T.C. BURSA ULUDAG UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SCIENCES FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING A STUDY ON IMPROVING EFL LEARNERS' LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH EDUCATION INFORMATICS NETWORK (EBA) AND IDENTIFYING LEARNERS' PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE PLATFORM MASTER’S THESIS Ali KILIÇ BURSA 2020 T.C. BURSA ULUDAG UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SCIENCES FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING A STUDY ON IMPROVING EFL LEARNERS' LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH EDUCATION INFORMATICS NETWORK (EBA) AND IDENTIFYING LEARNERS' PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE PLATFORM MASTER’S THESIS Ali KILIÇ SUPERVISOR Assoc. Prof. Dr. Levent UZUN BURSA 2020 Özet Yazar : Ali KILIÇ Üniversite : Uludağ Üniversitesi Ana Bilim Dalı : Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı Bilim Dalı : İngiliz Dili Eğitimi Bilim Dalı Tezin Niteliği : Yüksek Lisans Tezi Sayfa Sayısı : xiii+91 Mezuniyet Tarihi: Tez : Yabancı Dil Olarak İngilizce Öğrenenlerin Eğitim Bilişim Ağı (EBA) Vasıtasıyla Dinleme Becerilerinin Geliştirilmesi Ve Öğrenenlerin Bu Platform Hakkındaki Görüşleri Danışmanı : Doç. Dr. Levent UZUN Yabancı Dil Olarak İngilizce Öğrenenlerin Eğitim Bilişim Ağı (EBA) Vasıtasıyla Dinleme Becerilerinin Geliştirilmesi Ve Öğrenenlerin Bu Platform Hakkındaki Görüşleri Dil öğretim ve öğrenim çevresi yönünü modern yaklaşımlardan post modern yaklaşımlara çevirmiş bulunmaktadır. Bunun sebebi olarak post modern yaklaşımların öğrenme ve öğrenen merkezli olması, katılımcı, destekleyici, dijital, global, bireysel olmasının yanı sıra zaman ve mekan yönünden esnek olması gösterilebilir (Uzun, 2012). Bunlar göz önüne alındığında bu çalışma Eğitim Bilişim Ağı (EBA) aracılığıyla öğrencilerin dinleme becerilerini geliştirmeyi ve öğrencilerin EBA platformu hakkındaki algılarını belirlemeyi amaç edinmiştir. Çalışma 44 tane 6.sınıf öğrencisinin katılımıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir. Katılımcılar deney ve kontrol grubu adı altında ikiye ayrılmıştır ve her bir grup 22 kişiden oluşmaktadır. Deney grubu dinleme becerilerini geliştirmek için EBA platformunda bulunan materyalleri kullanırken, kontrol iv grubu ders kitabının dinleme metinlerini kullanmıştır. Çalışmada yarı-deneysel araştırma yöntemi kullanılıp, nicel veri toplamak için ön test-son test tekniği uygulanmıştır. Nitel veri toplamak, öğrencilerin platform hakkındaki algılarını anlamak için, son test sonuçlarına göre 5 başarılı ve 5 başarısız öğrenci ile yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşme yapılmıştır. Nicel veriler IBM SPSS 21 ile analiz edilirken, niteliksel veriler daha ileri düzeyde anlaşılması için kodlama yöntemi uygulanmıştır. Çalışmanın sonucuna göre EBA kullanımı gruplar arasında istatistiki olarak önemli derecede fark yaratmış olup, öğrenciler platforma dair eğlenceli, çekici ve motive edici olduğu yönünde olumlu görüşler bildirmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: EBA, dinleme becerileri, dil öğrenimi, yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğrenenler v Abstract Author : Ali KILIÇ University : Uludag University Field : Foreign Languages Education Branch : English Language Teaching Degree Awarded: MA Page Number : xiii+91 Degree Date : Thesis : A Study on Improving Efl Learners' Listening Skills through Education Informatics Network (EBA) and Identifying Learners' Perceptions towards The Platform Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Levent UZUN A STUDY ON IMPROVING EFL LEARNERS' LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH EDUCATION INFORMATICS NETWORK (EBA) AND IDENTIFYING LEARNERS' PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE PLATFORM Language teaching environment changed its direction from utilizing modern approaches to the postmodern approaches since the postmodern approach is learning and learner-oriented, participatory and contributory, individualized, global, digitalized and flexible in terms of time and place (Uzun, 2012). Considering these, the current study aims to utilize Education Informatics Network (EBA) in order to improve learners’ listening skills and identify their thoughts about the platform. The participants of the study were 44 6th grade students in a state school. They were divided into two groups as the experimental and control group. Both of them consisted of 22 students. While the experimental group made use of the EBA materials to study listening, the control group utilized course book materials. The mixed-method one vi group research design was adopted and the pre-test-post-test technique was applied to gather quantitative data in order to understand achievement differences between the groups and see whether a significant difference occurred or not. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 successful and 5 unsuccessful participants of the experimental group to gather qualitative data to investigate learners’ perceptions towards the course and the EBA platform. The quantitative data were analyzed through IBM SPSS 21 while the qualitative data were put into coding for further understanding. The results of the study pointed out that utilizing the EBA material created statistically significant difference between the scores of the groups. Besides, it was seen that the perceptions of the learners towards the platform were positive as they stated that using the platform was attractive, fun and motivating. Keywords: EFL learners, EBA, listening skills, language learning vii TEŞEKKÜR Öncelikle hem ders hem tez sürecinde bana her yönüyle yardım sağlayan, tez sürecimini bu şekilde ilerlemesinde uzmanlığı ve yardımlarıyla en önemli paya sahip kişi olarak Doç. Dr. Levent UZUN hocama çok teşekkür ederim; gelişim sürecime olan yardımları, desteği ve tezimi uygulama safhasında uzmanlığı için ve de öğretmen olarak gelişimime yaptığı katkılardan dolayı kendisine çok müteşekkirim. Öğrenim süresince derslerine katıldığım, yardımlarını gerektiğinde esirgemeyen ve gelişim sürecinde bizlere birçok katkısı olan Uludağ Üniversitesi İngiliz Dili ve Eğitimi bölümündeki hocalarımıza teşekkür ederim. Son olarak, bugünlere gelmemi sağlayan anneme, babama, abime, ablama ve kardeşlerime, tez yazım sürecinde beni destekleyen, motive olmamı sağlayan değerli eşim Sinem KILIÇ’ a ve yazım sürecinin uzamasına sebep olan biricik oğlum Aras Hamza KILIÇ’a teşekkür ederim. Ali KILIÇ viii Table Of Contents BİLİMSEL ETİĞE UYGUNLUK SAYFASI ............................................................................i YÖNERGEYE UYGUNLUK SAYFASI ..................................................................................ii JÜRİ ÜYELERİNİN ONAY SAYFASI...................................................................................iii ÖZET …....................................................................................................................................iv ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………...…….…...………..vi TEŞEKKÜR............................................................................................................................viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………….…...………..ix LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………………...………...xii CHAPTER 1: Introduction..........................................................................................................1 1.1. Background to the Study…………………………………………………..…........1 1.2. Statement of the Problem…………………………………….……………..…......6 1.3. Research Questions…………………………………………………….…..….......8 1.4. Aim of the Study…………………………………………….…………..…….......8 1.5. Significance of the Study………………………………………………..…….......9 1.6. Assumptions……………………………………………………...........................10 1.7. Definitions…………………………………………………………......................11 CHAPTER 2: Literature Review…………………………………………………..…………12 2.1. Presentation and Overview…………………………………………....................12 2.2. Listening and Its Definitions..................................................................................13 2.3. Significance of the Listening…………………………………………….............15 2.4. Listening and Comprehension……………………………………….…...….......16 2.5. Listening Comprehension Process……………..…………………….…..............18 ix 2.6. Listening Problems……..…………………………………………….….............21 2.7. Listening Strategies…………………………………………………....................24 2.8. Technological Materials in Listening Instruction…………………….………….26 2.9. Audiovisual Materials and Listening………………………….….……………...28 2.10. CALL and Listening…….….…………………………………………………..30 2.11. CALL-Based Listening in Turkey……………………………………………...31 2.12. The EBA……….……………….………………………………………………34 CHAPTER 3: Methodology:……...………………………………………………..…………36 3.1. Introduction……….……………………………………………..……….………36 3.2. Research Design…………………………………..…………….………………..36 3.3. Participants………………………………………………………….....................38 3.4. Materials/Instruments…………………………………………………………….38 3.5. Data Collection Tools………………………………………………………........39 3.5.1. Pre-test and Post-test………….……………………………………….39 3.5.2. Interview……………………………………………………………….40 3.6. Implementation Procedure……………………………………………………….42 3.7. Data Collection Procedure…………...…………………………………………. 43 3.8. Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………….44 CHAPTER 4: Results and Finding………………………………………….……..........……45 4.1. Quantitative Results………………………………………………...……………45 4.1.1. The summary of the quantitative findings……...………………….…..47 4.2. Qualitative Results………………………………………….…….……...….…...48 4.2.1. The interview question one………..……………….…….……...……..48 4.2.2. The interview question two……..……………….……………..............49 4.2.3. The interview question three….……..……………….…….……...…...51 4.2.4. The interview question four....……………….…….……...…………..52 4.2.5. The interview question five...….……………….…….………………...53 x 4.2.6. The interview question six………………………………….………….55 4.2.7. The interview question seven ……...…………………………………..56 4.2.8. The interview question eight…………………………………………...57 4.2.9. The interview question nine ……………………………………….......58 4.2.10. The interview question ten ……………………………………...........60 4.2.11. The summary of the qualilitative findings…………………….……...61 CHAPTER 5: Discussion………………………………….……………….....…….…..…….62 5.1. Overview…………………………………………….…………….……………..62 5.2. Discussion of Findings with Relation to the Research Questions……………….62 5.2.1. Discussion of the research question one…...………………………….62 5.2.2. Discussion of the research question one-a………………………..........63 5.2.3. Discussion of the research question two………………………….......63 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion………………………………………….…………….…...............67 6.1. Overview of the Study………………………………………………….………..67 6.2. Conclusion……………………………………………………….…………........67 6.3. Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Further Studies…………………..69 References..……………………………………………………………………………….......70 Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………86 xi List Of Tables Table Page 1. Bottom-up Top-down Processing……………………………………………………… 20 2. Listening Strategies of O’Malley and Goh…………………………………………… 25 3. The Pre-test – Post-test Results of the Groups……………………………………….. 46 4. The Difference of Scores Groups………………………………………………………. 46 5. Independent Sample t Test……………………………………………………………… 47 6. The EBA platform usefulness…………………………………………………………… 48 7. The reasons why learners think the EBA is beneficial……………………………… 49 8. Has your listening ability improved as a result of the listening materials used in 50 the class?................................................................................................................ 9. Why do you think the EBA improved your listening skills?.................................... 50 10. Are the EBA listening materials easier to understand than the coursebook 51 materials?............................................................................................................... 