Dear Students,

My name is Ebru Atakurt. I am a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction at Bilkent University. I am kindly requesting your participation in a doctoral research study that I am conducting titled: Critical Thinking (CT) for Writing in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Programs: Perceptions, Reflections, and Promising Practices. The ethics committees of Gazi University and Bilkent University have granted approval for the study.

As part of this study, I am exploring the perceptions of Turkish students who are studying at English language-related departments (e.g. English Language Teaching) regarding CT in their academic writing. Your participation will be of great importance to assist in the identification of practices that can be used to effectively develop Turkish students’ critical thinking skills in EAP writing lessons.

Participation is completely voluntary and you may withdraw from the study at any time, with no consequences. Your participation will involve taking part in an online interview (on Zoom), which will last approximately 20 minutes. The interview may be done in a small group with 2-3 other students or individually, and depending on your preference, in Turkish or English. It will be audio and video recorded so that your responses can be analysed afterwards. The recordings will be kept in a password protected computer and viewed only by the researcher and her supervisor. No names or identifying information will be included in any publications or presentations. Your data will be kept confidential and secure.

If you would like to participate in the study, please type your email address below and answer the following questions, which should take about 1 minute. I will email you as soon as possible to arrange a common day and time for an interview.

Thank you for your consideration. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.

Sincerely,
Ebru Atakurt
ebru.atakurt@bilkent.edu.tr