ELT classroom interaction in Turkey: a systematic review

Abstract

While there are studies of international scope on L2 classroom interaction, there is no review as of today within the Turkish context. The envisioned change in the national educational policy until 2023 with a special focus on foreign language education involves contextual specification and localization of language teaching, and thus creates a special need to take a closer look at what is happening inside the classroom on a country basis. For this reason, the present study looks at English language classroom interaction research in the Turkish context to find out the recent trends and developments in the area in terms of methodological choices and contexts of investigation. To do so, document review is adapted as a data collection technique. Search terms were selected as ‘classroom interaction’, ‘classroom interaction in Turkey’, ‘L2 classroom interaction’, ‘L2 classroom interaction in Turkey’, and ‘classroom interactional competence’. Studies were found using three databases and an index. After carefully applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 studies were chosen for the review and analyzed in terms of methodologies, research contexts, and findings. Results showed that in terms of methodology, studies were inclined to employ Conversation Analysis and they were conducted predominantly in a university setting with adolescent participants along with various subject areas. In line with these findings, the present review tries to shed light on the past and present state of English language classroom interaction research in Turkey and attempts to propose future directions as well.