This study compared gifted learners’ and their English teachers’ perceptions of who is an effective English as a foreign language (EFL) learner. The research questions include the following: (a) What are young gifted learners’ perceptions of an effective EFL learner? (b) What are English teachers’ perceptions of an effective EFL learner? and (c) Is there a match between young gifted learners’ and their English teachers’ perceptions of an effective EFL learner? The participants were two gifted learners attending the English classes at the Science and Arts Center (BILSEM) in Adana, Turkey, and two English teachers working with these students. Data were collected through repertory grids, written accounts of the students, and retrospective interviews. Findings include implications for designing appropriate instruction for gifted EFL learners and teacher educators who work with these specific learners.
Media literacy is defined as the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted via media and to synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages. Media literacy raises questions about the impact of media and technology, which has the potential to increase individuals' awareness about the effects of media on daily life. The aim of media literacy is to help students become competent, critical and literate in media forms because they need to interpret what they see or hear and prevent the interpretation from controlling them. Therefore, perceptions of students about their media literacy is a topic that requires attention at various education levels. The present study aimed to identify preparatory year program students' self-perceptions about media literacy and to explore whether they benefited from mass media in learning a foreign language, English in this context. Data were collected using Media Literacy Level Determination Scale developed by Karatas (2008). Open-ended questions that aimed to reveal students' perceptions of media literacy were asked with a view to supporting the data obtained from the scale. Both data collection tools also aimed to find out the factors associated with media literacy. The findings of the study are believed to open a perspective for the stakeholders in language teaching process by providing insight into the university students' stance towards media literacy.
Purpose: Emergency distance learning that started in the middle of 2019-2020 education year caused a lot of uncertainties and even chaos in many education settings around the world. However, conditions were different when the 2020-2021 education year started fully online. This descriptive inquiry aims to explore the views, perceptions, and experiences of learners and instructors, who started fully online distance education in the preparatory class of a School of Foreign Languages at a state university and compare and contrast these experiences with the emergency distance education they had in the previous term. Design/Methodology/Approach: The participants of the study included 247 students and 27 instructors who were administered open-ended questions as the data collection tool. Hence, the study utilized qualitative data collection and analysis methods. Findings: The results provided insights about the participants’ experiences from various aspects and showed that both parties were conscious of the benefits and challenges of the online courses. Highlights: Different from emergency remote learning, online classes in 2020-2021 academic year were seemingly organized with better planning, which also contributed to instructors’ and students’ adaptation.
Questioning is known to have been used to probe the validity of an assumption, analyse the logic of an argument, and explore the unknown. Instead of lecturing what is true or false, philosophers utilized questioning for students' understanding of a subject and then leading them to discover logical conclusions. Although role and types of questions utilized by teachers have been investigated in various learning environments, not the same attention has been given to students' questions. This study aims to explore English major students' question formation in the target language and analyse their interrogative constructions in terms of correct question forms and identify the specific difficulties they face while forming questions. In line with this purpose, 30 students were provided with a set of pictures and asked to write down as many questions as they could about these pictures within the time given. The study was conducted with students in the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies, and the participants were 14 first-year and 16 second-year students. The study also utilised an open-ended questionnaire regarding the difficulties students had while conducting the activity and forming interrogative sentences in English. Students' productions and the data collected from the openended questions were subjected to content analysis. It was found that the students constructed mostly Wh-questions and demonstrated errors in word order and verb form and that they had difficulties in forming interrogative constructions. Results are believed to help educators have a picture of challenges students face in this process.
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