Innovations in Language Teaching Journal

The Use and Perceptions Towards AI Tools For Academic Writing Among University Students

Elif Tokdemir Demirel — 2024-12-29

AI- powered tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly and other writing assistants have become increasingly accessible offering opportunities for guiding academic writing development within ESP contexts through feedback, suggesting improvement and aiding error correction. The uses of AI-powered tools in academic writing include grammar and syntax checking, style and tone adjustment, clarity and conciseness suggestions, plagiarism detection, reference an citation management, content generation and brainstorming, targeted feedback on writing quality, thesis statement and argument strengthening, vocabulary enhancement, content structuring and outlining, translation and language support, research assistance, sentence rephrasing and paraphrasing, automated summarization and peer-review simulation. The increasing variety of tools and the rich repertoire of uses they offer makes it necessary to provide guidance to learners on how to use them effectively and ethically. The increasing use of AI-powered tools in academic writing practices has also brought about concerns regarding ethical considerations and potential pitfalls including over-reliance on AI and issues of academic integrity. Considering these issues, this presentation will address how AI can be effectively used to assist the academic writing process and offer alternative strategies for academic writing teachers to ensure academic integrity while using AI-powered tools. In order to gain an insight into the attitudes and experiences of academic writers with AI, surveys will be conducted with graduate level students in social science programs. The ultimate aim of the study is to determine the current situation about the use of AI by undergraduate and graduate level students and provide guidance to educators on using digital tools to help students develop specialized academic writing skills while ensuring the pedagogical balance between AI and issues of academic integrity by providing information about best practices and examples.

Exploring pre-service teachers' perceptions on world Englishes and culture course

Sevcan Bayraktar Çepni — 2024-12-29

The World Englishes and Culture Course is a standard component of teacher training programs offered at the majority of universities. This course aims to provide teacher candidates with the necessary knowledge and abilities to effectively understand and utilize the different varieties and forms of English worldwide. It acknowledges that English is no longer exclusively owned by native speakers from nations such as the UK, the US, or Australia. The current research study aimed to explore pre-service English teachers' perception of this course by getting better insights into the significance of the course, expected teacher roles, and suggested activities for raising WE-aware language learners. 35 (21 female, 14 male) English Language Teaching program pre-service students participated in the study via purposive sampling. They received open-ended structured questions via Google Forms and replied to the questions in 40 minutes with the guidance of the researchers. The data was subjected to content analysis, and results were tabulated. The findings showed that nearly all participants recognized the significance of the course and offered different activities to improve their learning of varieties of English worldwide.

Challenges In Ai-Assisted Academic Writing: A Case Study

Yaroslava Fedoriv — 2024-12-29

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a widespread tool in various academic fields, offering capabilities that range from machine translation to automated content generation. However, the application of AI in composing academic papers is subjected to inaccuracies, particularly in adhering to the conventional demands of academic writing. Based on a case study methodology, this article examines the limitations of AI in the following key areas: following the conventional rhetorical moves for composing an academic paper, providing accurate citations, arranging references in formats other than APA (unless specifically required to do so), disclosing the corpora, databases, and source texts used for AI training, incorporating contemporary knowledge, understanding cultural contexts beyond the Anglophone sphere, and maintaining a formal writing style. This case study emphasises the necessity for human engagement in academic writing to ensure quality, accuracy, and cultural sensitivity.

Beyond Language Barriers: A Meta-synthesis of Translanguaging-Focused Teacher Training and its Impacts on Teachers

Elif Aydın Yazıcı — 2024-12-29

Translanguaging, as a pedagogical approach, has been gaining a prominence especially in bilingual and multilingual educational settings. As a strategic and intentional use of multiple languages to enhance communication and learning, this pedagogy provides potential benefits in terms of creating inclusive learning environments in such settings (Garcia & Wei, 2014). The present study synthesizes the results of the studies on translanguaging pedagogy from the teachers’ perspectives. More specifically, it analyses in what ways the translanguaging-driven teacher training programs have impacted the practitioners and their perspectives towards this bilingual pedagogy. Eleven (N=11) peer-reviewed full-length articles published between 2014 and 2023 were included from a search of three electronic databases: Web of Science, ERIC, and SCOPUS. The analysis focused on identifying common themes and patterns in how these programs influenced educators' understanding of translanguaging. The synthesis of these existing articles revealed that while the in-service teacher training programs designed based on translanguaging principles had a profound effect on reshaping most of the teachers’ conceptualizations and perceptions towards translanguaging in a positive way, they could not create significant effects in some cases, primarily due to time constraints. The study also discussed that the bilingual classroom pedagogies and professional identities of most educators underwent a change in parallel with their new insights.

