson, B. and Masuhara, H. (eds.) Research for Materials Development in Language Learning. London: Continuum.

Motivation Through Gamification in ELT Dilara Bidav & Hacer Şeyma Akkoç & Idil Aydoğan Biçer & Merve Sarpkaya (Gediz University)

We all know and share the experience of using games in the language classroom, and how it boosts learner motivation in the most challenging learning environments. Yet, through Lesson Study, a collaborative PD model, we have uncovered further difficulties motivating the ‘average’ learner, as opposed to those classified ‘above’ and ‘below’ average. Given that ‘average’ learners constitute the majority in our classrooms, alarmed by our findings in the initial LS cycle, we repeat our LS cycle with further revisions to the lesson plan. This paper will communicate these findings. Lesson study brings a team of teachers together in order to improve learning outcomes by completing the lesson study cycle which constitutes of planning, revising and teaching a lesson. By observing three different learners (below, average and above average) identified by the class teacher, this study aims to monitor their motivation to learn through the pilot lessons. The study measures how different types of games motivate students to learn in groups. This study, therefore, has the potential to integrate gamification to English language learning and literature as a new study field. Within the scope of this study, this research may lead to further studies with different course levels and skills.

Impact of TBLL and Lesson Study on Grammar Teaching Gizem Yeşil & Özlem Özdoğmuş (Sinci) & Kerim Biçer (Gediz University)

We, (English) teachers, are often tasked with identifying and eliminating classroom challenges (that hinder teaching and learning) and making an impact. Incidentally, teaching grammar effectively and non-traditionally is surely one of these challenges every one of us has to tackle every day. In figuring and overcoming them, one might want to turn to classroom experimentation, teaching/learning methodology and Professional Development (PD) (Hedge, 2000). This presentation aims to outline the collaborative planning, implementation and evaluation of a grammar lesson (as teaching/learning challenge) through Task-based Language Learning (TBLL) (as teaching approach) and Lesson Study (LS) (as PD model). Our talk reports on reflections of collaborative research, planning and application of the said (PD) model facilitating TBLL in teaching a challenging grammar topic – conditionals – effectively and communicatively. The methodology, research and classroom experimentation will inform our lesson aims as well as outcomes. Also in the heart shall be fun, competition and learner production to enhance learner intake/uptake (as ultimate teaching goals). In short, we think, once identified and tendered to, challenges might even prove useful and often pave the way for a deliberate learning and teaching experience.

The Role of Learners’ Risk-taking Ability in Speaking Classes Tuğba Gök & Tevhide Kesmez & Yasemin Sanga Gorgu & Sümeyra Namli (Gediz University)

After a long time of focusing on teaching, shifting the emphasis to learning raised a great awareness of the behaviors of the learners. Recent studies in the area of characteristics of good language learners have attempted to define the ‘good’ language learner and explore all the factors that promote learning. It was realized that certain learners seemed to be more successful by using some language learning techniques and strategies. Rubin (1981), who pioneered much of the work in the field of strategies, suggested that learning strategies can be taught to less successful learners in order to improve their learning efficiency, and from this setting a new teacher role has emerged: training in strategies. In this study, the Lesson Study approach was used to specifically focus on the risk-taking characteristics of good language learners and in what ways teachers can help less successful students improve their oral performance by paying more attention to risk-taking strategies.

Fostering Learner Autonomy via Critical Thinking Alper Tan &, Behçet Erden & Olcay Yeşiller (Gediz University)

Learner autonomy is a process in which learners are utterly responsible for the decisions related to their learning environment. It is a natural capacity that can be learned and fostered through education. It may be thought to reduce the role of a teacher by giving students a chance to work independently and enhance their motivation. This talk presents the findings of sample lessons involving learner autonomy applications in the classrooms within the framework of lesson study cycle. This study takes place at Gediz University, the School of Foreign Languages. It is mainly based on observations of learners in the classroom. The aim is to pave the way for them to become autonomous learners. Thus, critical thinking skills can be considered to be significant at this stage. In order to achieve this, teachers work in teams. While one teacher is teaching the lesson, the others observe his/her students and collect data in this way. It requires teachers to prepare lesson plans collaboratively. These plans are expected to be modified in the light of the observations in accordance with learners’ needs.

