Turkish University Students’ Experiences of Learning English: Is English Class a Dark Forest or a Clear Sky?

With the continued failure of large numbers of university students to achieve proficiency in English as a foreign language (EFL), a great deal of research has been devoted to issues such as outdated curriculum design, inadequacies of course materials, poor teacher quality, and learner motivation, among other concerns. However, few studies have focused on the opinions of learners themselves regarding the factors that may impact their efforts to develop competence in English. Taking the view that students may have useful insights with respect to their successes or failures, the researchers designed this qualitative study as a means to clarify, via open-ended survey questions, the opinions of Turkish university students concerning both the external and internal factors they attributed to their proficiency levels after a decade or more of studying the language. The results revealed that the participants were highly dissatisfied with their achievement, an issue for which they largely faulted external factors such as the Turkish education system, and in particular, the quality of their teachers. Internal issues such as anxiety and poor motivation were also mentioned, but overall, the students did not take much personal responsibility for their perceived lack of success.

Türk Üniversite Öğrencilerinin İngilizce Öğrenme Deneyimleri: İngilizce Dersleri Karanlık Bir Orman Mı, Yoksa Açık Bir Gökyüzü Mü?

Çok sayıda üniversite öğrencisinin yabancı dil olarak İngilizce derslerinde istenen yeterliliğine ulaşamaması, diğer kaygıların yanı sıra, miadını doldurmuş müfredat tasarımı, ders materyallerinin yetersizliği, düşük öğretmen kalitesi ve öğrenci motivasyonu gibi konularda birçok araştırma yapılmıştır. Buna rağmen çok az sayıda çalışma öğrencilerin İngilizce yeterliliklerini geliştirme çabalarını etkileyebilecek faktörlerle ilgili olarak öğrencilerin kendi görüşlerine başvurmuştur. Öğrencilerin kendi başarı ya da başarısızları ile ilgili en güvenilir bilgiye sahip kişiler oldukları düşüncesiyle, bu nitel araştırma Türkiye’de bir üniversitede eğitim gören ve neredeyse on yılı aşkın bir süre İngilizce eğitimi almış olan öğrencilerin başarısızlıkları ile ilgili iç ve dış faktörleri yansıtabilecekleri açık uçlu anket soruları kullanılarak yürütülmüştür. Sonuçlar, katılımcıların genel İngilizce başarılarından hiç memnun olmadıklarını ve bu başarısızlıklarında Türk eğitim sistemin yapısının ve özellikle de öğretmen kalitesi gibi dış faktörlerin etkili olduğunu düşündüklerini ortaya çıkarmıştır. Ayrıca, katılımcılar kaygı ve düşük motivasyon gibi başarısızlıklarını etkileyen iç faktörlerden bahsetmiş olsalar da, araştırma sonuçları genel olarak öğrencilerin algılanan başarı eksikliğinden dolayı çok fazla kişisel sorumluluk almadıklarını göstermiştir.

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