An investigation into the requirements of discipline teachers for academic English language use in a Turkish medium university

Date
2002
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Aydınlı, Julie Mathews
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Bilkent University
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English
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Abstract

This study investigated the English language use requirements of content course teachers at Niğde University (NU). Niğde University is a Turkish medium university, at which English is taught as an integrated skills service course for matriculated students. Students at NU take an exemption test at the beginning of their first year at university, and have to enrol in a language course in their first year of education if they fail the exam. This study aims at finding out what the teachers in the content courses of different disciplines actually require in terms of academic English, in hopes of being able to make well-based curricular recommendations for English language courses at NU. The needs analysis in this study attempted to find answers to these research questions:

  1. What are the academic English language use requirements of content course teachers for their students at Niğde University (NU), which is a Turkish medium university?
  2. According to the English language use requirements of content course teachers, which English language skills have the most priority for the students studying at NU?
  3. Are there different English language use demands of the content course teachers from their students at NU in terms of: a. Different schools, i.e. faculties or vocational schools. b. Whether teachers have Ph.D.s or M.A.s. c. Different sciences, i.e. hard-pure (HP), soft-pure (SP), hard-applied (HA), or softapplied (SA). If so, what are they? Data were collected from the content course teachers at NU. In order to collect data for this needs analysis, a questionnaire was prepared, and delivered to the 320 content course teachers at NU. The 177 completed questionnaires were then analysed using descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, t-tests, Scheffe tests, and one-way chi-square tests. In this thesis, the main results of the needs analysis can be summarised as showing that the teachers find English fairly important for their students. Nevertheless, only a small number of teachers reported that they ever required specific academic English skills from their students. Among the responses of those teachers who did report requiring some English usage, 'reading' was shown to be the required skill given most priority. When the data were analysed in accordance with science classification, needs for reading, speaking, and listening skills were realised. With respect to science, school, and educational background (teachers with/without Ph.D.s), teachers at faculties, teachers from the HP sciences, and teachers with Ph.D.s were shown to require more academic English use than their colleagues.
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Published Version (Please cite this version)