NEAR EAST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ...

NEAR EAST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IMPROVING PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETENCE OF LOW-ACHIEVING STUDENTS USING
SEVERAL NLP TECHNIQUES: A MIXED-METHODS APPROACH A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Educational
Sciences Oksana Nazarova
Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavu?o?lu Nicosia
July 2013
Committee in charge: Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kurt, Chair Assist. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavu?o?lu Assist. Prof. Dr. Doina Popescu
NEAR EAST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IMPROVING PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETENCE OF LOW-ACHIEVING STUDENTS USING
SEVERAL NLP TECHNIQUES: A MIXED-METHODS APPROACH MASTER THESIS OKSANA NAZAROVA
NICOSIA
July 2013
NEAR EAST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IMPROVING PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETENCE OF LOW-ACHIEVING STUDENTS USING
SEVERAL NLP TECHNIQUES: A MIXED-METHODS APPROACH MASTER THESIS OKSANA NAZAROVA
SUPERVISOR: ASSIST. PROF. DR. ÇISE ÇAVU?O?LU NICOSIA
July 2013 We certify that we have read the thesis submitted by Oksana Nazarova titled
"Improving public speaking competence of low-achieving students using
several NLP techniques: A mixed-methods approach" and that in our combined
opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the
degree of Master of Arts.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kurt
Head of the Committee
Assist. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavu?o?lu
Supervisor
Assist. Prof. Dr. Doina Popescu
Committee Member
Approved for the
Graduate School of Educational Sciences
Prof. Dr. Cem Birol Director of Graduate School of Educational Sciences
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained
and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also
declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited
and referenced all materials and results that are not original to this
study.
Name, last name: Oksana Nazarova
Signature: ...............................
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express the great appreciation to my supervisor
Assist. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavu?o?lu for teaching me everything I know about
scientific research. She continually and convincingly shared her ideas
about this research project and patiently helped me to write the thesis.
Her doctoral dissertation called The Trouble with Turkishness"?:
(Invisible) Turkish Cypriots in a Turkish School in London showed me a
great example of an academic research study and helped not to stop in my
progress and never say that what has been done is good enough to leave it
in that form. Assist. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavu?o?lu, thank you for your support
and excellent feedback! I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Head of the English
Language Teaching Department Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kurt, due to whom I
gained most of the knowledge I have about the teaching process. I am
grateful to Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kurt for always keeping the door open
for all students to walk in with any questions and for creating a
supportive atmosphere in the department. Thank you for helping me with the
SPSS program. I would like to thank Dr. Asliye Da?man who challenged me to rethink
my inaccurate models of world in her courses. Each of your lectures gave me
the feeling of flying thoughts. Thank you for this opportunity to be taught
by an outstanding teacher. I would like to thank Dr. Doina Popescu who was caring and supportive
all these years of my studying in the department. Thank you for the course
of Linguistics. I wish to acknowledge the help provided by the course instructor, and
I also thank all the students who participated in this study for giving me
a chance to see their deep fears, for sharing with me personal information
that constitutes this thesis. My special thanks to my mother Zeynab Nazarova, my husband Timur and
his parents Nadejda and Albert Rakhmatullins, my good friends Alime Churlu
and Arzy Emirova for all their support and love. Finally, I would like to thank Allah for giving me the ability to
complete the graduate program and for helping me to find support of all
these people.
To Zeynab Nazarova
ABSTRACT
IMPROVING PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETENCE OF LOW-ACHIEVING STUDENTS USING
SEVERAL NLP TECHNIQUES: A MIXED-METHODS APPROACH Nazarova, Oksana
MA, Program English Language Teaching
Supervisor, Assist. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavu?o?lu
July 2013, 166 pages
Public speaking competence is essential to acquire for all teachers. At the
same time, we know little about what factors affect the process of
mastering public speaking competence and what are the tools that can help
EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students to overcome difficulties they
face in speech courses (De Grez, Valcke, & Roozen, 2009). This study
attempted to extend the knowledge on students' public speaking competence
development by analysing the factors that influence it and examining the
effectiveness of some interventions (i.e., Neuro-Linguistic Programming
(NLP) techniques of well-formed outcomes, modeling, and 'as-if' frame) in
supporting students to gain proficiency in that field. Thus, a mixed
methods approach was adopted to effectively answer all of the research
questions posed. The level of language proficiency, foreign language
anxiety, self-reported public speaking anxiety, general communication
apprehension, prior experience with public speaking, and motivational
factors were found to a certain extent affect the students' development of
public speaking competence. It was found that NLP techniques could
influence the 'motivation' dimension of the concept of competence for low-
achieving students.
