Under the period of Europeanization process and targeting to become a global player in the economic and political arena, Turkey has undergone frequent school reforms for the last two decades. The extension of compulsory school from five to eight years in 1997 and from eight to twelve in 2012, the curricular reform, and the extension of high school from three to four years in 2005 all created tensions in the national education system. The problematic areas have easily been observed in the fields of coordination among teacher and student roles, curriculum content, renewal of textbooks, assessment criteria, homework assignment, the selection and replacement tests, and finally teacher education. English language teaching (ELT), in the midst of all changes, has become a key issue for enhancing a great number of youngsters’ prospective working competence in and out of Turkey at this age of globalization. English classes have already been under attack for many years for the relatively very little successful output considering the resources allowed. Indeed, the philosophy of learning at large has shifted from behaviorist grounds to the consideration of multiple intelligences, and finally to an eclectic constructivist view. However, the reforms conducted on extending the years and weekly hours allocated for instruction as well as the learning approaches perpetuated inequalities and fostered class disparity. Private schools have mostly become stronger in managing more efficient English language competence in their graduates compared to state schools'.

Within this framework, the study seeks an answer to the what and how of transformation in ELT policies. It presents the developments in ELT in Turkey in the last two decades considering the competing factors in a global world. It is designed as a policy analysis of the recent reforms on teaching English in Turkish public schools. The current study also explores the discourse around policy-making of ELT throughout latest reforms. Thus, the author correlates the theory of educational reformation with ELT policy discourse via presenting the implementations at macro-, meso- and micro-levels in the context of Turkey. Findings suggest that the reforms were conducted with urgency in a top-down approach without an in-depth analysis of the expected outcomes at micro level. The ongoing developments in information technologies and the change in global business have all contributed to the process of reformation in a negative pace. The never-ending changes disabled the renewed policies to meet the differing needs of its citizens. Moreover, the reforms have not been allowed sufficient time to evaluate subsequent results; rather such policies have replaced one another every seven or eight years. Reform initiatives disregarding local facts, taken with the centralized political initiative, did not lead to the desired outcomes. Most importantly, those who were to implement the policies at first-hand were sometimes not thoroughly informed and/or convinced about the underlying tenets, which led to mostly either haphazard or counterproductive practices. In conclusion, Turkey paced back in this age of competition to adapt its goals of national education in ELT despite the swift changes in its educational system.

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