Ayse Akyel

• Dean at Yeditepe University

This quasi-experimental study aims to investigate the effects of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), Assisted Repeated Reading (ARR), and Traditional Reading (TR) instructions integrated into an EFL reading program on EFL reading comprehension, silent reading rate, reading motivation, and attitudes toward EFL reading, by also addressing the potential e...

As a subset of the large-scale research on several issues related to EFL reading comprehension and instruction, this study investigates the potential relationship among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading comprehension, silent reading rate, vocabulary knowledge (i.e., receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge), and reading motivation (i...

The study aims to add to our understanding of pre-service teachers’ perceptions and experiences of research engagement during the school practicum. Specifically speaking, the following research question was addressed: What are Turkish pre-service EFL student teachers’ perceptions of the extent to which research engagement in the school practicum is...

The purpose of the present study is twofold: (1) to investigate the relationship between the efficacy of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) and their self-reported practice of communicative language teaching (CLT) and (2) to examine the impact of an in-service teacher education program on teachers’ efficacy and self-reported and actual...

This study explores the relative contribution to EFL reading comprehension of the following individual-difference variables: prior knowledge, topic interest, linguistic proficiency, gender, reading motivation, and metacognitive awareness. It also investigates the relationship between the aforementioned individual differences and the role of text di...

The issue of what teachers need to know about technology for effective teaching has been the centre of intense debate in the recent past. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) has been proposed as a conceptual framework to describe the knowledge base teachers need for effective technology integration. The present study aimed to invest...

The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of; (1) Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers about ELF, (2) Turkish EFL teachers and teacher educators about the role of ELF on language teacher education. Data came from a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. A hundred Turkish EFL teachers working at two universities...

The aim of this study is to design a Language Preparatory Program for English language education students. The participant group consists of eighty-eight student teachers and ten course instructors at an English medium university, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language Education. Data of the study came from needs analysis questionnair...

This study aimed to conduct a need analysis to examine the university students’ needs for the innovation of the ELT curriculum of the preparatory-school of an English medium university in Istanbul. A triangulation research method was followed in the present study. The educational approach underpinning this method is constructivism. Data was collect...

This study investigated the strategies used by advanced learners of English while reading a hypermedia document in order to determine whether they are essentially different from those reading strategies reported in the literature for printed texts. Moreover, the role of prior knowledge about the topic was explored in relation to strategy use. Data...

This study investigates the role of portfolio development on the improvement of the reflective thinking ability of five Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) student teachers from a University in Turkey. In this case study, participants' reflective papers written for their pen/paper and electronic portfolios and their interviews were analysed...

This study examined English compositions written from plans in English and Turkish. Seventy-eight Turkish university students from two different proficiency levels (intermediate and advanced) wrote on three different assigned topics: a Turkish culture-specific topic, a topic related to American/British culture, and a more general topic. The study i...

Mathematics educators are concerned about students' lack of ability to translate mathematical word problems into computable forms. Researchers argue that linguistic problems lie at the root of students' difficulties with mathematical word problems. The issue becomes more complicated for bilingual students. It is argued that if students study mathem...

The present study investigates the reading strategies of Turkish EFL students in Turkish and English and the possible effects of reading instruction on reading in Turkish and English. The study addresses the following questions: a) Does strategy instruction in EFL reading affect EFL reading strategies and reading comprehension in English? b) Does s...

This article examines a number of adult ESL grammar textbooks via an author-designed checklist to analyze how well they incorporate the findings from research in communicative language teaching (CLT) and in form1ocused instruction (FFI). It concludes that although afew textbooks incorporate some of the research findings in CLT and FFI, they are not...

The purpose of this study was to analyze the collaborative efforts of two EFL teachers to explore teaching with a view to solving problems in their respective classes. In so doing the study also attempted to investigate whether this process of collaborative reflection would lead to a change in these EFL teachers' instruction-al practices and attitu...

This study investigated the relationship of first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) writing processes and possible effects of L2 writing instruction in an academic context on L1 and L2 writing strategies and attitudes. Specifically, the study asked whether (1) there are similarities and/or differences between Turkish and English writing proces...

This study examines if experienced and student EFL teachers differ from each other in terms of: (a) their use of student performance cues, (b) their instructional actions in response to student performance cues, (c) their instructional goals and instruction-related knowledge they recalled applying during the process of EFL instruction. Transcriptio...

This article describes a five-week (4 hours a week) stylistic analysis component added to a one-semester initial training course for the use of literature in an EFL context. The aim of this experimental component was to help the student teachers explore the effectiveness of applying stylistic analysis of poetry to the design of language activities...

Development and use of an English for Special Purposes (ESP) textbook for Turkish police dealing with tourists are described. The textbook and accompanying videotape (not available from ERIC) were designed for use in a course to improve job-specific communicative competence of police officers with a lower-intermediate to intermediate level of Engli...

According to recent arguments, a learning - centered ESP program should take into consideration both the learning needs - what the learner needs to do in order to learn and target needs - what the learner needs to do in the target situation. (Bowers 1980, Hutchinson and Waters 1984, 1987, McDonough 1984.) Hence in line with these arguments, the eva...

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the present state of literature teaching in the English departments of five selected private higher schools (Lise) in Istanbul, through an analysis of student and teacher responses to questionnaires. The findings of this paper may yield further insights for implementing literature-teaching strategies in non-...