Duration: 2022- 2024 (36 months)

Grant awarded: 1.826.158,00 TL

This project, supported under TÜBİTAK's (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye) 1001 Scheme (Project Nr. 121K227), aims to investigate the teaching and learning processes at English Medium Instruction in Türkiye in an attempt to explore the effective and ineffective practices by using a data-driven and participant-relevant approach grounded in multimodal Conversation Analysis (CA).

Led by Dr. Hale Işık Güler (Middle East Technical University), the project collected 151 hours of video recordings from 30 different disciplines/undergraduate programs across four different English-medium higher education institutions in Turkiye:

1. Middle East Technical University (METU)

2. Bogazici University (BOUN)

3. Kadir Has University (KHAS)

4. Bilkent University (BU)

This 3-year (2022-2025) large-scale project sets out to harvest the lived & distilled experiences of EMI faculty into insights for good practice. A systematic investigation is conducted based on multiple data sources related to various relevant factors, including classroom interaction video recordings covering a broad sample, questionnaires administered to EMI students, and stimulated recall sessions with EMI faculty. Through the project's rich database, we aim to gain insights into instructors' and students' perspectives on EMI, classroom teaching and learning practices in EMI settings, and instructors' interpretations and reflections on their own classroom interaction patterns. Based on the findings, the project seeks to develop open-access online training modules tailored to various EMI contexts for content instructors teaching in EMI programs.

CA Training for the Project Members:

The database for the project was built with contributions from a team of undergraduate and graduate project assistants who received 13 weeks of online training sessions within the scope of this project. The training was conducted between March and October 2022 to teach the principles and features of the Conversation Analysis (CA) method as a window into EMI practices. CA was the selected method for (i) the transcription of the course recordings obtained within the scope of the project, (ii) their detailed micro-analytic examination, and (iii) the identification of analytical findings to be utilized in the development of training. During the initial weeks of the online training program, participants were provided with weekly reading lists that explained the fundamental principles of the Conversation Analysis (CA) method and its applications in EMI and other types of classroom contexts. Starting from the fifth week, instructors introduced and demonstrated the use of the software programs Transana and MAXQDA, used to analyze classroom recordings and stimulated recall protocol data obtained from the project. From the ninth week onward, the training shifted to a practice-based format, in which participants presented their own datasets in online meetings. Specifically, the trainees were given various assignments of transcribing and collection building, and received feedback throughout the process. At the end of this initial training, a total of 10 students who received financial support for their participation became project members who can adequately collect and analyze EMI classroom data.

The Output:

Based on the culmination of the rich dataset, the resulting evidence-based training program for faculty aims to positively impact students' academic performance and participation by helping faculty scaffold content, integrate multimodal resources, and address learning difficulties by explicating interactional evidence as training material for institutions that are currently implementing or wish to implement EMI as their institutional language policy in Türkiye and abroad.

Project Partners

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Publications & Presentations

(Alphabetical Order)

2025

Ege-Kadıoğlu, F. & Işık-Güler, H. (manuscript under preparation). Collaborative knowledge building in English Medium Instruction: The role of teacher-solicited storytelling episodes.

Ege-Kadıoğlu, F. (dissertation under preparation). Co-constructing knowledge through storytelling in English-medium instruction classrooms: A micro-analytic investigation in Turkish higher education [PhD Thesis Advisor: Doç. Dr. Hale Işık-Güler]. Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Ankara, Türkiye.

Göymen, D., Doyğun, S., & Bayyurt, Y. (2025, March). Understanding codeswitching in EMI higher education: A multimodal CA and stimulated recall analysis. Paper presented at the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference, [Denver, Colorado, USA].

Kara Duman, S., Yalçın, Ş., & Bayyurt, Y. (2025, March). Exploring CDFs in EXINTEX episodes in EMI classrooms. Paper presented at the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference, [Denver, Colorado, USA].

Kara Duman, S. K. (dissertation under preparation). Co-constructing Disciplinary Knowledge in EMI Classrooms [PhD Thesis Advisors: Prof. Dr. Yasemin Bayyurt & Assoc. Dr. Şebnem Yalçın]. Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, İstanbul, Türkiye.

Şimşek-Tontuş, A., & Işık-Güler, H. (manuscript under preparation). Embodied Response- Pursuit Practices in EMI Classroom Interaction: Gestural Modelling of Student Turn.

Turan, P. (dissertation under preparation). The development of professional knowledge in English-medium higher education: a longitudinal micro-analytic investigation of multimodal classroom talk [PhD Thesis Advisor: Doç. Dr. Hale Işık-Güler]. Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Ankara, Türkiye.

Turan, P., & Işık-Güler, H. (manuscript under preparation). Expanding the E in EMI through Translanguaging: A Multimodal Account of Undergraduate Engineering Laboratory Sessions.

Yalçın, Ş., & Bayyurt, Y. (in press). Exploring knowledge co-construction in EMI classrooms in higher education. In A. Imaz Agirre & R. Arias-Hermoso (Eds.), Insights into disciplinary literacies: Multilingual perspectives across educational levels.Multilingual Matters.

2024

Işık-Güler, H., & Turan, P. (2024, May). King's College London - King's Events – Invited Talk. Emerging discourse-based research in Türkiye – projects from the Discourse and Corpus Research Group.

Işık-Güler, H., Turan, P., Şimşek Tontuş, A., & Köse, B. (2024, November). EMI classroom interactions: Feedback from and feedforward to EAP. The 6th International English for Specific Purposes Conference, Ankara, Türkiye.

2023

Bozbıyık, M., Işık-Güler, H., &, Turan, P. (2023, October). Investigating EMI university classrooms through Conversation Analysis. Free Linguistic Conference, Kadir Has Üniversitesi, İstanbul, Türkiye.

Bozbıyık, M., Ege-Kadıoğlu, F., Turan, P., Şimşek-Tontuş, A., Çimenli, B. (2023, October). Classroom-based Conversation Analysis training for project members. Free Linguistic Conference, Kadir Has Üniversitesi, İstanbul, Türkiye.

Eröz, B., Erkan, G., Yalçın, Ş., Mengü, H. I., Gülle, T. ,Göymen, D., & Kurt, Y. (2023, October). Supplementing interaction data with Video-Stimulated Recall Sessions. Free Linguistic Conference, Kadir Has Üniversitesi, İstanbul, Türkiye.

Gül, S. A. (2023). Exploring Multi/Bilingual Practices in EMI Setting: Perspectives of Instructors from Higher Education in Turkey [MA Thesis Advisor: Prof. Dr. Yasemin Bayyurt]. Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, İstanbul, Türkiye.

Işık-Güler, H., Bayyurt, Y., & Kerestecioğlu, F. (2023, October). Developing an in-service training framework for Faculty members in English-medium Universities Based on an EMI Classroom Interaction Corpus. Free Linguistic Conference, Kadir Has Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Türkiye.

Yalçın, Ş., Işık-Güler, H., Şimşek-Tontuş, A., Kurt, Y., & Köse, B. (2023, October). Designing a Data-Driven EMI Questionnaire: Lecturer and Student Perspectives. Free Linguistic Conference, Kadir Has Üniversitesi, İstanbul, Türkiye.