Keywords: public speaking competence, NLP techniques, English as a foreign
language, pre-service teachers
ÖZ BAZI NÖRO-D?LB?L?MSEL PROGRAMLAMA YÖNTEMLER? KULLANILARAK DÜ?ÜK BA?ARI
GÖSTEREN Ö?RENC?LER?N KAMUYA YÖNEL?K KONU?MA BECER?LER?N?N GEL??T?R?LMES?:
B?R KARMAYÖNTEM YAKLA?IMI Nazarova, Oksana
Yüksek Lisans, ?ngilizce Ö?retmenli?i Anabilim Dal?
Dan??man, Yrd. Doç. Dr. Çise Çavu?o?lu
Temmuz 2013, 166 sayfa
Kamuya yönelik konu?ma yeterli?i bütün ö?retmenlerin edinmesi gereken temel
bir olgudur. Buna kar??l?k, kamuya yönelik konu?ma yeterli?ini edinme
sürecini etkileyen faktörler ve ?ngilizce'yi yabanc? bir dil olarak ö?renen
ö?rencilerin kar??last?klar? zorluklar?n üstesinden gelmelerine yard?mc?
olabilecek araçlar konusunda da çok az bilgi bulunmaktad?r (De Grez,
Valcke, & Roozen, 2009). Bu çal??ma ö?rencilerin kamuya yönelik konu?ma
yeterliklerinin geli?imi olgusunu etkileyen faktörleri analiz ederek ve
baz? nöro-dilbilimsel programlama (NDP) araçlar?n?n ('iyi biçimlenmi?
sonuçlar,' 'modelleme' ve 'm?? gibi çerçevesi') ö?rencilerin yetkinli?ini
artt?rmaya ne derecede yard?mc? olabilece?ini inceleyerek bu alandaki bilgi
da?arc???na katk?da bulunmay? amaçlamaktad?r. Dolay?s?yla, belirlenen
ara?t?rma sorular?n? etkili bir ?ekilde cevaplayabilmek için ara?t?rma
deseni olarak bir karma yöntem yakla??m? izlenmi?tir. Dil yeterlilik
seviyesi, yabanc? dil kayg?s?, kendi rapor edilen kamuya yönelik konu?ma
kayg?s?, genel ileti?im korkusu, önceki kamuya yönelik konu?ma deneyimi ve
güdüsel faktörlerin ö?rencilerin kamuya yönelik konu?ma yeterliklerinin
geli?imini belli aç?lardan etkiledi?i ara?t?rman?n bulgular? aras?ndad?r.
Kullan?lan NDP araclar?n?n dü?ük ba?ar? gösteren ö?rencilerin
yeterliklerinin 'güdüleme' boyutunu olumlu yönde etkileyebilece?i de
ara?t?rma sonunda ortaya ç?km??t?r.
Anahtar kelimeler: kamuya yönelik konu?ma yeterli?i, nöro-dilbilimsel
programlama yöntemleri, yabanc? dil olarak ?ngilizce, ö?retmen adaylar? TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL OF THE THESIS III
DECLARATION IV
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS V
ABSTRACT VII
ÖZ VIII
LIST OF APPENDICES XIII
LIST OF TABLES XIV
LIST OF FIGURES XV
ABBREVIATIONS XVI
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1
Background of the Study 1
Problem of the Study 6
Aim of the Study 7
Limitations 7
Conclusion 8
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW 10
Public Speaking Competence 10