11. Why is the EBA easier or difficult?........................................................................ 51 12. Has your pronunciation improved with the EBA listening materials?................... 52 13. How did the EBA applications contribute to your listening?................................. 53 14. Do you prefer to use the EBA materials rather than listen to those provided in 53 the course book?.................................................................................................... 15. Why do you choose the EBA materials?................................................................ 54 16. Are the EBA listening materials more interesting than the course book 55 materials?............................................................................................................... 17. Why do you think the EBA is more interesting?..................................................... 55 18. How did using the EBA listening materials affect the classroom atmosphere?..... 56 xii 19. Why do you think the EBA created a positive atmosphere?.................................. 56 20. Do you prefer to use listening materials provided in the course book?................ 57 21. What are the reasons behind not choosing the coursebook?................................ 58 22. Advantages of the EBA…………………………………………………………………. 59 23. Disadvantages of the EBA………………………………………………………………. 59 24. What did you like or dislike with regard to the EBA listening activities?.............. 60 25. Reasons why they liked /disliked My English Path………………………………….. 60 26. Reasons why they liked /disliked Watch and Learn…………………………………. 61 xiii CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1. Background to the Study In the universe, everything experiences change and seeks for the best for themselves. Language teaching/learning environment has undergone many changes about the methods they use and the view they hold. With the help of developing technology this process has accelarated and language teaching environment has tried to adapt this. First, the traditional methods were abondoned and second, the mentality changed. New and technology integrated methods have replaced the traditional ones and perceiving listening as a passive skill has proven itself wrong. In any foreign language education, the aim is to enable learners to comprehend and use the target language effectively. Therefore, the four main skills-listening, reading, speaking and writing are vital in EFL classrooms (Şimşek &Kartal, 2017). These skils are considered as receptive and productive skills. Receptive skills are listening and reading while the productive ones are writing and speaking. Until 1950s and 1960s, grammar, reading, and literacy were the basic components of language teaching (Solak & Altay, 2014). In 1970s, in addition to speaking, reading, and writing skills listening gained importance and the language teaching environment started to integrate listening in the programmes (Osada, 2004). In the 1990s, the increased attention to listening provided aural comprehension an important position in second and foreign language learning (Morley, 2001; Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Flowerdew and Milner (2005) point out that all human being are born with hearing ability. They listen before they start to talk. Before they read, they have the ablitiy to speak, and writing follows reading lastly. Brown (2004, p.119) states that: “ How could you speak a language without also listening”. So, claiming 2 that listening skill is the most or the second most important skill in language learning process would be vain (Rost, 2001; Usó-Juan & Martínez-Flor, 2006). In our daily life listening plays a very significant role in communication. It is a vital skill and it should not be undervalued (Brown, 2001). Celce-Murcia (1995) states that compared to the other three skills listening is the mostly used one in daily basis. As Guo and Wills (2006) state “it is the medium through which people gain a large proportion of their education, their information, their understanding of the world and human affairs, their ideals, sense of values” (p. 3). Not only in daily life but also in the academic context listening has a vital role for us to maintain influential communication. Anderson and Lynch (2003) report that listening and speaking have equal importance beacuse unless these two skills are improved simultaneously it is not possible for people to interact face to face. Listening skills are significant for academic purposes as learners get information and gain understanding by means of listening (Wallace, Stariha & Walberg, 2004). Rost (1994) also suggests that in language classoom, as listening is the provider of the input its presence is crucial. To being any learning the input must be understood at the correct level. Hence, listening is in the centre of language teaching- learning process; and the improvement of listening comprehension abilities has made a substantial contribution on the improvement of the other skills ( Dunkel, 1991; Rost, 2002). Being able to speak and write in a second language does not mean that you are capable of that language unless you have efficient listening skills (Yıldırım & Yıldırım, 2016). Nunan (1998) points out that listening is the main skill in language learning and more than 50% of the time that learners spend in learning a foreign language should be alloted to listening. In the EFL context it is not easy to improve listening comprehension skills of language learners (Şimşek & Kartal, 2017). According to Rost (2006), lack of exposure is one of the 3 most prominent factor that makes L2 listening hard. Since most of the learners have their teachers as their only source of exposure, they may lack the opportunity of improving their listening skills. The style of the teachers also play a role here. They choose to speak in a loud, clear and slow manner which makes the situation for the learners harder when they encounter a real life talk on TV or in their daily life. Therefore, teachers should be aware of the fact that learners need to be exposed to the target language in a more natural way and they should provide opportunities for them. In order to do this, teachers can make use of songs, films, visuals and web 2.0 tools or information and communication technology tools in their classes. Consequently, as the learners get more exposed to the native speakers they will develop a fairly better listening comprehension skill in time. (Bal, 2019). It is an undeniable fact that listening is much of importance. (Brown, 2007). “All learning begins with the ear, not the eye” (Gordon, 2007, p. 29). “It is in fact that the ear allows us to learn to speak” (Deveci, 2018, p. 85). However, listening is the “least understood and most overlooked of the four skills” (Nation & Newton, 2009; Wilson, 2008). It has been seen as a passive skill and little attention has been paid to improve this skill. However, it would be misguiding if the listening skill is identified as a passive skill (Anderson & Lynch, 2003). Nunan (2003) expresses that since learners are required to grasp and understand the input listening is an active process. Nevertheless, despite its importance in improving communicative skills, there was no place for teaching listening in the language teaching curriculum until 1970s (Rost, 1990). From 1970s on, curriculums started to extend their programs to focus on listening and other language skills (Osada, 2004) and it has gained more importance as a skill besides other skills (Yıldırım & Yıldırım, 2016). In the late 1970s thanks to the popularity of Communicative Language Teaching, the significance of listening increased. And, it has taken its long deserved place in language teaching programs lately (Richards, 2005). Moreover, since the use of English has increased by the non-native speakers 4 as a common language recently, more attention has been paid to teaching listening so far (Cahyono & Widiati, 2009). Since teaching listening has gained more importance over the past fifty years, it started to be seen as an active skill to be improved. This led to changing the teaching methods especially with the help of the development of the information and communication technology. Instead of teaching listening with monotonous activities, it became more integrated and challenging. It is not seen as a passive activity but an active one which necessitates learners’ skill and concern to understand the material (Silviyanti, 2014). Thanks to changing methods and mentality of teaching listening skill in language education, countries also changed their view of perceiving the techniques of language teaching process. As technology developed in the world, countries tried to keep up with it. As an initial step they started to integrate technology to their education system and it is not possible to find a country that has not integrated information and communication techology and education (Kati, 2008). Almost every country in the world try to develop new databases, applications, online/offline education softwares to make the education process more effective. Within this framework, numerous researches have been carried out in different countries in order to integrate information and communication technology tools into the language learning/teaching environment and make the process richer and more fruitful ( Pamuk, Çakır, Ergun, Yılmaz, & Ayas, 2013). For instance, Discovery Education, Adaptive Curriculum, Khan Academy are some examples of online platforms that are used in teaching-learning environment in the USA. Turkey also took a big step about integrating technology to its educational system in the national curriculum and launched a new technological movement called the FATİH Poject (Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology). This project can be addressed as one of the most extensive one implemented in the world. (Sarıtepeci & Durak, 2016). 5 The Fatih project was put into practice in 2010. Since that date, all the schools in Turkey have been tried to be equiped with smartboards, internet connection and tablets. To use these equipments skillfully and utilize them fully lots of educations and seminars have been given to the education shareholders. These steps were taken to decorate schools with hardware. However, schools, teachers and learners need software too. To satisfy this need the Education Informatics Network (EBA) was developed and put into services of teachers and learners. The main aim of the EBA is; utilizing all the ICT tools and adapting technological materials to the education environment. To fulfill learners’ needs in this century, technology is a must. Therefore, countries not only provide hardware but also try to develop educational tools, platforms or softwares and integrate them into their education system and make their teachers and learners benefit from them. Teachers can improve learners’ skills by means of technological tools. Improving the listening comprehension skills of learners is one of them. The present study will make use of the EBA platform and use two applications -Watch and Learn and My English Path- to provide enough exposure to the students to improve their listening abilities. These two applications contain visuals and videos. These materials may attract students’ attention more than coursebook listening tracks. Consequently, it can be said that countries have been striving to integrate technology into the language learning process and get the shareholders benefit from them as much as possible. In order to do so, language teachers make use of these tools in their classes to make the process more attractive and effective as well as learners benefit from them to improve their language skills such as listening. 