Keywords: Translanguaging, Bilingual/Multilingual Education, Professional Development, Bilingual Teacher Training

Pros and Cons of ChatGPT for Enhancing Writing Skills in Higher Education

Zohaib Hassan Sain — 2024-12-29

ChatGPT, a sophisticated generative machine learning model developed by OpenAI, excels in analyzing extensive datasets to generate coherent responses to queries. This study delves into the advantages and challenges posed by ChatGPT, particularly in language learning and enhancing writing skills at the higher education level. Data for this research were sourced from reputable digital repositories and academic databases. While ChatGPT proves valuable for sparking ideas for articles, it confronts issues such as data accuracy, ethical implications, and potential impacts on students' critical thinking abilities (Fuchs, 2023). The research also explores how effectively integrating ChatGPT can improve students' writing proficiency.

The Use Of Many Listening Media Types In One Hypermedia Listening Environment

Vehbi Türel — 2024-12-29

The positive effects of using different listening texts (i.e. audio, video) in listening enhancement as a part of FLL are already well known. As hypermedia enables us to combine and present audio and video with other learning elements such as supplementary contextual visuals, animations, and captions more effectively on the same digital platform, audio and video can be presented to language learners in one hypermedia listening application in different forms as different listening media types (i.e. audio-only, audio + supplementary contextual visuals, audio + animation, video-only, talking heads video + supplementary contextual visuals). This study investigated forty-five autonomous intermediate and upper intermediate NNSs learners' perceptions of the use and priority of different listening media types in one hypermedia that aimed to enhance the listening skills of the participants. The results revealed that the learners are in favour of the presence of different listening media types in one hypermedia. The learners believe that the presence of different listening media types in one hypermedia listening environment (HLE) improves their listening skills and helps prepare them for the real-world. Similarly, learners prefer some listening media types more than others in one HLE. In the same way, not only do learners think that some listening media types improve their listening more than others, but learners also believe that some listening media types prepare them better for the real-world.

Socio-Cultural And Linguistic Harmonization Of Syrians In Turkey

Neslihan Çorakçı — 2024-12-29

Turkey is a country acting as a bridge between two continents Asia and Europa and it connects diverse nations and cultures thanks to its geographical location and political attitude in Middle East. Regarding these facts, Turkey has been a destination for Syrian immigrants for shelter and security reasons after the break of Syrian war in 2011. On arrival, they come across a number of difficulties in adaptation to new social life because of difference between two cultures. The most striking one is the language since it is a necessity to integrate into the target society. It is possible via language to be able to accommodate target society and social life. The purpose of this study is to justify an educational model, which provides new comers with the ability of coping with the possible educational and language matters in Turkey context. However, this model could be adopted in different contexts regarding the necessary changes. Target education model has been invented by revising and adopting the strong and potential sides of the programs asserted before. Inclusive, pluralistic and constructivist implementations have been embraced and celebrated while constructing this model. The base of the education program has been grounded on concepts and attitudes mentioned above. As a result, a language program, which supports the total integration of Syrians by preserving their ethnic identity, has been produced and advised.

Book Review: “An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education” by Rebecca Rogers (2011)

Neslihan Keleş — 2024-12-29

This article reviews the second edition of the book An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education (Rogers, 2011), a comprehensive resource that critically analyzes the intersection of language, context, and meaning within the scope of educational settings. The book embarks on how discourse is influenced by social and cultural elements, particularly within the American context. As the editor, Rogers brings together various scholars and discourse theorists to offer insights on the role of language in shaping educational experiences and power dynamics.