Yasemin Oral

Istanbul University, English Language Teaching, Faculty Member

Canterbury Christ Church University, English & Language Studies, Visiting Researcher

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Postdoctoral Research, Canterbury Christ Church University, English and Language Studies, 2012.

PhD, İstanbul University, Department of English Language Teaching, 2010.

MA, İstanbul University, Department of English Language Teaching, 2003.

BA, İstanbul University, Department of English Language Teaching, 2000.

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Papers by Yasemin Oral

Intersections of Identity and English Learning/Use: Perspectives from The Experiences of Turks in Britain

Cases on TeachingCritical Thinking throughVisual RepresentationStrategies

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The Challenge of Native-speakerism in ELT: Labelling and Categorising

(En)Countering Native-speakerism, 2015

This chapter emerged out of a larger qualitative study that explored the intersections of issues ... more This chapter emerged out of a larger qualitative study that explored the intersections of issues of identity and English language learning/ use with 19 Turkish participants residing in Britain. It was primarily motivated by my own journey of English language learning and the role it has played in the ongoing construction of my identities, of who I am, from my own point of view, which was later spurred academically by the recent explosion of interest in Applied Linguistics (AL) in theorising and researching the complex relationship between the multiple identities of language learners/users and their social contexts of learning.

Working on TV Commercials in EFL Classes: A Critical Perspective

Hasan Âli Yucel Egitim Fakultesi Dergisi, 2007

Culture in English Coursebooks: Essentialist or Non-essentialist?

The increasingly recognized importance of the status of English as an international language and ... more The increasingly recognized importance of the status of English as an international language and its concomitant circumstances have brought about significant changes in the ways cultural issues are dealt with within the discourses of English language teaching. The major change which sets the scene for the present study concerns the conception of culture. Recent trends have highlighted the importance of a shift from an essentialist view of culture to a non-essentialist one. Within this climate, this study aims to unearth views of culture underlying a selected sample of coursebooks used in the teaching of English to adults in Turkey. Theoretically informed by the work of Holliday, Hyde and Kullman (2004), the paper presents a critical discourse analysis of the cultural content of the selected coursebooks.

Micro-politics of an EFL Classroom: Interactional Construction of Power Relations

The burgeoning literature on critical approaches to English language education has prioritized an... more The burgeoning literature on critical approaches to English language education has prioritized an understanding of language pedagogy as a question of politics. Likewise, the micropolitics of language classrooms, which addresses workings of power at the microlevel of pedagogical practices, has come to greater prominence. It is this political understanding of the language classroom that has informed this paper, which is part of a broader qualitative research aimed at exploring thoroughly how power relations operate in an EFL class. The main purpose of the paper is to document how interactional resources are used by learners and teachers to construct power relations in the EFL classroom. Particularly influenced by Foucault’s notion of disciplinary power, the paper focuses on power as an inescapable constant in classroom interaction. The data base of this paper consists of ethnographic notes, interviews, and audio recordings made while observing a year-7 EFL class in a private elementar...

Power and Interactional Routines: Lessons from an EFL Class

Informed by critical approaches to English language education, this presentation aims to describe... more Informed by critical approaches to English language education, this presentation aims to describe interactional routines underlying different instructional stages in a year seven EFL class in Turkey with a particular emphasis on the workings of power relations between the teacher and the students. The presentation explores participants’ rights and obligations as well as the rules and norms governing classroom interaction.

“The Right Things Are What I Expect Them to Do”: Negotiation of Power Relations in an English Classroom

Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2013

Review of doctoral research in English language teaching and learning in Turkey (2009–2013)

Language Teaching, 2016

This article reviews doctoral research into English language teaching and learning completed betw... more This article reviews doctoral research into English language teaching and learning completed between 2009 and 2013 at Turkish universities. The 25 dissertations reviewed here fall into these four general categories: (1) instructional variables and designs, (2) learners, (3) textbooks, and (4) development and evaluation. The majority of these dissertations focus on classroom teaching and learning. Half are particularly concerned with the effects of different instructional variables and designs on learning-related issues. The dissertations are presented with a focus on research methodologies to provide the reader with an evaluation of not only the validity of the findings in each study but also their strengths and weaknesses.

"Review of doctoral research in English language teaching and learning in Turkey (2009-2013)", LANGUAGE TEACHING, vol.49, pp.390-410, 2016

by Dilek Inal and Yasemin Oral

“The Challenge of Native-speakerism in ELT: Labelling and Categorizing”. In A. Swan, P. Aboshiha & A. Holliday (Eds.), (2015)(En)Countering Native-speakerism: Global Perspectives, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan.

DİL ÖĞRETİMİ- Pegem Akademi-2015-tanıtım

by Nilüfer Bekleyen, DEREN BAŞAK AKMAN YEŞİLEL, Yasemin Oral, Osman Solmaz, adnan yılmaz, Eyüp Dilber, Prof. Dr. Turan Paker, and Yasemin Yelbay Yılmaz

“A Case on Teaching Critical Thinking and Argument Mapping in a Teacher Education Context”. In L. J. Shedletsky & J. S. Beaudry (Eds.), (2014), Cases on Teaching Critical Thinking through Visual Representation Strategies. Hershey: IGI Global.