6 1.2 Statement of the Problem To be able to use a second or foreign language effectively, learners must become skilled at the four main skills. In the language teaching/learning history, the emphasis was put generally on reading, speaking and writing respectively. However, there is a vital skill that has been overlooked or ignored for years (Nunan, 1997) even though it is the prerequisite of the language learning process (Rost, 1994; Brown, 2004). This skills is; listening. Thanks to changing teaching and learning methods, researches and the developing technology, the mentality of teaching listening skill has relatively changed. This change brought the idea that, listening should not be seen as a passive process since the learner or the listener takes part in the process actively to be able to comprehend the input and respond to it meaningfully. So, listening is a crucial part of language teaching-learning process and specializing in the target language. With the changing teaching methods, listening’s position has changed (Osada, 2004; Richard, 2005). Once it was seen as a passive skill (Anderson & Lynch, 2003) and neglected (Nation & Newton, 2009; Wilson, 2008), then it started to be perceived as an active skill (Silviyanti, 2014) which shoul be improved like other skills. However, there is still a lot to do to improve the listening skills in our classrooms. One of the most challenging problem that students/learners face is insufficient exposure to the target language (Rost, 2006). Most of the learners depend on their language teachers as the source of exposure/input and this input is generally in the form of a simplified, clear and slow version (Bal, 2019). Hence, as long as teachers do not diversify the input choices they are the only source of input for their students. However, that makes the situation hard for learners when they come across with a real life talk such as news or a video clip of a film. Rost (1994) expresses that authentic use of the language by the native speakers presents a challenge for the learners to perceive the meaning. 7 In addition, Gündüz (2006, p.208) expresses that “ in teaching listening, a teacher can fall into the bad habit of using the same listening material over and over again”. To overcome these problems, teachers should diversify their listening materials and quit becoming the only source of exposure for their learners and making use of same materials. Integrating technological tools into language lessons can be a way to solve these problems. Thus, learners may get the opportunity of being exposed to various sources and have the chance of perceiving the language in its natural form. Moreover, in the curriculum, listening and speaking skills are in the center while reading and writing skills follow them for sixth graders. However, the coursebook seems to neglect developing the listening comprehension skill by having not enough activities. This is also the other important reason for utilising the EBA content in order to study listening in the class. The present study investigates whether the EBA platform is useful to improve the listening skills of EFL learners in a secondary state school by using two applications created for the EBA platform. These two applications are designed for learners of English in Turkey and can be found only in the EBA platform. The first one is, My English Path which is designed for secondary school students to improve their listening and reading skills in accordance with the target functions of the curriculum. The second one is, Watch and Learn which is designed like the famous tool Voscreen. This application is designed with the aim of teaching Turkish to Syrian refugee students in Turkey, but it could also be used in the present study. The researcher believed that these two applications will help his students to show a better development in their listening skills. The students of the researcher have not made use of the EBA content before, therefore using technological tools in the classroom will make lessons more interesting and attractive for them. Making use of audiovisual materials will motivate them instead of using coursebook audios. Through an academic term in 2019-2020, 8 the students of the researcher made use of these applications to get exposure to language instead of using coursebook audios. 1.3 Reseach Questions 1. Does the EBA have a positive role in improving EFL learners’ listening skills? 1a. Is there a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the learner groups? 2. What do the participants think about the EBA platform? 1.4 Aim of the Study Teachers who do not ignore the listening comprehension skill mostly rely on their coursebooks to practice listening in their classes. However, coursebooks can not be the only material to improve listening. Diversifying the source can be the best and easiest way to compansate this situation. In order to do this, teachers need to integrate technology to their classes. To do this, in Turkey, language teachers have a very valuable and big/wide digital platform, called the EBA. In this platform, there is a blog called “Language Learning Portal” designed for only langugae learners and teachers in the country. Teachers can access a lot of sources/materials designed by the world wide experts and publishers not only for listening but also for other skills. The present study intends to provide EFL secondary school students with apprehensible and adequate input to help them improve their listening skills by the help of an extraordinary way, that is the EBA platform. Besides, it is also aimed by the researcher to find out the thoughts of learners about the EBA platform. 9 Rather than using the coursebook audios this study will make use of the materials offered in two different listening applications- My English Path and Watch and Learn- designed for the EBA platform and shared for the service of all the learners and teachers of English in Turkey. These two applications offer visuals, variety of video clips and different accents of English used by the people from different parts of the world and native speakers of English. This will give the students an opportunity to be exposed to language from differet language sources rather than just depending on the teacher. They will also get the chance of seeing how the target language is used naturally by watching various videos. Considering all these, learners will be offered to see and understand the daily language with the help of the EBA applications by providing them visuals and video clips from real life materials. 1.5. Significance of the Study Utilizing conventional methods are regarded as inefficient and insufficient for the learners of this age (Prensky, 2001; Uzun, 2012). Thus, the language teaching environment changed its direction from utilizing modern approaches to the postmodern approaches since the postmodern approach is learning and learner-oriented, participatory and contributory, individualized, global, digitalized and flexible in terms of time and place (Uzun, 2012). In order to improve the listening skills of the learners of this century, authentic audiovisual materials are the ones which the teachers mostly benefit from (Vandergrift, 2011). This study is important because it will integrate the EBA applications into listening classes and provide authetic materials for learners instead of coursebook materials. By doing this, learners will be exposed to target language more and see real life talks from the audiovisuals and video clips cropped from news, series or interviews. According to Davidson (2009), videos may facilitate learners in improving listening skills and storing the cultural 10 information by procuring multiple input sources to exemplify real life conversations (p. 4). In a similar way, Chapple and Curtis (200) suggest that the existince of lingusitic characteristics in videos- like facial expressions and gestures- can be a great help for learners to understand the dialogues better. This study can be an example for teachers who are suspicious of using the EBA materials in their classes. In Turkey, teachers generally do not make use of the EBA platform and do not prefer to use it in their classes by expressing the insufficient content of it (Kana &Aydın, 2017) or saying that they need in-service training for technology use in their classes ( Altın & Kalelioğlu, 2015) or showing the internet connection as en excuse for not utilising it (Türker & Güven, 2016). Güvendi (2014) states that the frequency of the EBA usage is very low among teachers and they do not have any thoughts about the EBA as they never use it in their classes. Similarly, Erbay (2018) points out in his study that teachers did not accept to share their opinions about the platform as they do not make use of it. This study has also significant implications for the literature as there are almost no study investigating the effects of the EBA on learners’ listening skills in Turkey. The EBA has been a subject for a number of studies, but in language learning and teaching environment in Turkey it has never been a subject before. As a consequence, it may encourage more studies about the platform or the perceptions of learners or teachers in language learning and teaching environment for our country. 1.6 Assumptions 1. The level of the used materials is assumed to be suitable for the participants’ proficiency level. 2. Learners in the control group are assumed to be eager to develop their listening skills. 11 3. Using the EBA materials in each listening class for 15 minutes is assumed to be enough to provide chance for learners to improve their listening skills. 4. The length of the treatment process which is 11 weeks plus 1 week of the pilot study is assumed to provide a sufficient exposure or input for the learners. 5. All the participants are assumed to take part in the pretest and posttest procedure willingly. 6. 44 participants are assumed to provide sufficient data for the present research to create opportunity to the researcher to make observation about the whole process and possible/prospective differences. 1.7. Definitions EBA: It is the abbreviation of Education Informatic Network; a website, software designed and created by The General Directorate of Innovation and Educational Technologies (YEĞİTEK) for Fatih Project to meet the needs of the all shareholders of the Turkish education system. Listening and Comprehension: The ability to hear and perceive the meaning of the spoken language and the oral utterances. Foreign Language: A language taught in a country or learned by a learner beside the official mother tongue of that country or the learner. Audiovisual Materials: The combination of aural and visual materials such as films, videos, motion pictures and demonstrations. Foreign Language Class: A formal place where a foreign language is taught by a teacher or an expert following a formal procedure. 