Abstract: Homework, which is like a magic, has been a key topic of interest in foreign language teaching and learning. The more students do it, the better their English becomes. Yet, this is not the case and its efficiency is under debate. Many studies have been conducted to explore the effectiveness of homework for students and their attitudes toward the use of this pedagogical practice. Yet, less effort has been put into English language instructors’ perceptions and practices of assigning homework. To fill this gap in the literature, this research aims to explore English language instructors’ beliefs and practices of homework in the context of International private schools in Istanbul. To achieve the objectives, mixed-method research involving the elements of quantitative and qualitative data was undertaken. A questionnaire in which 129 English language instructors working at three international schools in Istanbul and an interview with five teachers were administered by the researcher. To analyse the collected data the researcher used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and a descriptive analysis to analyse the quantitative and qualitative data respectively. In addition to highlighting the current homework practices in the international schools in Istanbul and the factors influencing them, this research’s findings pointed out the instructors' beliefs regarding the quantity of homework, kind of tasks and time spent on it. The results also show that there is no significant relationship between the instructors’ socio-demographic background and their homework beliefs and practices. These findings can be significant in enriching the literature covering homework and boosting the students' academic and non-academic skills, lowering their stress level and ameliorating the parents, teacher and student triangular relationship.Key words: Homework, Pedagogical Practices, Assign, Effectiveness, Efficiency.
Keywords: Homework, English language, Teachers’ beliefs, Teaching learning.
Title: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES REGARDING HOMEWORK IN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN ISTANBUL
Author: Narimane OKAZ, Osman SABUNCUOGLU
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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