Shedletsky, L.J. & J.S. Beaudry (Eds.) (2014) Cases on Teaching Critical Thinking through Visual Representation Strategies. IGI Global.

“‘The Right Things Are What I Expect Them To Do”: Negotiation of Power Relations in an English Classroom”. (2013) Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 12/2, 96-115.

Journal of Language, Identity and Education, Apr 11, 2013

Theoretically informed by a Foucauldian understanding of power, this article documents how power ... more Theoretically informed by a Foucauldian understanding of power, this article documents how power is exercised and resisted in an English-as-a-foreign-language context. In particular, the article focuses on individual seatwork, during which students were working individually on written exercises, as one of the three basic modes of teaching/learning in the lessons observed. By employing the tools of critical discourse analytical methods within an ethnographic approach, the analysis brings together the teacher's perspectives and classroom power relations to generate insights into the interplay between the microlevel classroom discourse and the macrolevel professional discourses. While the observation data demonstrate how power was negotiated over and through different kinds of classroom behavior, the interview data reveal the relationship between the norms of classroom behavior that the teacher sought to impose and the traditional teacher-centered, and control and authority-based, professional discourses.

“Culture in English Coursebooks: Essentialist or Non-essentialist?”, Journal of Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture, (2010), 2/1, 96-106.

“A Historical Sketch of Culture Teaching in ELT: Towards Postmodern Perspectives”, Journal of Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, (2011), 14.

Hasan Ali Yücel Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, Jan 1, 2011

The recent interest in the social and cultural politics of English language teaching (ELT), along... more The recent interest in the social and cultural politics of English language teaching (ELT), along with the rise of post-modernist thinking, has brought the very concept of culture under close scrutiny. Building on the premise that ELT tenets, practices, and materials are never neutral but are always involved in cultural politics, the present paper aims to present a brief overview of the important lines of development in the history of culture teaching in ELT within a broader socio-political context. With a purpose to trace the changes in the theoretical discourse that have occurred since the post-World War II years, this paper focuses on the perception of culture and culture teaching.

Son yıllarda İngilizcenin öncelsiz bir biçimde küresel ölçekte yayılmasının İngiliz Dili Eğitimi (İDE) alanındaki kültürel ve sosyo-politik açılımlarını eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla irdeleyen görüşlerin öne çıkması, postmodern düşüncenin de etkisiyle kültür kavramının sorunsallaştırılmasına yol açmıştır. İngilizce öğretimine içkin temel inanç, pratik ve malzemelerin asla tarafsız olamayacağı görüşünden yola çıkarak, bu çalışma İDE alanında kültür olgusunun kavramsallaştırılması ve öğretimindeki değişimleri II. Dünya Savaşı sonrası yıllardan günümüze kadar uzanan tarihsel gelişim çizgisi içinde irdelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

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English Language in The Context of Foreign Language Education Policies in Turkey:'A Critical Study

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Türkiye'de Yabancı Dil Eğitimi Politikaları Bağlamında İngilizce:'Eleştirel Bir Çalışma

YAYIN KURULU, Jan 1, 2010

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Working on TV Commercials in EFL Classes: A Critical Perspective

Hasan Ali Yücel Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, Jan 1, 2007

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Talks by Yasemin Oral

The Interplay of Cultural Identities and Social Context in English Language Learning/Use

Informed by poststructuralist theories of identity and culture, the present study aims to look in... more Informed by poststructuralist theories of identity and culture, the present study aims to look into the complex intersections of issues of cultural identity and English language learning/use. Drawing upon data gathered from semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with nineteen Turks who were living in England and field notes including my observations and informal conversations alongside my own experiences, the study explores the participants’ experiences and perceptions with regard to their cultural identities as English speakers in an attempt to examine the link between social context and language learning/use from an identity perspective. The analysis, overall, challenges the use of terms such as ‘non-native speakers’, ‘migrants’ and ‘English as a second language’ to denote both language learners and social contexts they are situated in on the grounds that such terms as bordered constructs can not usually sufficiently portray those experiences and realities that are characterized by plurality, multiplicity and flux, especially in identity research, which is particularly sensitized toward revealing the multiple, fluid, potentially contradictory and constantly (re)negotiated nature of identity.

Intersections of Identity and English Learning/Use: Perspectives from The Experiences of Turks in Britain

Cases on TeachingCritical Thinking throughVisual RepresentationStrategies

Download

The Challenge of Native-speakerism in ELT: Labelling and Categorising

(En)Countering Native-speakerism, 2015

Working on TV Commercials in EFL Classes: A Critical Perspective

Hasan Âli Yucel Egitim Fakultesi Dergisi, 2007

Culture in English Coursebooks: Essentialist or Non-essentialist?

