An analysis of theses written on teaching English to young learners in Turkey

Abstract

This review study examines all the master’s and doctoral thesescompleted on teaching English to young learners (TEYL) between theyears 2014 and 2020 in Turkey. Eighty theses and dissertations indexedin the Turkish National Theses Database were included in the study. Thetendencies in the theses in terms of sub-subjects covered, researchdesigns applied, sampling methods used, research contexts targeted, andoverall findings were identified and discussed. This paper provides anaccount of recent graduate research in TEYL to be a reference forresearchers and supervisors in the field by presenting the results of aconceptual and descriptive analysis of the theses. Furthermore, byinterpreting the tendencies in research methodology and over/understudied areas in the field, the study reveals possible gaps and researchopportunities in the field of TEYL.