12 CHAPTER 2 Literature Review 2.1 Presentation and Overview Language teaching environment changed its direction from utilizing modern approaches to the postmodern approaches. Uzun (2012) expresses in his study that while postmodern approach is learning and learner-oriented, participatory and contributory, individualized, global and digitalized, the modern approach is teaching/teacher-oriented, authoritative and group oriented. Besides, another advantage of postmodern approaches is being flexible in terms of time, place and method unlike the modern approach which is local and fixed. For these reasons, the postmodern approach seems to be a better choice to satisfy the needs of the 21st century’s learners who are very capable of using technology. To meet their technology oriented students’ needs, countries start to make innovations and investments to integrate technology to their education system and curriculums. Their aim is to improve the quality of their education and serve an equal service to all students in the whole country and make the students benefit from these opportunities irrespective of time and place. Teachers are the pioneers of applying these new developments and they start to integrate technology to their classes in order to renovate the teaching-learning process. The present study aims to develop the listening skills of EFL learners by making use of the highly valued and significant technological platform which is EBA, designed, developed and put into the service of all the shareholders of Turkish Education system by Ministry of National Education (MONE) in Turkey. In order to master a language, four main skills must be developed equally and learners must be efficient at these skills. Since the preferred applied methods, one or two of these 13 skills ignored by the learners or teachers. For instance, in 1960s speaking and writing were the main skills given importance by the methods while listening and reading were neglected . As the time passed and methods varied, language teaching/learning environment started to change their view of teaching/learning. Abondening the classical methods and accepting the modern methods with the help of developing technology helped so much to change this view and teaching/learning a language gained a different view. In this view, none of the main skills should not be neglected in order to be efficient at a language. Especially, listening skill gained too much importance after this process. Yıldırım and Yıldırım (2016) states in their study that, if you do not have efficient listening skills you are not capable of that language even you are good at speaking and writing. However, how can the listening skills be improved ? In order to reach this target, technological tools can be a great help for both teachers and learners. To do so integrating technology to the listening classes will benefit to the language learning environment. In this section of the study, the literature on listening skill, significance of listening, listening comprehension, listening comprehension process, listening problems, teaching listening strategies, audiovisual materials, technological materials in listening instruction, CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), CALL-based listening in Turkey and EBA( Education Informatics Network) will be reviewed in detail. 2.2. Listening and Its Definitions “Listening is probably the least explicit of the four language skills, making it the most difficult skill to learn” (Vandergrift, 2004, p.4). That is the reason why teaching listening used to be neglected and viewed as a passive skill. It has been ignored that listening is learnt automatically (Huei-Chun, 1998) and disregarded by its big sister-speaking- in language learning (Solak and Altay, 2014). However, to be accepted as an efficient language learner or 14 user, having the four main language skills is excessively crucial (Yıldırım, 2013) and describing it as an inactive ability would be deceptive (Anderson & Lynch, 2003) . Moreover, this skill is not vital only for language learning but also for daily communication (Hamouda, 2013). There are numerous definitions of listening stated by many researchers throughout the language teaching-learning history. For instance; Underwood (1989) states that listening is “the activity of paying attention to and trying to get meaning something we hear (p.1)”. “The ability to understand the spoken language of native speakers” is another one stated by Mendelsohn (1994). O Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989) offer a useful and extensive definition that-listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual into and from existing knowledge, while relying on multiple strategic resources to fulfill the task requirement (p.19)”. Purdy (1997) defined listening as “the active and dynamic process of attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering and responding to the expressed (verbal and nonverbal), needs, concerns, and into by other human beings” (p.8). Rost (2012) defined listening as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says, constructing and representing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding, and creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy”. Considering all of these definitions, it can be asserted that listening is an active process and should not be confused with “hearing”. Hearing is the process of the sound and it is passive while listening is the attachment of meaning to the sound vigorously (Kline, 1996). Besides, Rizvi (2005) states that since hearing does not require the listener’s conscious involvement and happens automatically, it can be named as a passive automatic behavior. Thus, it can be said that listening can be developed by regular exercise. 15 2.3. The Significance of Listening Listening is a highly significant language skill and its development is of major issue to language teacher since its vital role in language acquisition process (Rubin, 1994; Dunkel, 1991). As a result, it has been the keystone of various second language acquisition theories (Flowerdew & Miller, 2005). However, until the end of 1960s, listening did not get the deserved place in language teaching environment. When Grammar Translation Method (GTM) was widely accepted method to be used in language teaching, grammar and translation were the key skills to learning a language and listening used to be ignored. Listening could never be the major issue in GTM (Flowerdew & Miller, 2005). Then, GTM started to lose its popularity because of its inefficiency in language teaching and Direct Method (DM) gained importance. It emphasized listening skill as the first skill to be improved but listening was not perceived as a separate skill; so no effort was made to assist learners to develop and focus on strategies of listening (Flowerdew & Miller, 2005). Finally, with Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Method, listening skill got a new role and great significance was attributed to the skill since CLT offers to teach English for communicative purposes. Krashen (2001) claims that language acquisition takes place through ‘comprehensible input’. Brett (2000) says that in language acquisition input is one of the most important parameter and it can be said that in order to facilitate the acquisition process comprehensible input is required. According to these views, receptive skills play the major role in learning process and as long as sufficient and comprehensible input is provided productive skills are developed automatically. So, without input there will be no output or production. Jafari and Hashim (2015) highlighted that comprehensible input is conveyed through listening and more than half of the time allotted in foreign language learning is assigned to listening. For all of us it is very clear to accept the important role that listening plays in the language acquisition process (Sejdui, 2017). According to Rost (2009), to understand the 16 world around us we need listening and it is also one of the essential elements in generating successful communication. Hamouda (2013) puts forward that, since the core of acquiring a language is to gain input the significance of the listening skill is incontrovertible. It is an extremely integrative ability and has a major role in the language learning process and helps improvement of the other skills. According to Marley (2001) and Rost (2001), since listening skill advances faster than other skills and is used mostly in daily life it is the most important skill for language learning process, and improvement of listening skill facilitates the development of other skills. Considering all of these, neglecting or overlooking listening skill in language teaching classes should not even be thought. People need to listen almost two years before they start to speak their mother tongue. This is also valid for language learning or acquisition. Learners need to be exposed to sufficient and comprehensible input to learn the target language. Therefore, reaching this goal and being exposed to sufficient amount of comprehensible input is possible through listening ( Renandya, 2011). 2.4. Listening Comprehension There are a lot of definitions of listening comprehension made by prominent researchers of the field. For instance, Chastain (1971) defines listening comprehension as the ability of understanding the normal speed native speech in unstructured conditions. Goss (1982) says that listening comprehension is a mental process in which the listeners try to grasp the meaning from the received information. O Malley, Chamot and Kuper (1989) asserted that listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which meaning is constructed by the listener with the help of cues from contextual information and from existing knowledge, while depending on several strategic sources to carry out the task 17 requirements. Besides, listening comprehension was identified as an interactive process by Rost (2002) since listeners are involved in constructing the meaning of the message. While constructing meaning listeners grasp the oral input through sound discrimination, background information, grammatical structures, stress and intonation, and verbal and nonverbal signals ( as cited in Pourhosein Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016). According to Brown and Yule (1983) listening comprehension means an individual understanding of what people heard. Hamouda (2013) defined listening comprehension in a similar way by stating that, listening comprehension refers to the perceiving of what the listener has heard and it is the listener’s talent to reword the text in spite of the fact that s/he may reproduce the sounds without actual comprehension. Vandergrift (1999) also discussed listening comprehension and expressed that; “Listening comprehension is anything but a passive activity. It is a complex, active process in which the listener must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intonation, retain what was gathered in all of the above, and interpret it within the immediate as well as the larger sociocultural context of utterance” (Vandergrift, 1999, p. 168). Considering all of these definitions it can be said that listening comprehension requires efficient listening and also involves recognizing speech sounds, understanding not only the meaning of the words but also the structure of the sentences during communication (Ekinci, 2017). Chastain (1988) divided listening comprehension into four components. The first one is the ability to discriminate the sounds patterns and voice qualities in the target language and to differentiate between them and the same sound in the native language. The second one is to perceive the total message conveyed by the speaker. Third one is keeping the message in 18 auditory memory until it can be processed. The last one is comprehension which involves the speech reception at the syntactic, lexical, pragmatic, and discourse levels. 