From perceptions to policy: Unpacking systemic and socio-ecological roots of false beginner identity in EFL education in Türkiye

Abstract

False beginner learners—those who remain stuck in beginner-level English classes despite repeated attempts—are commonly mislabeled as lazy or intellectually limited. This study re-examines false beginner identity in the Turkish EFL context through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. The study draws upon qualitative data from 130 university students enrolled in pre-sessional English programs. Thematic analysis of learner attributions reveals systemic patterns of curricular redundancy, exam-driven marginalization of English, demotivating microsocial environments, and the absence of communicative exposure. Rather than viewing learners as deficient, the study locates the roots of false beginner status in macro-, exo-, and micro-level misalignments. Policy implications include integrating English into national high-stakes assessments, scaffolding vertical curriculum continuity, and utilizing digital resources for autonomous learning. This ecological reframing emphasizes that learner stagnation is not a personal failure but a reflection of fragmented language education systems in need of structural coherence and cultural revaluation.

Keywords

• false beginner
• ecological model
• EFL
• language policy
• learner perceptions
• Turkish education

Algıdan politikaya: Türkiye’de yabancı dil eğitiminde sözde başlangıç düzeyi öğrencisi kimliğinin sistemik ve sosyo-ekolojik Kökenleri

Abstract

Sözde başlangıç düzeyi öğrencileri—İngilizce’ye daha önce çokça maruz kalmış olmalarına rağmen başlangıç seviyesi İngilizce derslerinde sıkışıp kalan bireyler—sıklıkla tembellik ya da zihinsel yetersizlikle damgalanırlar. Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen öğrenciler arasında görülen sözde başlangıç düzeyi kimliğini Bronfenbrenner’ın ekolojik modeli çerçevesinde yeniden ele almaktadır. Hazırlık sınıflarına kayıtlı 130 üniversite öğrencisinden toplanan nitel verilere dayanan çalışmada, öğrenci atıflarına yönelik tematik analiz; program tekrarları, sınav odaklı sistemin İngilizceyi marjinalleştirmesi, motivasyonu düşüren mikro sosyal çevreler ve iletişimsel pratik eksikliği gibi sistematik örüntüleri ortaya koymaktadır. Öğrencileri yetersiz olarak değerlendirmek yerine, sözde başlangıç düzeyi durumunun kökenleri makro, egzo ve mikro düzeylerdeki yapısal uyumsuzluklarda aranmaktadır. Politika önerileri arasında İngilizcenin ulusal düzeydeki yüksek riskli sınavlara entegre edilmesi, müfredatlar arasında dikey bütünlüğün sağlanması ve dijital kaynaklar aracılığıyla özerk öğrenmenin desteklenmesi yer almaktadır. Bu ekolojik yeniden çerçeveleme, öğrenci başarısızlığını bireysel bir eksiklik olarak değil, yapısal bütünlükten ve kültürel yeniden değerlemeden yoksun bir dil eğitimi sisteminin yansıması olarak görmektedir.

Keywords

• sözde başlangıç düzeyi öğrencisi
• ekolojik model
• yabancı dil olarak İngilizce
• dil politikası

References

1. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
2. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. SAGE Publications. British Educational Research Association. (2011). Ethical guidelines for educational research. https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-2011
3. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.
4. Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Sage.
5. Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Harvard University Press.
6. Council of Europe. (2020). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages—Companion volume. Council of Europe. https://www.coe.int/en/web/education/cefr
7. Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
8. De Bot, K. (1997). Language attrition. In G. R. Tucker & D. Corson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education (Vol. 4). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4419-3_6

9. Doğançay-Aktuna, S., & Kızıltepe, Z. (2005). English in Turkey. World Englishes, 24(2), 253–265. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2005.00408.x
10. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford University Press.
11. Frantzen, D., & Magnan, S. S. (2005). Anxiety and the true beginner–false beginner dynamic in beginning French and Spanish classes. Foreign Language Annals, 38(2), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2005.tb02483.x
12. Guest, G., Namey, E., & Chen, M. (2020). A simple method to assess and report thematic saturation in qualitative research. PLOS ONE, 15(5), e0232076. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232076
13. Harden, R. M. (1999). What is a spiral curriculum? Medical Teacher, 21(2), 141–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/01421599979752
14. Hennink, M. M., & Kaiser, B. N. (2022). Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research: A systematic review of empirical tests. Social Science & Medicine, 292, 114523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114523
15. Hornberger, N. H., & Johnson, D. C. (2007). Slicing the onion ethnographically: Layers and spaces in multilingual language education policy and practice. TESOL Quarterly, 41(3), 509–532. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2007.tb00083.x
16. İşpınar Akçayoğlu, D., & Özer, Ö. (2021). The ‘sink or swim’ dilemma: Mindsets of successful and underachieving EFL learners at a school of foreign languages. Novitas‐ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language), 15(2), 37–51. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1320266.pdf
17. Kic-Drgas, J., & Kılıçkaya, F. (2024). Exploring novel approaches to digital self-regulated learning: A study on the use of mobile applications among Polish and Turkish EFL pre-service teachers. Educational Technology Research and Development, 72, 3453–3470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-024-10374-w
18. Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
19. Nation, I. S. P., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language curriculum design. Routledge.
20. Pavlenko, A., & Malt, B. C. (2011). Kitchen Russian: Cross-linguistic differences and first-language object naming by Russian–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(1), 19–45. https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672891000026X
21. Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. (2010). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (4th ed.). Pearson.
22. Schmid, M. S., & Jarvis, S. (2014). Lexical access and lexical diversity in first language attrition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17(4), 729–748. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728913000771
23. Schmid, M. S., & Mehotcheva, T. H. (2012). Foreign language attrition. In S. Gass & A. Mackey (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 239–252). Routledge.
24. Schöpper-Grabe, S. (1998). “Use it or lose it?” – Zum Phänomen der foreign language attrition. Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung, 9(2), 231–263.
25. Singer, E., & Couper, M. (2017). Some methodological uses of responses to open questions and other verbatim comments in quantitative surveys. Methods, Data, Analyses, 11(2), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.12758/mda.2017.01
26. Thomas, J. (2006). Studying Le Ballon Rouge with false beginners. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 10(1), 151–154.
27. Tudge, J., Mokrova, I., Hatfield, B. E., & Karnik, R. (2009). Uses and misuses of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 1(4), 198–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2589.2009.00026.x
28. Turanlı, A. S. (2009). Students’ background differences and approaches to obstacles in learning English: A case study. Journal of Social Sciences Institute, 27, 1–16.
29. van Manen, M. (2016). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy (2nd ed.). Routledge.
30. Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2007). Doing task-based teaching. Oxford University Press.
31. Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). ASCD.
32. Zhang, Y., & Yusof, F. M. (2024). Exploring emotional experiences of Chinese university novice EFL teachers: An ecological perspective. Acta Psychologica, 251, Article 104590. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104590