No abstract

The main objective of this qualitative research study is to demonstrate Norwegian and Turkish novice teachers' reflections on bumpy moments and which strategies they use to cope with the challenges they faced in practice. The participants of the present study are novice teachers (n=17) with a maximum of five years' teaching experiences. The logbook and interview were the main data collection tools used to reflect novice teachers' challenging moments. The data was recorded and transcribed separately in the two countries, and then the categories across the data were identified and the codes compared. The results mainly indicate that the novice teachers in both contexts are learning from their bumpy moments and using their problem-solving skills, either based on their repertoire gained during school practicum on their own strategies developed over time to find solutions to their challenging experiences.

How student teachers experience their transformation into serving teachers in the liminal social spaces of the school-based practicum (teaching practice) is of key importance to them, their future students and their educators. The practicum is a challenging experience for student-teachers, even with help from university and school-based mentors, as their knowledge of practice, power and culture in schools lacks sophistication. The practicum, an under-researched but important aspect of education, was investigated in this study by asking 480 student teachers in three universities in Turkey and England in 2010-2011 about how well their universities prepared them for the practicum; what made practicums successful; and how practicums fostered their professional development. Participants generally thought the practicum helped them to develop skills in student and classroom management, in meeting students' diverse learning needs, in recognising multiple students' perspectives, and in grounding their understanding of what it meant to be a teacher 'for real'.

This study aims to explore the university students' perception on integration of blogging in EFL classes. In this study, the participants were first year university students (n=103) who created their group blogs in order to share their blog entries during their oral communication classes. Students interacted with their peers via blogs simply by reading and commenting on each other's blog posts. The data was collected from the blog entries and a questionnaire administered at the end of the project in order to understand the perceptions of students on effectiveness of using blogs in developing their language use. It is hoped that the findings of this study provides some insights into a number of pedagogical and theoretical issues.

This research study focuses on teacher-student and student-student interaction, which are considered very important aspects of classroom life. There has been a growth of interest in the analysis of teacher language and interaction in language classrooms and many (e.g. Ellis, 1994; Tsui, 2001) believe that classroom interaction is one of the major variables affecting SLA in formal settings. This study aims to give some insight into classroom interaction and how this interaction shapes L2 learning and teaching in Turkey and England. Systematic classroom observation along with the field notes taken to record observations is the main research method in this study used to describe and examine interaction patterns and to measure learner production in secondary classes in Turkey and England. The participants are foreign language teachers and non-native speaking students. Over a month, more than 50 lessons were observed in the secondary schools in both Turkey and England at two levels (13-14 and 14-15 year age group). In Turkey, English classes were observed whereas in England, the observation was conducted in German and French classes. English is taught as a foreign language in Turkey; German and French are also taught as a foreign language in England. The findings of this research study are expected to provide a better understanding of instructional practices and procedures in L2 classrooms. The results of this research study, however, should be seen as suggestive rather than conclusive since they are derived from a relatively small sample.