Cover, TOC and Editorial

Abstract

Welcome to the new issue of The Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies; Vol. 9, No. 1, April 2013.

As the editorial team, we once again would like to extend our personal gratitude to those without whose valuable help and support, it would become impossible to complete this issue. Each day our team is making tremendous effort to reach the perfect in our services for our authors and readers.

In this new issue we have included 10 research papers, each of which is considered highly prestigious study. Mesbah, in her article entitled “Results of the Students’ Lecturer Evaluations and Evaluations of Their Own Learning-Outcomes in Accordance with the Bologna Process in German as a Second Foreign Language Program (G2FL),†she focuses on the contribution of Bologna process. She maintains that while preparing for the Bologna process at tertiary, student involvement is essential. During the university-wide, end of semester survey, students are asked to evaluate their instructors as well as their individual learning outcomes. The ultimate goal, in the Department of G2FL, is to quantitatively analyze the survey results, the effectiveness of the Department’s language teaching methods and ultimately to ascertain student learning outcomes.

In his article “Attitudinal Dispositions of Students toward the English Language: Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Considerations†Erdemir maintains that the status, value, and importance of a language is often measured by the attitudes toward that language. Learning a second or foreign language and attaining proficiency in it is closely related to the attitudes of learners toward the language. Surprisingly enough, in his view a few studies have investigated language attitudes of Turkish students toward the English language in Turkey. However, the same issue has not been explored among Turkish students learning and using the English language in a country where English is spoken as the first language.

Kaçar and Zengin has conducted a study on “Perceptions of Pre-service Teachers of English towards Grammar Teaching in the Turkish Context†in which they aim to investigate the perceptions and classroom practices of Turkish pre-service teachers of English employing a quantitative research design.

Another interesting article by Kurtul is on “Semiotic Analysis of the Story “The Executioner and the Weeping Face†in which he reports that meaning is unclassified data and unshaped substance unless it exists on language level, which different languages form in various forms. That is to say that the same meaning is formed differently by each language. The said forms are the results of the functions of languages. Meaning cannot exist on its own except that it is the substance of a new form, which means that a specific form of language content arises as the make up of essence. Semiotics tries to answer the questions how meaning is created and how reality is projected by employing linguistics and logical methods drawing on signs.

In the article “The Importance of Cultural Components in Foreign Language Teaching†Alpar points out that the relationship between the social and cultural organizations of societies and languages is the subject of folklore. Each language contains a new form of life and thought. Language learning is also a process of culture transmission. A linguist should be aware of the fact that the language and culture of the society are the interconnected parts of a whole. In this context, an educator should not only aim at teaching a language, but also help students to develop their personality by taking their cultural background into consideration.

Demirbaş in her study “Performance Differences between ELT Freshmen’s Receptive and Productive Skills†investigates whether the freshmen’s education at the preparatory school makes a meaningful difference in the freshmen’s performances who attend the preparatory program and those who are exempt from this program. Thus, it will lead to analyze the fact that whether the foreign language instruction that is offered at the preparatory school make learners more successful when they start their education in the department and in what skills the preparatory school helps learners develop more. In doing so, the efficiency of the preparatory school will become clearer, and both teachers and learners will be aware of their level of achievement.

Kayaoğlu has made a study on “The Use of Corpus for Close Synonyms†in which he reports that using corpora is still in its infancy in foreign language classes in spite of its great benefits and potential to offer solutions to the various challenges in foreign language instruction both for teachers and learners. This partly stems from a lack of interest and practical knowledge about the pedagogic role that the corpora can play. There is a pressing need to convince teachers of the great benefits of corpora with empirical data.

In “Family Literacy and Second Language Literacy Research: Focus on Language Minority Children,†Yıldırım states that Countries like the U. S. A. or Canada have citizens from various ethnic backgrounds. Although English is the dominant language in many parts of these countries, immigrants generally prefer speaking their native language when they are in their homes. Whatever the reason for using native language at home is, when we consider the children in these families, we can say that being exposed to different languages at home and at school may be a problem for their language development.

Kırmızı, in his study “Learner Attitudes and Preferences in Terms of Learning Culture,†aims at finding out Turkish learners’ preferences in terms of learning and teaching of culture in order to shed light on the practice of language teaching in an EFL context.

Doqaruni studies “The Relationship between Communication Strategies andNoticing Function of Output Hypothesis in Teacher Talk.†Doqaruni’s study, building upon communication strategies research and noticing function of output hypothesis, examines the relationship between these two issues in teacher talk.

Lastly, Khajavi and Abbasian have conducted a study on “Improving EFL Students' Self-regulation in Reading English Using a Cognitive Tool.†Their study strives to investigate if concept mapping as a cognitive tool could contribute to improving self-regulation of students in a reading course.

Last but not the least we are happy to work with those who would like to publish their papers in our journal. Therefore, I am pleased to announce a “call for papers†for our future issues.

On behalf of the editorial board,

Best regards,

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arif SARIÇOBAN

Editor-in-Chief