Sessions /
Identities of Turkish High School Students and Their Effects on Learners’ Perceptions of Lesson Themes #1162

Sat, Feb 20, 15:30-18:00 JST | Main Stage
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The aim of the present study is to understand how Turkish learners’ identities affect their perceptions of the target-language community culture and home-country culture themes, namely a Christmas-themed lesson, being a taboo in Turkish education, and a New Year-themed lesson, belonging to the home-country culture as well as being international. Three different methods of data collection used in order to triangulate the data: a demographic information form, questionnaires, interviews, and field notes from the teacher conducting the study. There is a dearth of research in terms of Turkish students’ identities and their effects on learners’ perceptions of topics, materials, and discourse used in the EFL classroom; therefore, this study aims to fill a gap in the literature. The results of this small-scale study suggest that students showed preference in favor of the local culture-based lesson, as they had the opportunity to share their real cultural experiences.

*** Part of the Graduate Student Showcase; this presentation, itself, is ~25 minutes long. ***

Gizem Genc

Gizem Genc

I am an EFL teacher with 5 years of experience working in Turkey. I have mostly taught General English and IELTS to teens and adults in Istanbul. Having completed a BA in ELT and the DELTA Module 1 and 3, I am currently doing an MA in ELT at Bahcesehir University, Istanbul. My main interests include TBLT, Dogme ELT, spoken discourse, using technology, teacher training.
Antonina Nemtinova

Antonina Nemtinova

Istanbul Gedik University
Hello! I am an EFL teacher in Istanbul Turkey. After finishing BA and MA in Persian Language and Literature at Taurida National V.I. Vernadsky University in Ukraine I moved to Turkey with AIESEC to try myself as an ELT intern-teacher in a high school in Manisa, Turkey. After a first year as a teacher I got CELTA in IH Izmir and moved to Istanbul to work in K12 schools. Nowadays I am an instructor at School of Foreign Languages in Istanbul Gedik University with 6 years of teaching experience, as well as a graduate student of ELT MA Program in Bahçeşehir University.