A Comparison between TESOL in 2015 in Turkey with the Global Trends of TESOL

Abstract

The present study is designed to investigate and compare emerging local trends in the field of TESOL research in Turkey during 2015 and global patterns of TESOL research. In the process of analysing the local patterns of TESOL in comparison to the global trends, 81 MA theses completed and uploaded on the system the Turkish Higher Education Thesis Center website uploaded during the year of 2015 were analysed. As a research methodology, qualitative method was applied to determine the findings of the research. In our qualitative analysis, starting with the prior categories, several existing TESOL trends were found along with the emerging trends in TESOL. The content analysis was performed on the qualitative data. The percentages of occurrence of each theme found in every category were calculated. Besides, content analysis was performed on these theses. It is found that alongside existing types such as teaching methodology, learner, subject matter, some emerging trends; other common research topics, such as teacher development and assessment and evaluation, native or non-native speaker teacher(s)…etc. emerged. Some significant pedagogical implications were discussed, and suggestions were provided for future studies.