New technologies including digital game-based language learning have increasingly received attention. However, their implementation is far from expected and desired levels due to technical, instructional, financial and sociological barriers. Previous studies suggest that there is a strong need to establish courses in order to support adaptation of gamebased learning pedagogy through helping teachers experience digital games themselves before they are expected to use them in teaching. This study was conducted to investigate educational digital games in foreign language teaching, to identify the determining reasons behind the pittfalls in applications and to explore the contribution of a serious game to the development of professional language skills of pre-service teachers. Pre-and post-tests were applied to measure the contribution of the game to the development of their language skills. In addition, a game diary and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit information about the problems pre-service teachers had and their perceptions on the whole process. The analysis of the data illustrated that there was great improvement in pre-service teachers' professional language skills and attitudes towards using these games while teaching in the future. This is important in foreign language teacher education in terms of enhancing digital game-based language learning pedagogy for teachers.
The purpose of this study is to investigate Turkish students' (n=462) motivation and attitudes toward learning English as a foreign language at a state university in Turkey and the relation between their attitudes, motivation and the variables such as gender, parental involvement, their fields of study at university, and academic achievement. It was important to explore and comprehensively look at the issue through a range of variables because the findings of the previous studies have revealed inconsistent attitudinal profiles toward learning English language. The study adopted quantitative research paradigm and used a questionnaire for data collection. The results indicated that the participants' instrumental and intrinsic motivation were at moderate level while the mean of parental involvement was at a high level. It was also shown that the learners' attitude changed according to their gender, fields of study and academic achievement. Alternative solutions at individual and institutional levels have been proposed in order to develop motivation and more favourable attitudes toward learning English language, and to prevent the generalization of stereotypes, which may have great impact on the success of learning English language at tertiary level.
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