2.5. Listening Comprehension Process Listening comprehension process can be precisely categorized as ‘top-down processing’ and ‘bottom-up processing’. According to Vandergrift (2004), balanced and effective use of top-down and bottom-up processes characterizes the fluent listening. Besides, Eastman (1991) states that listeners construct a meaningful interpretation of the aural input with the help of these processing skills. Top-down process is listener based while bottom-up process is text based. Listeners should utilize their background knowledge in order to interpret the text they hear in top-down processing. However, in bottom-up processing listeners make use of the linguistic knowledge and they depend on the language in the message. In the 1960s and 70s, bottom-up skills were advised to be used by the learners. In order to increase learners’ automatic decoding of the linguistic cues, developing their bottom- up skills were emphasized (Brown, 1977). Later, in the 1980s the balance shifted towards the top-down skills to make up for learners’ problematic bottom-up skills (Richards, 2008). Many studies have been carried out to improve which is superior to the other one or which one should be used, either bottom-up or top-down skills. For instance; Hansen and Jensen (1994) stated in their study that, as low-proficiency level learners do not have the ability to process and utilize implicit information they mostly benefit from bottom-up processing skills. Osada (2001) came up with a similar result. He stated at the end of his study that, low-proficiency level Japanese learners showed a tendency to use bottom-up processing skills. Besides these, Vandergrift (2003) indicated in his study that less-skilled learners mainly rely on bottom-up processing skills instead of utilizing top-down skills while listening. Unlike these statements Goh (2000) revealed that providing suitable background knowledge for listeners can enhance the use of top-down processing, which helps listeners to grasp the 19 meaning of the listening text better. Tsui and Fullilove (1998) suggested in their study that low-level listeners intended to utilize mostly top-down processing in order to make up for the perception problems. Another study carried out by Wolff (1987) put forward that in more difficult tasks listeners make use of top-down processing instead of utilizing bottom-up processing as it was constrained by language deficiencies. Considering all of these, it can be said that these two views differ in detail, but in order to compensate each other’s deficiencies they can be used together. They vary in several ways which can be shown in a table developed by Gürses (2009) from the various prominent researchers’ studies. 20 Table 1 Top-down and Bottom-up Processing Top-down processing Bottom-up processing 1. It is developed in 1970s and1980s. 1. It is developed during 1940s and1950s. 2. Listening comprehension does not have 2. Listening comprehension has a fixed fixed serial order: listeners use semantic serial order: Phonemic units linked to words, knowledge to understand the phonetic input, words to phrases, phrases to utterances, and the vocabulary, the syntax utterances to meaningful texts. 3. Listener is described as active model 3. Listener is described as tape recorder as builder as s/he is actively involved in s/he gathers all the parts and makes a meaning construction. meaningful whole 4. Listener uses background knowledge (schema theory) on the context in 4. Listener uses sounds to decode the spoken comprehension. text in comprehension. 5. Listener prefers fluency. 5. Listener prefers accuracy. 6. It is holistic. 6. It is linear. 7. It goes from whole toparts 7.It goes from parts to whole. 8. It is mostly preferred by nativespeakers 8.It is mostly preferred by non native 9. It is suitable for more advancedlisteners speakers. 10. Important activities are pre-listening, 9.It is suitable for beginner listeners. hypothesizing, predicting, 10. Important activities are discriminating inferencing,etc. between the sounds, identifying stress, rhythm, intonation patterns,etc. Source: Gürses, 2009, p.35 These strategies alone do not help listener to improve their skills and perceive the passages; listeners use bottom-up processing for easier texts while utilizing top-down 21 processing for more difficult ones in order to enhance their listening comprehension proficiency (cited in Liu, 2009). Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2005) believe that “a strategic integration of top-down and bottom-up processing will improve any skill” (p.733). 2.6. Listening Problems For language learning, listening has great significance (Rost, 2001). However, it is a demanding skill to master, and learners not only need attention,focus, and interest but also have to combine these variables succesfully (Ekinci, 2017). To achieve success in listening comprehension and become a proficient listener, listening problems should be stated first and these problems shoud be overcome. Prominent researchers made several studies and identified some listening problems. According to Yagang (1994), there are four main sources of listening problems comes from. These are; the message to be received, the speaker, the listener, and the pyhsical environment. He explained these reasons in detail. For the first source he explained that, the message can not be understood right for many reasons. The speaker may use informal words that are not common or unfamiliar to the listener. The speaker may omit some words because of his/her anxiety or nervousness. He also added that, while listening something on tv or radio it is not possible to slow down the speaker or to be able to repeat what have been said. Secondly; listeners are used to their teachers’ talk or tape recorders which have no hesitations or pauses etc, so listening daily conversation can be hard for them. In addition to this, listeners are mostly familiar with British and American accent, being exposed to other accents can be difficult. For the third source, the listener, he stated that lack of exposure and sociocultural knowledge of the target language is a problem. Learners give more importance to reading and allot more time to improve this skill rather than listening and being unfamiliar with cliches 22 and collocations are another one. Brown (2001) also stated that learners encounter difficulty in understanding “idioms, slang, and reduced forms”. For the last source, physical environment he says that; the noise of the environment, using poor quality equipments, having no visual aids of listening texts and not seeing the speaker’s gestures and mimics make listening hard for listeners. Mendelson (1994) listed three different problems that learners should cope with while listening. The first problem is; seeing listening as a passive skill, as a result not studying it as a separate skill and waiting to improve itself during time. Second problem is related with teachers. Teachers feel themselves insecure while teaching listening. Last one is; providing insufficient listening input for learners as a result of adopting traditional language teaching materials. Another list of listening problems which consist of seven main items is made by Underwood (1989). • Inability to control the speed of delivery, • Not having the opportunity to get the aural input repeated, • The listener’s insufficient vocabulary knowledge, • Not being able to detect the “signals”, • Interpretation problems, • Lack of concentration, • The listener’s learning habits (p.62). Flowerdew and Miller (1996) carried out a study related to problems in listening to academic lectures and listed four reaons of listening problems. According to the study the 23 reportedproblems are; the fast delivery of the speech, new concepts and terminology, having difficulty in concentration, and pyhsical settings. In addition to these reseachers, Goh (1999) investigated and put forward some problems in order of frequency learners encounter during listening process. Learners do not remember what they heard, they do not realize the familiar and known words, they are not capable of getting the intended meaning even they get the message, they focus on the meaning and miss the next part and finally the whole message, and they are unable to reproduce what they heard with their own words. Acoording to Field (2003) listening problems encountered by the learners are; learners get the wrong meaning even they know the the word. Phonetic variations of the words may cause them to misunderstand. Learners do not know the pronunciation of the word even they know how to write it. Learners can not keep up with the speaker and have trouble catching the words and the sense. However, Yiching (2005) shows belief barriers, habitudinal barriers, proficiency level barriers, strategic barriers, and affective barriers as the source of listening problems. Understanding the conveyed meaning of the message is the most important thing in listening. However, learning and teaching listening necessiates hard work, motivation and patience. Considering of all the mentioned problems, learners shoud overcome these to be able to perceive the message and become proficient listeners. Teachers play a key role here. They should help their students adjust their listening behaviors to cope with the listening problems, do whatever they can to improve their learners’ listening skills, and teach strategies to make learners active listeners ( Ekinci,2017). Learners need direct teaching on strategies that work to be able to apprehend the difference between active and passive listening (Vandergrift, 1999). To achieve this, listening strategies must be introduced to the learners in 24 order to make the listening process easier and overcome the problems they encounter during the process. 2.7. Listening Strategies Conventional ways of teaching listening are not efficient enough to solve out the listening problems of the learners (cited in Ekinci,2017). Teachers or instructors must abandon the traditional ways, find creative and trendy methods to overcome this situation. This unquestionably entails the efficient use of listening strategies by the EFL teachers in their listening classes ( Vandergrift,1999). Rost (2001) defines listening strategies as; planning to cope with the incoming speech especially when the listener is aware of that he or she must atone the unfinished speech or partial comprehension. O’ Malley and Chamot (1990) say that listening strategies are speacial behaviors used by the learners to understand, learn and store new information. Oxford (1990) defines listening strategies as the techniques benefited from by the learners to develop the use of the target language information. The most widely accepted grouping of listening strategies are social, cognitive and metacognitive which are known as ‘success strategies’ (Gürsoy, 2009). Nonetheless, different researchers made various categorization of listening strategies. For instance; O’ Malley at al. (1989) and Goh (1998) put listening strategies into two main categories which are ‘metacognitive and cognitive listening strategies’. O’Malley et al. state 11 different strategies under these main categories while Goh states 10 different strategies that can be shown in the table below; 25 Table 2 Listening Strategies of O’Malley and Goh O’Malley at al. ‘s listening strategies Goh’s listening strategies Metacognitive Strategies Metacognitive Strategies 1. Directed attention 1. Selective attention 2. Selective attention 2. Directed attention 3. Self-management 3. Comprehension monitoring 4. Self-monitoring 4. Real-time assesment of input 5. Self-evaluation 5. Comprehension evaluation 6. Self-reinforcement Cognitive Strategies Cognitive Strategies 1. Inference 1. Inference 2. Translation 2. Elaboration 3. Note-taking 3. Prediction 4. Conceptualization 4. Contextualization 5. Deduction 5. Fixation Besides , Oxford (1990) put listening strategies into two main categories as direct strategies and indirect strategies. Direct strategies consist of memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and compensation strategies while indirect strategies’ components are; metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, and social strategies and The order represents an increasing level of complexity. Apart from these researchers Rost (2002) puts forward five listening strategies as follows; 26 • estimating knowledge or thoughts before listening, • making deductions from unfilled data relying on previous knowledge, • observing one’s own success and listening process, • trying to figure out the complexity, • replying to what one has comprehended. (p.155) Overall, teachers should provide opportunities for their students to learn and practice these strategies in a cohesive way to help them take responsibilities for their learning and gain a better undertsanding of what is being said around. Listeners become more successful when they are aware of their responsibilities and the underlying processes of learning, and this makes the listening classes more influential (Nunan, 1999). Providing the learners with various strategies help them to find out which strategy is the best for themselves is significant as well (Flowerdew & Miller, 2005). Moreover, considering learners’ needs and listening strategies may enhance the acquisition of the target language (Jones, 2008). 