Teachers are the most crucial aspect of a school. Neither teaching methods and techniques, well-designed curricula, nor any kind of research projects in English as a Foreign Language can be practiced without teachers. However, very few studies have been conducted to examine teachers’ sentiments about their work. This study investigated the sentiments of EFL teachers at Turkish universities about their work conditions, sources of their satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and changes they would like to see in their work conditions. The subjects of this study were twenty-three EFL teachers from three universities located in different provinces in Turkey. To collect data, a questionnaire was distributed and interviews were conducted with the respondents. In data analysis, both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used. The findings of this study show th a t, although there were differences among the three universities and even within a university, most of the teachers had positive sentiments about their administrators’ attitudes towards them and they believed that their administrators tried to do as much as they could when there was a problem. On the other hand, the teachers were not asked for their opinions and suggestions. This study reveals that most of the teachers were satisfied with teaching as a profession. The sources of satisfaction for EFL teachers were identified as students, teaching, working with people, regular and manageable working hours, freedom in work, students’ advancement or learning, working in a prestigious institution, holidays, and opportunities. The reasons behind dissatisfaction were low salaries, lack of cooperation and relationships among teachers, heavy workload, curriculum, memorisation or test oriented education system, lack or quality of facilities and teaching materials, and students’ and administrators’ attitudes. This study also shows that there should be changes in EFL teachers’ work conditions. The changes the teachers would like to see in their work included pay raise, improvement in facilities and teaching materials, career or self-development opportunities, participation in making decisions, administrators’ interest in solving problems, and less workload. Considering all of the findings which are explained in detail throughout the thesis, it is hoped that this study informs educational institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Higher Education Council, administrative personnel of universities, new teachers, and general public about the lives of EFL teachers at Turkish universities

Includes bibliographical references leaves 108-110

Cataloged from PDF version of article.

Ar, Kazım