Foreign language

Reflection-in-Action

Both in their reflection papers and the discussion sessions, the two themes naturally emerged: teachers' beliefs and teaching practices. Under the theme beliefs, participants first shared their roles as EFL teachers. To start with, the findings of the study revealed that the participants acted as facilitators in the classroom by showing some techniques to students to foster their vocabulary learning and language skills. Participants also stated their roles as motivators where they informed students about student exchange programs to extrinsically motivate the learners. Raising critical thinkers was the third role defined by the participants. They believed in the

importance of fostering students‟ problem solving strategies and critical thinking abilities by using real-life situations and talking about political issues in Turkey. The

last role participants attributed to teachers was being a cultural mediator. Participants shared the importance of integrating students‟ own cultures and the target culture into their language learning setting. The studies existing in the literature generally regard reflection-in-action as a simultaneous situation that takes place at the time of teaching. According to Murphy (2013), reflection in action can also be regarded as teachers‟ awareness on current conditions. Considering Murphy‟s (2013) definition, a notable finding of this study is that the participantsengaged in reflection-in-action by elaborating upon their awareness on their roles as EFL teachers.

Reflection-in-action requires teachers to stop and think about their behaviors in their teaching atmosphere. According to Wilson (2008), “Rather than responding intuitively, there should be some conscious consideration of what is happening, how effective the behavior is, and whether there might be more appropriate alternatives” (p. 179).Regardingthis statement, it can be suggested that by engaging in reflection- in-action, participants were able to analyze their strengths and weaknesses by defining the reasons lying behind their current teaching beliefs. Participants indicated creating a friendly and meaningful atmosphere as strength in their reflection papers because they believed that creating a stress-free atmosphere enhances students learning. Similarly, they stated that defining the borders in their relationships with their students was a strength in their teaching asthey believed that “trying to be friendly, not a friend of their students”would be a facilitating factor in their classroom management. Additionally, they considered using warm-up exercises at the beginning of each lesson or unit as strength in their teaching due to their belief in the importance of such exercises on students‟ motivation. Two of the participants pointed out excessive teacher talking time in their classes as a weakness as they accepted that talking too much and holding students in the classroom to complete the

teaching tasks would decrease students‟ attention and motivation towards the lesson. One of the participants considered her lack of information on utilizing technology as a weakness in her teaching practice. As she believed that in order to appeal the contemporary students required utilization of technological tools. These findings indicate that participants engaged in reflection-in-action, especially by defining their beliefs. According to Wilson‟s (2008) temporality of reflection, reflection in action refers to present situations. Beliefs of teachers can naturally be regarded as present situations as they are difficult to change. Thus teachers‟ reflection on teaching practices, strengths and weaknesses by grounding them in their beliefs is evidence of participants‟ engaging in reflection-in-action.

Reflection types have overlapping features, and therefore, it is difficult to differentiate their borders. In order to distinguish reflection types, Eraut (1995) referred to reflection-in-action as being related to the teaching context. Thus, using Eraut‟s (1995) definition, an important finding of the study is that teachers‟ engaged in reflection-in-action by pointing out their practices, which were shaped according to their teaching contexts. For instance, participants stated in their reflection papers that they chose the methods according to their students‟ needs. Since the students were tested according to their grammar accuracy and language skills, the participants chose Eclectic Method by combining bits and pieces from several methods including the Grammar Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching. In addition, one of the participantstook the advantage of her environment by assigning tasks in which the students recorded interviews with native speakers of English in Ġstanbul. Moreover, the participants trained their students for the midterm exams of their institutions in order to help students get higher grades from the exams. To sum up, it can be concluded from participants‟ reflections that they tried fit with the

context they teach in to enhance teaching practices. This finding can also be important in the field as none of studies in the field of reflective practice linked reflection-in-action with the concept of context.