UNDERGRADUATE ELT STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE ON A COURSE-BASED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CONVENTION

Although teacher education has a research methods component to prepare the teachers of the future to engage in research, it rarely provides teacher candidates opportunities for participating in research conventions. One of the scarce attempts to do so was a course-based scientific research convention held in the English Language Teaching department of a university in Turkey. The participants were third-year students who presented their research in one of the forms of oral presentation, poster presentation or workshop during the one-day event. In this study, the students’ expectations, experiences, and perceptions pertaining to the convention were sought. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires at the beginning of the term and after the convention. In addition, volunteering students kept reflection journals during the process. It was found that the students perceived the event as useful in terms of learning scientific research procedures and the researched subject. The areas which were perceived as the most difficult were finding the right resources and following the program which they found too tight and tiring. According to the findings, participating in this event had a positive effect on their future orientations for most of the students