Evaluation of United States English Language Program for Faculty Members in Gazi University

• Main Authors: Aysun ÖZTÜRK, Mehmet Çağatay ÖZDEMİR
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bülent Ecevit University 2017-12-01
• Series: Yükseköğretim ve Bilim Dergisi
• Subjects: Foreign language problems of faculty members; Language education; Gazi University
• Online Access: http://higheredu-sci.beun.edu.tr/pdf.php3?id=1781

The purpose of this research is to evaluate United States language education program which is carried out at Gazi University from the included faculty members’ point of view, to determine existing problems and to propose suggestions for better implementation of the program if possible. For this purpose, the case study design which is one of the qualitative research designs was implemented, and the interview technique was used as a data collection technique. The interview questions were prepared by the researchers; the validity and the reliability were ensured by the expert opinions. The interviews were conducted with 12 faculty members from each academic position, who have been in 4 different universities as a part of the program. The results obtained can be summarized as such: all faculty members are generally pleased to attend to the program. However, the aspects which are seen as problems are identified as such; (1) departmental inequivalence at the correspondent university, (2) limited duration of the program, (3) lack of quality in the educational staff of the program, (4) spending too much time with Turkish colleagues which restricts practice of English. Most suggestions proposed by the faculty members are identified as such; (1) only assistant professors should be sent abroad for the language education, (2) associate professors, professors and the ones who have long term abroad experiences should be sent for the purposes such as scientific research, acculturation, etc., (3) the duration should be arranged according to the purposes but the duration of the language education should be arranged at least six months, (4) the universities should be carefully examined to have departmental equivalences, and (5) the language education programs should be prepared with higher quality.