Demir Ayaz, Aycan; Ozkardas, Sinem; Ozturan, Tuba

The English language curriculum prepared by the Ministry of National Education for high schools in Turkey seems to be satisfactory in theory, but the related studies about the attitudes of actual practitioners towards English classes in high schools are not detailed and comprehensive enough. This study aims to fill this gap. To do so, qualitative research was conducted with 13 English language teachers and 55 high school students from different parts of Turkey. They were asked for their opinions, applications, observations, and challenges of the English language teaching system in their high schools and some suggestions for the problematic issues were requested from them via open-ended questions. The data were analyzed descriptively; the results showed that most teachers are not satisfied with the coursebooks, crowded classes, quite limited class hours, and unmotivated students. Their main suggestions cover the privatization of education, having language libraries, labs, speaking clubs, and more lesson hours for English and decreasing the number of students in each classroom. Additionally, teachers want to attend international seminars to become aware of the latest methods/sources. Students have some valuable suggestions for the improvements as well. Nearly all of the students are unhappy about the coursebooks; thus, they suggest them to be revised. They also want to join international projects and improve their language skills. As a result of the study, suggestions covering many issues like coursebooks, assessment, teacher training, and European projects were proposed with an aim to diminish the gap between theories and applications in real classes.

Gonulal, Talip

The use of statistics in second language acquisition (SLA) research has increased over the past 30-40 years and continues to increase in both complexity and sophistication (Gass, 2009; Loewen & Gass, 2009). The increased use of statistical procedures has drawn attention to the current state of statistical literacy among second language (L2) researchers. Statistical literacy is a critical skill to acquire on the parts of both the producers and consumers of L2 research. However, it is a relatively new research topic in the field. So, little is known regarding what factors play key roles in the development of statistical literacy. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the predictors of statistical literacy in SLA. One hundred and twenty SLA doctoral students took a statistical background questionnaire and a discipline-specific statistics survey. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted on the statistics survey data. The results indicated that number of statistics courses taken, quantitative research orientation, and self-training in statistics were the significant predictors of statistical literacy. In light of the findings of this study, several suggestions directed toward improving statistical literacy in the field of SLA were made.

Dincer, Ali

The current study examined the relationships among motivational factors (i.e., motivation types and motivational strength, and language anxiety) in the simultaneous learning process of additional languages. A mixed-methods design was conducted with 86 multilingual learners learning both English and Turkish. The data were collected using a survey and follow-up open-ended questions about the motivational factors. There were three major findings of the study. First, the motivational factors in one language were positively correlated with the same factors in another. Second, although the learners' motivation (i.e., intrinsic, extrinsic and integrative) and motivational strength to continue their education showed no differences in both languages, their L2 anxiety towards learning additional languages was statistically different, in that learners were less anxious when learning English language than learning Turkish language. Third, multilingual learners’ interest in learning other languages and willingness to integrate in the target language culture, the status quo of the target language in the global world and the level of unfamiliarity of the target language seem to play a role in the learners' beliefs of motivation, feeling in learning additional languages and intention to study languages. Overall, the study highlighted the role of multilingualism in learning English and Turkish. It also shed light on understanding L2 affective factors learning distinct L2s.