An Endeavor to Put a Brıck in The Wall Cemile Doğan (Konya Necmettin Erbakan Unıversity Project Group Leader )

On language teacher education, many scholars have almost come to an agreement that ‘language teachers’ professional development activities yield more fruitful results if they follow a bottom-up tradition and base on the needs of the teachers in their context. A high-quality professional development program, having taken the teachers’ needs into account as a first step, should have a design to enhance their attitude towards continuous professional development. Professional development has been regarded as a systematic growth and it is of great significance to take a long term, step by step approach. In this presentation, the researcher aims to display a teacher-initiated action research program conducted at a state university. The participants of the study are language instructors from prep schools in Konya universities. Having the idea of ‘thinking big but starting with baby steps’ in mind, the researcher will share her experiences on how she took action to plan and carry out a Professional development program centring on action research skills.

Raising Students’ Awareness on Mispronunciatıon of Silent Letters Mehtap Yorganci (KTO Karatay Unıversıty)

In this study, the overall steps of planning an action research to raise students’ awareness on frequently mispronounced silent letters and improve their pronunciation skills will be shared. The participants of the study are intermediate level prep school students in a private university context. The study was conducted in the main course of the syllabus. After deciding on the most frequently used words which embody silent letters, the researcher draws an action plan for both making students notice silent letters and pronounce them in an appropriate way. She makes use of various pronunciation techniques for treatment. The researcher will provide examples from her classroom instruction on how she acted towards eliminating the mispronunciation of silent letters.

An Actıon Research Improve Students’ Essay Wrıtıng through Collaboratıve Evaluatıon Nida Gürbüz (KTO Karatay University)

This presentation will demonstrate the stages of an action research study to enhance essay writing skills of prep school students. A group of upper intermediate level students are the participants of the study in a private university context. In this study, the researcher aims to encourage students’ to take part in the evaluation process. Before agreeing upon a user friendly rubric, she reviewed commonly used writing criteria and made an adaptation to address student’ needs. Students took active role in evaluating their own essays together with the researcher. In the content of the presentation, the researcher will provide how she developed a treatment and utilized a newly formed rubric in her writing course. She will share the results of the study with her own views and the participants' ideas.

How can action research enhance students’ use of tenses through songs? Şengün Baysal (Selcuk Unıversıty)

In this presentation, the overall steps an action research to improve students’ competence in tenses by using songs will be shared. The participants of the study are prep school pre-intermediate level students in a state university context. The study arises from the researcher’s interest in teaching grammar more effectively. Observing students’ inadequacy in tenses, she focused on ways to make grammar lessons more appealing to students’ interests. In order to identify the recurrent confusion among tenses from students’ usage, the researcher went over students’ records such as paragraphs, exam documents and spoken discourse in the classroom. As a further step, the researcher developed an action plan to overcome difficulties in certain tenses by matching these problematic areas to songs whose lyrics are repetitively using those particular tenses. Based on her classroom experience, the presenter will provide songs which she used in her study, how she exploited them to better students’ grammar skills. She will conclude with further suggestions on use of songs in classroom instruction.

Searchıng Ways to Improve Speakıng Skılls of Repeat Classes Onur Karagül & Ömer Turel (KTO Karatay University)

In this action research study, the researcher aims to find ways to better speaking skills of prep school repeat students in a private university context. The participants of the study are students who have been repeating the same course for more than once. Therefore, they lack motivation and this result in poor exam grades. It has been observed that this is a vicious cycle. In order to break this cycle and move towards a solution, the researcher decided to take series of action. The researcher will provide the plan, act, observe and reflect stages of the study. He will discuss the issue from both his own perspective and the students’ point of view.