2.8. Technological Materials in Listening Instruction In today’s world, every field of life has been affected by technology directly or indirectly (Seferoğlu & Soylu, 2007). And, for language teaching and learning technology has been around for decades (cited in Nachoua, 2012). At the beginning of 1980s technology came into use in the language classrooms with films, televisions, and language labs with the aim of making the language learning process more enjoyable, interesting, attractive and fruitful. Since then, the usage of these technological items has been around the world (Demirekin, 2014) and language teaching environment try to do their best to keep up with the technological advances and benefit from them in their classes. Roy (2010, p.61) puts forward that “ when video became cheaper and more accessible, it was readily adapted into the repertoire of language teachers’ materials”. 27 With the introduction of language labs having video tapes and casettes, films, televisions and finally integration of internet to the classrooms, the technology use has been tried and tested to enhance language learning in different proficiency levels. However, it can be put forward that listening is the most suitable skill that can be improved mostly due to the advent of online audiovisual materials that develop input. For instance, Holden (2002) states that making use of films in language classes provide opportunity for learners to improve not only their listening skills and communication skills but also enhance their motivations levels. Luo (2003) also asserts a similar idea and put forwards that in order to enhance learners’ listening skills and motivation levels DVD films can be used. Technology usage in language learning, particularly the usage of the internet, supply an immense resources for both teachers and learners to benefit from ( Greenleaf, 2011). Besides internet’s infinite resources, it also enables learners not to be restricted by time, space, content, and environment to access to the sources and practice their listening abilities (Chen & Zhang, 2011). Instead of being restricted in a pre-designed lesson, internet allows learners to look for the relevant information, as well (Wijekumar, 2005). However, when it comes to integrating technology to the language learning environment and make use of it as much as possible, it should be taken into consideration that, technology has still being viewed challenging by the educators. Blake (2007) expresses that one of the most critical obstacle to integrate technology into the language teaching process successfully is ; instructors do not know the full capacity of what facilities technology can offer for them and as they do not make use of it sufficiently in their classrooms they do not have sufficient experience and background knowledge.Teachers utilize the methods that they are used to benefit from and gained experiences in their classrooms ( Frane et al,2009) . As a result of the perceived difficulty and language teaching habits, the opportunity of taking advantage of the technology in teaching listening skills loses its advantage. 28 Teaching how to use computers and other technologies to the teachers can be a way of dealing with this fear of technology usage. Utilizing the use of computers more than as a word processor in the classroom and the significance of training teachers are emhasized by Ridgway and Passey (1991). In a similar way, Jones (2002) discussed that instructors have to be informed utilisers of technology and emphasized the significance of technology training. Just like teachers, learners could also be taught how to use them optimally in classroom activites (Smidt & Hegelheimer, 2004). These trainings may ease the anxiety and may not only enhance learners’ learning environment, but also allow input to be more understandable (Greenleaf, 2011). 2.9. Audiovisual Materials and Listening Anzaku (2011) defines audiovisual materials as; the instructional materials that are used commonly by the instructors to transmit the message without absolute dependence on verbal signals or language. The significance of audiovisual materials in language teaching process can not be underrated. Peoople grasp the meaning of any message quicker and easier by utilising audio-visual materials than just relying on the verbal instructions (Eze, E.U. 2005). Mathew and Alidmat (2013) states that using audio-visual materials in EFL classrooms makes the lesson more interesting and effective for both the teachers and the learners. And, in order to make learning more long-lasting, expoliting audio-visual materials in lessons is a good way (Craig & Amernic 2006). Holden (2002) proposed that utilising films in language classroom contributes both to listening skills of the learners and their motivation levels substantially. So, it can be said that, in a general way audio-visual materials are useful for language reaching and learning. What about teaching listening through these materials ? Researchers have proven that making use of written or visual stimuli to an auditory clip can increase the listening comprehension skills of language learners (Jones & Plass, 29 2002). Providing both aural and visual aids simultaneoulsy, developing the listening comprehension skills of the learners is of a great possibilitiy ( Jones, 2008). Chung (1994) conducted a study and searched for the effect of visual aids on the listening comprehension skills of learners. He concluded that when auditory segments are used with pictures or videos, learners showed a better performance at perceiving the meaning of the input. Baltova (1999) conducted a research with eleventh graders in France to find out the effectiveness of subtitled videos of increasing the listening skillls of learners. There were three groups in the study; reversed group, bimodal group, and traditional group. The reversed gorup wacthed a video in the L1 along with L2 subtitles then the video was viewed in the L2 along with L2 subtitles. The bimodal group viewed a video in the L2 along with L2 subtitles. The last group- traditional one- watched the video as it was. According to the results of the study, the first two group, reversed and bimodal groups, outperformed the traditional group, however there was no significant difference between the two groups that made use of subtitles. Jones’ (2003) study concluded similar results. In her study, she studied with a four grouped English colloge- learners of French and a multiple choice test was applied to each group. No annotations were provided for first group while only verbal ones provided for the second group. For the third group only visual annotations were provided while the last group was provided with both verbal and visual annotations. Results of the study states that the fourth group who were provided both verbal and visual aids outperformed the rest, while the first group who had no aids scored the worst. Considering all of these it can be said that utilising audiovisual aids in language teaching helps developing listening skills of the learners. Using more advanced technology to provide these aids may help learners get a real world of the target language (Verdugo & Belmonte,2007). 30 2.10. CALL and Listening “The search for and the study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning” is the definition of CALL according to Levy (1997). Beatty (2003) states that CALLis a process in which language learners exploit computers in order to improve their language abilities. Pennington (2011) claims that CALL is the result of computer innovation and it is utilized to help present, give criticism, and assess the material to get familiar with the language. So, it will not be wrong to say that, CALL is a method to be used in language teaching and learning classrooms by making use of computer technology at most by the shareholders of language learning process. Computer have been used for educational purposes since the beginning of 1970s. The history of CALL is divided into three different stages as; behavioristic CALL, communicative CALL, and integrative CALL ( Warshauer & Healey, 1998). Behavioristic CALL started to be used widely at the beginning of 1970s under the influence of Audio- lingual teaching method. Repetitive drills were seen as a routine and computers were viewed just as a mechanical tutor. Computers do not allow learners to progress at their own pace, as a result their motivation is hindered (Gündüz, 2005). Communicative CALL emerged after behavioristic one started to be critisized and rejected. Warschauer (200) claims that using the real-life language is the aim of this approach by concentarating on colloborative or socio- mental sights of communicative teaching. In this approach the focal point was what students did together while working at the computer instead of focusing on what they did with the computer (Gündüz, 2005). Integrative CALL, the latest one, put emphasis on language use in authentic social contexts. With this approach, it was aimed to teach four main skills with the help of intergrated-technology to the language learning process ( Warschauer & Healey, 1998). Learners were provided the opportunity for using different types of technological 31 devices as an ongoing process of language learning rather than visiting the lab in a pre- scheduled program in order to do isolated exercises (Gündüz, 2005). Computers offer learners numerous exercises to improve their language skills. However, it shoud not be forgotten that computer is a mechanical tool not language teaching or learning method. The computer is a source to be exploited not a programmed-learning machine (Jones & Fortescue, 1987). Its role in teaching is just a teaching facilitator . “Technology can assist the teachers ‘what to teach’, ‘how to teach’, when to teach’, or how to integrate all these to the curriculum framework” (Altun, 2015, p.23). Thus, since computers are not capable of creating any educational things they are dependent on instructors in numerous ways (Gündüz, 2005). Kremenska (2007) asserts that technology does not have the abillity of changing language learning lonely, so to be able to create autonomous and motivated learners the EFL teachers have a vital role in launching the technology to the language learning classes. Higgins (1995) claims that providing teachers and learners for a richer form of language exploration and play than has ever been possible before makes CALL valuable. Galavis (1998) adds that, the language learning environment has the opportunity to access to a very rich information and authentic materials by means of CALL. 2.11. CALL Based Listening in Turkey During the 20th century, technology has been embraced by the education world, believing that it is possible to create a better and more succesful learning environment for making the learning process more powerful and efficient with the help of educational technology (Dokur, 2008). Technology has given the opportunity of having better educated, autonomous, and more intelligent leaners (Jonassen,2000). And, the global popularity of technological devices like computers have caused the use of computers and other tools in education and in foreign language teaching and learning environment (Baş & Kuzucu, 2009). 