Micro-politics of an EFL Classroom: Interactional Construction of Power Relations

Power and Interactional Routines: Lessons from an EFL Class

“The Right Things Are What I Expect Them to Do”: Negotiation of Power Relations in an English Classroom

Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2013

Review of doctoral research in English language teaching and learning in Turkey (2009–2013)

Language Teaching, 2016

"Review of doctoral research in English language teaching and learning in Turkey (2009-2013)", LANGUAGE TEACHING, vol.49, pp.390-410, 2016

by Dilek Inal and Yasemin Oral

DİL ÖĞRETİMİ- Pegem Akademi-2015-tanıtım

by Nilüfer Bekleyen, DEREN BAŞAK AKMAN YEŞİLEL, Yasemin Oral, Osman Solmaz, adnan yılmaz, Eyüp Dilber, Prof. Dr. Turan Paker, and Yasemin Yelbay Yılmaz

Shedletsky, L.J. & J.S. Beaudry (Eds.) (2014) Cases on Teaching Critical Thinking through Visual Representation Strategies. IGI Global.

“‘The Right Things Are What I Expect Them To Do”: Negotiation of Power Relations in an English Classroom”. (2013) Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 12/2, 96-115.

Journal of Language, Identity and Education, Apr 11, 2013

“Culture in English Coursebooks: Essentialist or Non-essentialist?”, Journal of Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture, (2010), 2/1, 96-106.

“A Historical Sketch of Culture Teaching in ELT: Towards Postmodern Perspectives”, Journal of Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, (2011), 14.

Hasan Ali Yücel Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, Jan 1, 2011

Download

English Language in The Context of Foreign Language Education Policies in Turkey:'A Critical Study

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Türkiye'de Yabancı Dil Eğitimi Politikaları Bağlamında İngilizce:'Eleştirel Bir Çalışma

YAYIN KURULU, Jan 1, 2010

Download

Working on TV Commercials in EFL Classes: A Critical Perspective

Hasan Ali Yücel Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, Jan 1, 2007

Download

The Interplay of Cultural Identities and Social Context in English Language Learning/Use

From Micro-politics of Classrooms to Macro-politics of Schools: Perspectives from an English Classroom in the Turkish Classroom

Theoretically informed by Foucauldian conception of power and politics (Foucault, 1977, 1994), th... more Theoretically informed by Foucauldian conception of power and politics (Foucault, 1977, 1994), this paper presents a critical analysis of an English classroom discourse with a focus on the workings of power relations between the teacher and the students operating at the micro level of classroom interaction. The research context was a year-seven English classroom in a private elementary school located in Istanbul, Turkey, and the database of the study consists of ethnographic field notes, interviews, and audio recordings made observing the classes over a period of five months. While attending to the holistic nature of the classroom as a social context through an ethnographic approach (Carspecken, 1996), the study has also utilized the tools of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995; Gee 2005), which has allowed me to analyse classroom interaction as a discourse type with an emphasis on the subject positions it sets up for teachers and learners since, as Fairclough (1989) argues, it is only by occupying these positions that one becomes a teacher or a learner. The analysis reveals how power relations are constructed and negotiated across various aspects of classroom interaction, including interactional routines, directing, questioning, participation rights, organization of classroom space and, control of students’ bodies. Finally, building on the premise that Discourse models- the largely unconscious theories we hold that help us make sense of texts and the world, mediate between the micro level of interaction and the macro level of institutions as they operate to create the complex patterns of institutions (Gee, 2005), I argue that the ways the teacher acted and talked in the classroom were primarily informed by relatively traditional teacher-centred and authority- and control-based professional discourses and, explore their implications for the functioning of schools through a discussion of the interplay between the micro-level classroom discourse and the macro-level professional/institutional discourses.

Inquiring Into Critical Cultural Awareness With Pre-Service English Teachers Through The Film A Passage To India

by Yasemin Oral and Dilek Inal

'Yabancı' Dil Olarak İngilizce Öğretiminde Biz-Öteki Sorunsalı ve Kültürlerarasılık

Intercultural Perspectives in ELT Textbooks

Power and Interactional Routines: Lessons from an EFL Class

Although issues related to classroom interaction have received considerable attention over the ye... more Although issues related to classroom interaction have received considerable attention over the years, issues related to the workings of power relations across classroom interaction have received limited attention. Yet, in an attempt to address the challenges posed by the global spread of English, critical approaches to English language education have highlighted the importance of questions of power with a broad educational vision of transforming present inequalities and injustices. In this respect, it has been suggested that one key issue is to find ways of understanding how power operates at multiple levels. Informed by such critical perspectives, the present paper aims to describe interactional routines in a year seven EFL class in a Turkish elementary school with a particular emphasis on the workings of power relations between the teacher and the students. Asserting Foucauldian lines that power is everywhere, the paper recognizes power as an inescapable constant in classroom interaction. Through the analysis of naturally-occurring classroom data, ethnographic notes and interviews, the paper explores interactional routines underlying different instructional stages with a particular focus on participants’ rights and obligations as well as the rules and norms governing classroom interaction. While centralizing around the issues of power, the paper will also address to the issues of authority, control and resistance.

Micro-politics of an EFL Classroom: Interactional Construction of Power Relations

Yasemin Oral

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