The Influence of Negative Transfer from Mother Tongue on Students’ Speaking Skills and using feedback to minimize Negative Transfer Gökhan Hınız & Samet Hasircioglu (KTO Karatay University)

This study intends to investigate the negative effects of mother tongue influence on foreign language learners’ speaking skills. The negative transfer of Turkish sentence pattern, phonology and word choice have been observed in two different language classes of the research setting. Data for the study were gathered through video recordings of students’ persuasive speech which is a part of their curriculum and assessment. The presenter will provide some background information about mother tongue interference and feedback. He will also share his experience on how to avoid negative transfer of L1 using feedback.

Exploring the Relationship between Speaking Activities and Student Motivation CeAnn Myers & Merve Gazioglu & Fatma Aksoy & Atakan Aksoy & Buket Tanyeri & Yuliya Speroff (Melikşah University)

There are numerous ways that teachers attempt to motivate students to speak a foreign language. Choosing topics that are interesting for the students, designing realistic tasks, engaging students in competitions, and using assessments for positive wash-back are some of the many ways that instructors encourage students to produce language. However, do teachers really understand which techniques are the most effective in motivating students to participate fully in speaking activities? According to Dornyei, while motivation is extremely complex, it is responsible for why students do something, how long they choose to continue, and how much effort they are willing to extend (2014). While teachers might assume that they have a clear understanding of their students’ motivation, in reality, it can be difficult for teachers to really know which activities stimulate their students and why. In response to this need, this action research study critically evaluated four common speaking activities used in the EFL classroom and the motivational levels associated with each. By focusing on two perspectives, the teacher’s perceptions of student participation and motivation and the students’ self-disclosed level of enjoyment, presenters will be able to provide a dynamic viewpoint of speaking activities and motivation within the EFL classroom.

Using Vocabulary to Improve Students' Academic Writing Nicholas Velde & CeAnn Myers (Melikşah University)

Strong writing ability must be viewed as a necessity in the world of academic study and work. Yet, problems among NNS students’ writing for university study continue to prevent academic success (Hinkel, 2009). One area of L2 writing which has received important attention in the last decade is that of academic vocabulary and grammar (Coxhead & Byrd, 2007). In particular, lexical bundles, such as on the other hand or it is clear that, are thought to increase the academic nature of student writing (Hyland, 2012). In this presentation, we recount a semester-long action research project with the goal of improving students’ academic writing. In response to our students’ lack of academic tone, we developed and implemented an approach to teaching academic lexical bundles. After a seven-week intervention combining data-driven learning and direct instruction, we evaluated our intervention for efficacy. Results showed that instruction helped to increase the frequency and accuracy of lexical bundles written by our students. Based on our experiences during instruction and analysis, we will provide practical advice for improving students’ academic writing. Attendees will leave the presentation with easily adaptable ideas for their own teaching contexts.

The Effect of Activity Preparation Language on Communicative Performance Tuba Odakan & Ismail Vanli (Melikşah University)

Grammar exercises combined with communicative activities are often challenging. Students have difficulty integrating grammar subjects into fluency-oriented activities. There are underlying reasons for this: difficulty of grammar topic, limited vocabulary, activity preparation language and so on. Knowing this, we wondered if activity preparation language has an effect on the students’ performance during communicative grammar activities. We designed an action research project with three phases lasting 6 weeks. The research was based on speaking activities from a grammar book designed by Melikşah University’s Material Development Office. In the first phase, students prepared for the activity in Turkish and performed in English. In the second phase, they both prepared and performed in English. In the last phase, half of the class prepared in Turkish and the other half prepared in English, but the entire class performed in English. During the activities, teachers observed and documented how much English the students used. Following the activities, students completed a form indicating how much English they used during the activity. Results showed that Turkish as the preparation language of the activity decreased the amount of English used during the activities whereas English as the preparation language of the activity increased the amount of English used during the activities.