32 Turkey has taken some serious steps, like many other nations, to keep up with the trends and integrate technology to its education system, particularly for the field of foreign language teaching. Turkey has done very innovative reforms to spread learning English around the country. In 1997, for the first time in its history, Turkey adopted communicative approach in ELT context to be used (Kırkgöz, 2005). Then, a lot of changes were done in ELT to adapt the foreign language education to the EU standarts (Kırkgöz, 2007) such as importing textbooks, employing native speakers or sending the Turkish students to the foreign countries for language education (Gencel, 2005). After taking these actions, Turkey bought a ICT based application-called DynED (Dynamic Education)- gave it to the service of language teachers and learners for free. DynED is a courseware programme that has to be set up on a network server (Fichou, 2003). Dyned is a four-level basic course ranging from the phases of novice-mid to intermediate-high learners. Accentuation is put on building receptive skill of listening and the productive skill of speaking that are fundamental for essential correspondence in English. Exercises center around topic that is pertinent to understudies' lives at the school level. Themes shift from family and every day schedule errands to natural issues.There is a solid establishment in syntax and jargon as learners are acquainted with the language required for successful correspondence (Marimuthu& Soon, 2005). It has been used in Turkey since 2006. Since then, a number of studies have been carried out to find out whether it is effective or not. For instance, Baş and Kuzucu (2009) conducted an experimental study and concluded that; the experimental group’s achievement level was significantly higher than the control group. Besides, the former group developed their listening and speaking skill better than the latter. Another study carried out by Baş (2010) and received teachers’ opinions about Dyned program. The results of the study proposed that; teachers believe in the usefullness and 33 importance of the programme and it has a positive effect in developing students’ skill. However, Baş adds that while using Dyned programme they encounter some problems in installation and application of the process as they are lack of technical knowledge. Moreover, Turkey has conducted a very comprehensive educational movement, which is the FATİH Project (Movement of Enhancing opportunities and Improving Technology), in order to bring teaching-learning environment together, enrich the language learning environment, equip education area with educational technologies and provide equal opportunities in education. In accordance with this purpose, in 2012 the FATİH project was started to be launched, smartboards were begun to be installed to the classrooms and tablet computers were started to be delivered to both students and instructors (Sarıtepeci & Durak, 2016). The Fatih Project has been a subject for a great number of studies in Turkey (Ekici & Yılmaz, 2013, Altın & Kalelioğlu 2015, Karaca, 2017, Ercan, 2018). For instance; Çiçekli (2014) puts frorward that using smartboard makes the lesson more attractive and increases students interaction. Another study carried out by Kayahan and Özduran (2016) concludes that, using tablet computers increases the motivation and interest levels of students to the lesson. Sayır (2014) expresses in his study that teachers find using smartboards beneficial in their classes as there are various visual and audio materials to teach speaking, particularly in teaching pronunciation. In line with teachers, students state that smart boards have a positive effect on their speaking achievement levels. However, the Fatih Project is not only aims to provide hardwares but also give the chance to students to access the course notes, homeworks, projects assigned by teachers no matter where they are , share their knowledge with their peers and teachers, and revise the subjects with the help of the content on the EBA (Educational Informatics Network). (http://fatihprojesi.meb.gov.tr/). Language learning can not take place in formal settings, it may happen informal settings, as well. To make this happen technological facilities must be 34 utilised and learning process can be enhanced with informal settings (Balbay & Erkan, 2018). Thus, the EBA is a very good way of providing this opportunity to the students in Turkey. 2.12. EBA (Educational Informatics Network) Educational Informatics Network (EBA) led by the General Directorate of Innovation and Educational Technologies is an online social educational platform. The main aim of the platform is to integrate the techology into education and support the effective use of materials. It has been designed to provide suitable, reliable and right content for learners (http://fatihprojesi.meb.gov.tr/). Uşun (2012) states that in order to be successful through CALL, softwares must be designed and developed in accordance with the targets of the curriculum. Therefore, the EBA play a vital role in the Fatih Project. The EBA website was published for the fisr time in 2012 with test version (Pala, Arslan & Özdinç, 2017). Since than it has been updated for fifth times and the lastest version is released in 2019. The EBA consists of five basic components, which are; • EBA Course ( for teachers and students), • Content Modules (News Module, Video Module, Image Module, Audio Module, Book Module, Magazine Module, and document Module), • Contests (where information and exhibitions of old contests can be found), • Applications (individual learning contents supplied by educational content companies), • Other (EBA Document Module, e-Course Module, EBA store). A number of studies have been carried out about the EBA. Topics of the studies range from the perceptions of teachers or learners to efficiency of the EBA in teaching social 35 sciences or maths. To the researcher’s knowledge there are only two studies carried out about the EBA in ELT field. Kayahan and Özduran (2016) conducted a research named “ İngilizce Dersinde Uygulanan EBA Market Mobil Yazılımlarına İlişkin Öğrenci Görüşleri” and stated according to the results of their study that; students have both positive and negative thoughts about the platform. Besides, learners are in favor of using tablet computers. These can be a good example for curriculum designer to adjust the teaching programmes and technologies for the needs of learners. The other study called “ Examination of EBA English Contents, Supplied On The Internet As a Part of Fatih Project, In Terms Of Secondary Schools English Curriculum” was conducted by Erbay (2018) and it analysed the English lesson content in the EBA platform and took the thoughts of English teachers about the content of EBA. According to the results of the study, Erbay states that there is a coherence between the EBA and the curriculum in terms of the contents. There are many different exercises related to the themes mentioned in the curriculum. 36 CHAPTER 3 Methodology 3.1. Introduction The ultimate aim of the present thesis is; improving the listening skills of foreign language learners through the EBA- a higly recommended and valued website designed by YEĞİTEK for the Fatih Project- and identifying the perceptions of the participants about this platform. The research design, participants, materials/instruments, data collection tools, and treatments will be explained in this chapter in detail respectively. 3.2. Research Design The present study was applied for 11 weeks in a state secondary school to 6 th grade A1 level students. The mixed method one group research design was adopted as this design includes the intentional collection of both qualitative and quantitative data (Creswell, Plano- Clark& Smith, 2011). To gather quantitative data; a pre-test and a post-test were applied to the participants; semi-structured interviews were conducted with volunteered 5 successful and 5 unsuccessful students for qualitative data. Using qualitative and quantitative data while conducting a study gives deeper and more accurate information about the theory and practice (Johson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Davies (2000) suggets that combining both qualitative and quantitative data in a single study provides a holistic understanding and making a better education policy helps explaining the research’s various aspects better. Also Creswell (2006) suggests that, using both qualitative and quantitative data provides us a better understanding about the research problem than using either qualitative or quantitative seperately. While conducting semi-structured interviews pre-prepared questions are directed to interviewees. Patton (2002) suggests that semi-structured interview helps to probe into 37 interviewees’ individual perceptions through their own judgement and thoughts. In addition, any other new questions can be addressed to the participant or the moderator can renounce to ask some questions (Karasar, 2011). These are the main reasons why semi-structured interview was utilised by the researcher as a quanlitative data source. Before assigning learners to the control and experimental group, all the participants were given a pre-test. As a pre-test the Key English Test (KET) was administered to the learners -as it is widely accepted and reliable to assess listening skills of English language learners. According to the result of the test, the groups were decided by the researcher. Class 6/B was the exprerimental group while 6/A was the control group. There were two main reasons for choosing 6/B as the experimental group. The average point of 6/B was worse than class 6/A, and the technologicial equipments of class 6/B like projection and internet connection were also better. Before the treatments started, the EBA’s language learning portal’s content was examined and two appropriate applications were chosen to use in the present study instead of the coursebook listening materials. These were; My English Path and Watch and Learn. Prior to the implementation phase, a pilot study was conducted for one week as the initial step, to detect the possible problems and take the necessary precautions. Although no problems occurred during the pilot study, the researcher decided to use his smartphone as a modem in any case. After 11 weeks of the treatment process, both groups had a post-test and their scores were compared to see if any statictically significant difference occurred or not. At the end of the treatment, the researcher also interviewed the participants of the experimental group to investigate EFL learners' perceptions and positive or negative experiences that they had during the treatment. In the end, these data were used to reach the conclusion. 38 3.3. Participants This study was carried out in a state secondary school in Bursa for 11 weeks during the fall semester of 2019/2020 academic year with the participation of 44 6th grade students. All the participants were selected via convenience sampling and all were 12 years old females. Both the experimental and the control groups consisted of 22 participants. All the participants have studied in state schools throughout their education life and none of them have had a private English teaching/learning before. They all live in the same neighbourhood near the school and almost all of them had the same living standarts since most of their parents were workers and had to work to earn their lives. The researcher had four 6th graders at this school. He has been having lessons with these classes since the beginning of 2018- 2019 education year. He knew the level and attitude of the students well. Two of the classes were all boys while the other two consisted of girls. As the girls were more self-disciplined and academically successful, the researcher decided to carry out this study with them. 3.4. Materials/ Instruments The researcher made use of two listening applications designed for the EBA platform to improve learners’ listening skills. These two applications are; My English Path and Watch and Learn. My English Path is a listening and reading based application prepared for the use of all level of secondary school students. The content of the tool is the same as the coursebook. All the units have the same names, same functions and same target vocabularies. Listening is the first skill to be completed in the tool to proceed to other parts. In each unit, ten questions are asked to students to answer after they watch the video or listen to the audio. While some of the questions are multiple choice, some of them are T/F questions. Before completing listening part succesfully, the reading part is not unlocked. 