English Teachers' Perception of Mediation in Language Classrooms and Their Teaching Practices as Mediators.

There is a growing emphasis on acknowledging the significance of mediation within English language classrooms, reflecting an increased interest in recognizing its importance as one of the teachers' new roles (Rezaeian, 2022). According to mediation theory, "helping learners to find ways of moving into their next level of understanding of the language" is the teachers' role (Williams & Burden, 1997, p. 66). This paper aims to investigate English teachers' perception of mediation and their teaching practices as mediators and raise an awareness about mediated learning among English teachers. Data for this study was collected from Mediation Questionnaire for Language Teachers designed by Williams and Burden (1997). The questionnaire includes two sections each containing 12 individual questions. First section focuses on teachers' perspectives on the significance of mediation. In the second section, teachers are asked to evaluate the frequency with which they believe they perform practices of mediation. The questionnaire was applied to 45 Turkish EFL teachers working at Ministry of National Education in Kütahya province. Results of the questionnaire survey suggest that to some extent, EFL teachers have capability to facilitate students' learning. They believe that mediation is important to some extent in language classrooms. However, their implementation is lower compared to what they think. Although we as English teachers are trying to facilitate our students' learning, we may need to have a deeper understanding of mediation theory to improve ourselves as mediators. Findings of this study are expected to contribute to field of Foreign Language Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]