Trends in Doctoral Research on English Language Teaching in Turkey.
This review examines the doctoral research on English language teaching (ELT) between the years 2010 and 2014 in Turkey. The analysis focused on 137 PhD dissertations covering various aspects of English language learning and teaching, such as teaching English as a foreign language, foreign language teacher education, and second language acquisition (SLA) Of particular importance were the subject areas, research design, sampling methodology, and contexts with a special regard to adopted research paradigms of the dissertations analyzed. Including all of the dissertations completed in the last five years, the review also categorizes the dissertations in terms of those three major subject areas and sub areas identified in a data driven process.A comprehensive overview of research on applied linguistics and foreign language education in Turkey was published by Alptekin and Tatar (2011) surveying approximately 130 published articles, conference presentations and PhD dissertations from 2005 to 2009. Alptekin and Tatar (2011) also discuss in detail the history and sociopolitical dynamics of foreign language education in Turkey. Hence, the present review does not repeat those recollections, which are still valid under today's conditions. Instead, the focus is on research trends and concerns of the doctoral research written between 2010 and 2014.Over the last two decades, ELT PhD programs and scholars in Turkey have undergone a radical transformation process, during which the field has moved from a practice based orientation to a research based one (Uysal, 2014b) This transformation process was triggered mostly by the changing policies of Council of Higher Education in the late 1990s, when applying for associate professorship examination for ELT required a compulsory publication in certain scientific indexes. Those were initially the "Social Sciences Citation Index" and "Arts and Humanities Index." Later on in the mid 2000s, the Council began to accept research articles indexed the Australian Education Index, British Education Index, Education Index and ERIC as meeting the compulsory research article criterion. Therefore, doctoral students and assistant professors of ELT programs focused on publishing articles in the journals covered in those indexes. Surely, one of the effects of this transformation process is evident in graduate programs, PhD students, and dissertations.Another reason for the transformation in ELT academia was the need for English teachers at all levels of education in Turkey. Foreign language has been synonymous with English in Turkey for more than half a century. Considering that Turkey is a pure expanding circle context in which English is used only in certain professional domains, it is hard to teach and learn it. Thus, the demand for learning English and English teachers has always been incessant in the country. The need for English teachers does not come only from state or private primary and secondary schools alone. In 1995, the number of both state and foundation universities in Turkey was 56. However, it is now 196, meaning that the number of universities in the country has almost quadrupled over the last two decades. Considering that English is taught in English preparatory programs of some faculties and in undergraduate programs as a compulsory subject, those universities are constantly in acute need for competent English instructors. This persistent demand for English teachers has naturally created a pressure on ELT programs, specifically at graduate levels. Newly established ELT programs constantly seek PhD holders to employ so that they can receive and educate English teachers. Within this academic climate, it is not surprising that graduate programs receive a huge amount of PhD applicants and that PhD students work under constant pressure exerted by their future institutions. In addition to those volunteer applicants, the Council of Higher Education employs research assistants in its 'Academician Training Program' (Council of Higher Education, 2015) assigning those doctoral candidates to graduate programs.