Rakab, Mehmet Bülent2016-01-082016-01-081995http://hdl.handle.net/11693/17681Cataloged from PDF version of article.Includes bibliographical references leaves 57-60This study investigated whether there was a positive correlation between acculturation and English language proficiency in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context in Turkey. The study was conducted at Bilkent University. The participants were 15 students from the MA TEFL Program. All participants were teachers at various universities around Turkey. ' It was hypothesized that the more individuals were acculturated toward the target language (TL) and the TL community, the greater their proficiency in the TL. To test the hypothesis, an acculturation questionnaire was developed consisting of three parts; values, attitudes, and integrative versus instrumental motivation. The questionnaire was administered to subjects in the study, and results correlated with their proficiency in English, determined by averaging their Test of English Language proficiency (TELP) and essay exam results from the previous year's admission tests for entry into the MA TEFL Program. The results obtained from Pearson-Product Moment correlation support the hypothesis. The correlation between acculturation and language proficiency (r=.59) was found to be statistically significant at the .05 level. Two of the independent variables that comprised the construct of acculturation--values and integrative motivation--, correlated significantly with acculturation but not with proficiency (rs=.72**, .76***, respectively, significant at the .01 and .001 levels, respectively). The relationship between attitudes and proficiency just missed significance (r=.51, p=.052). The strength of the relationships among the components of acculturation and acculturation, but the lack of a significant relationship between the components of acculturation and proficiency suggested the need for a dependent-samj^le t-test, to determine whether the components of acculturation represented truly distinct constructs the way they were operationalized for this study or whether there was extensive overlap among them. Results indicated that there was not a statistically significant difference between the components. Therefore, it was concluded that values, attitudes, and integrative motivation represented essentially the same construct the way they were operationalized for this study. Findings of this study suggest that acculturation and proficiency co-occur positively and at a statistically significant level.xi, 74 leavesEnglishinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessPE1068.T8 R35 1995English language--Study and teaching (Higher)--Turkey.English language--Study and teaching (Secondary)--Turkey.English language--Study and teaching--Turkish speakers.Thesis