Nature of Literary Discussions in an Advanced-Level Foreign Language Literature Course in a Turkish EFL Setting

The main aim of this study was to examine the nature of literary discussions in an advanced level English literature class in a Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language)setting. The focus of the study was the discursive features of a foreign language literature course offered in a Turkish university. Natural and systematic video recordings of the class sessions for one semester, field notes taken as a non-participant observer and semi-structured interviews constituted the primary data sources. In this study, the following research questions have been addressed: (1) What is the nature of literary discussions in an advanced level literature course in a Turkish EFL setting based on the analyses of (a) discursive structure of the discussion, (b) types of the questions, (c) learner uptake, and (d) revoicing move of the teacher? (2) How do the issues of teacher control and features of teacher' and students' roles emerge in the analysis of the above mentioned constructs and interview data? Based on the findings of the study, it was difficult to claim that literary discussions in this course reached high levels of student engagement and students freely discussed any topic in their minds, as it was not fair to say students spoke too little and did not find any chance to elaborate their ideas because of tight teacher control. Overall interpretations were parallel with Akyel and Yalcin's (1990) comments about the place of literature in English education in the Turkish context: The Turkish educational system was "wavering between modern and traditional practices" (p. 174). Other than some methodological limitations that most other qualitative studies have to face, the effects of camera on the teacher and students, and difficulties in coding were acknowledged as limitations. Prolonged engagement and utilizing outside raters, respectively, were the measure taken to tackle with these limitations.