39 Watch and Learn is an application originally developed for Syrian refugee students to teach them Turkish. It looks like the popular site the Voscreen. They both have the same sytem. The level and the topic can be chosen, playlists can be created according to your wishes or topics, as well. The learners are supposed to watch the clips and choose the correct Turkish meaning of the sentence. These applications benefit from the news, cartoons, songs and films that are of real-life talk. 3.5. Data Collection Tools The present study adopted mixed method one group research design and collected both qualitative and quantitative data. First, quantitative data was gathered through pre-test and post-test technique then semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data. 3.5.1. Pre-test and Post-test. The pre-test and the post-test that were used in the current study were exactly the same. The exam was Cambridge Key English Test (KET) for schools. There were no adaptations made by the researcher as it was a product of a professional work and satisfied the needs of the researcher. However, the order of the parts was changed by the researcher while implementing the post test without changing any content. There were five parts to the pretest. In each part there were 5 listening questions and, each piece was listened twice. For each part of the test there was time for the participants to look through the questions and time for them to check their answers. The first part of the test included 5 questions and required students to listen to 5 short conversations and choose the right answer among three choices. The second part of the test had 5 questions and students were supposed to listen to the conversations and match the correct answers. There were 5 multiple choice questions in the third part of the test. Both fourth and fifth part of the test included five questions that asked students to complete each questions with the correct word and spelling. The same test was used as the post-test without making any content changes 40 except changing the order of the parts. The researcher changed the order of parts of two, four and five in order to eliminate the possibility of remembering the answers of the pre-test. 3.5.2. Interview. After the treatment process had been completed, the researcher carried out semi-structured interviews with 10 participants of the experimental group and to increase the reliability of the interviews one of the researcher’s colleagues accompanied him during the interview sessions. In semi-structured interviews a blend of closed and open-ended questions are employed and these questions are often followed by why or how questions. Semi-structured interviews are generally utilised by the researchers in order to understand the topic and the answers given by the interviewees thoroughly in a conversational way (Harrell, M.C.; Bradley M.A., 2009). Patton (2002) suggests that semi-structured interviews helps to investigate about the interviewees’ individual perceptions and experiences through their own reasoning and statements. The interviewers were chosen by utilising the criterion of purposive sampling. Criterion sampling involves selecting cases that meet some predetermined criterion of importance (Patton, 2001, p. 238). Five of the intervieewes were accepted as successful as their post-test scores were above the average point while the rest of the interviewees were accepted as unsuccessful since their post-test scores were below the average point. As the final stage of this thesis, interviews were conducted with 10 participants. Purposive sampling was applied while choosing the interviewees. Five of them were succesful ones while the rest was unsuccessful according to the post-test results. These interviews gave a chance to clarify the positive and negative sides of treatment and perceptions of the learners towards the EBA. Interview questions were prepared by the researcher after a wide and detailed literature review. 15 questions were prepared at first. To enhance the reliability of the interview, questions were examined by two instructors – both of them are instructor at National Defense University-and the number of questions were decreased to 12. Finally, 41 these questions were controlled by an expert in the field and the total number of the questions were decreased to 10. To find out whether the questions were suitable for students’ level and to reveal whether they can grab the meaning and answer the questions in detail and meaningfully, one successful and one unsuccessful student was chosen to carry out a pilot interview study. After analyzing their answers with the help of a colleague who worked at the same school with the researcher, it was decided that these questions can be asked to the students. To conduct the interviews with the determined ten participants, the school library was chosen. While all the other classes had lessons and the environments was quiet, interviews were conducted and recorded with the help of a smartphone. Before the interviews were taken into practice all the parcipants’ parents’ permission was asked via a consent form. When it comes to practice, all the participants were made sure that conversations will be recorded and will never be shared with anyone else or used for any other purposes except this study. So, the researcher asked them to share their ideas honestly and sincerely. After their consent was ensured, the interviews were held and the prepared questions were asked to each of them one by one. They were held in Turkish as the learners’ level of English was not sufficient to express themselves in a releaxed way, and notes were taken by the researcher as a supplement to the audio-recordings. Each question had a unique aim to clarify different things. For the first question, it was aimed to understand the perceptions of learners related to the EBA and the listening activities. Second one aimed at finding out whether the applications used were useful or not. The third question aimed to compare the ideas of learners about the EBA and the coursebook. The next question sought for an answer about the pronunciation of students. The fifth question aimed to understand the preferences of learners about practicing English via the EBA or the 42 coursebook. Sixth question aimed to find out which material gave more joy to learners to practice their listening skills. The seventh question aimed to find out how the EBA affects the classroom atmosphere. The eight question aimed to confirm the fifth question. The ninth question intented to reveal the perceptions of students about EBA and share the avdantages or disadvantages of the application. The last question was intended to investigate the overall evaluations of participants with regard to the applications and the lesson. 3.6. The Implementation Procedure The first term of the academic year of 2019-2020 was the time of implementing this study. In the first week of September the students were informed in detail by the researcher that he would carry out a study and he asked their cooperation sincerely. After they accepted the researcher’s request, they were applied the pre test at the beginning of the month. After the pre-test results, for a week the pilot study was carried out to see the possible problems or obstacles. The third week of the month was the beginning of the treatment process. The course books used in state schools are delivered by MONE and there are ten units, for each unit 3 weeks are alloted in the yearly plan and there are 3 listening texts in each unit. This study was planned for twelve weeks including one week for the pilot study and lasted from the first week of October to the first week of January. It could have been completed in the last week of December but there was a one week break in November for students for the first time in Turkish education system. So, there were 4 units and 12 listening tasks to be completed. After the pilot study was done, there were 11 listening tasks left and 11 weeks. In each week, according to the topic and functions ‘My English Path’ and ‘Watch and Learn’ from the EBA was used as the source of the listening activities. At the end of the treatment process, the post-test were applied to the groups. They were applied in the same day at different lesson hours but consecutively as the researcher had 43 lessons with these two classes on Tuesday one after another. After analyzing the results of the post-test, qualitative data were gathered with 5 volunteered successful students and 5 unsuccessful ones; and 10-12 minutes long sessions were applied successfully. The interviews were held and audio recorded with the help of a smartphone and notes were taken by the researcher when necessary. 3.7. Data Collection Procedure In the second month of the fall semester, after participants’ cooperation was ensured, they were given a pre-test and and groups were formed. Then, the experimental group started to study their listening activities via the EBA platform while the control group continued using coursebook audios. There were two applications- My English Path and Watch and Learn- chosen by the researcher to be used in the listening classes. During the lessons, the students were required to watch the videos and answer the questions when they made use of My English Path application. Since the target functions and vocabularies were same with the coursebook, no arrangements were done before the lesson. However, when the Watch and Learn application was utilised in the classroom, playlists were formed beforehand by the researcher according to level of learners and the functions of the unit. When this application was utilised learners were required to watch the video and translate the sentences into Turkish. There were ten video questions in My Englis Path application for each unit and answering all the questions generally required almost 15 minutes. For the other application, since the length of videos varied the playlists consisted of beetween 12-15 videos in order to complete the activity in 15 minutes. After the 11th weeks, the treatment process was completed and both groups took the post-test in the same day. The pre-test and post-test results were compared and analysed with the help of SPSSS. 21. To collect qualitative data, semi-structured interviews were conducted 44 with volunteered 5 successful and 5 unsuccessful participants from the experimental group according to the results of the post-test. In the recording of the interview sesions a smartphone was used by the researcher. 3.8. Data Analysis Since mixed method one group research design was adopted in the study different data analysis procedures were utilised. First, quantitative data was collected from the pre-test and post-test, and analysed with the help of SPSS.21 to find the answers research questions one and one-a. The pre-test and post-test scores were compared and their means were calculated; in order to see whether a statistically significant difference occurred or not independent sample t test was applied. Second, qualitative data was gathered with the help of semi- structured interviews. To analyze the data gathered from the semi-structured interviews, content analysis was used and the same answers were placed to the same coding by the researcher and one of his colleague. Moreover, the descriptive analysis was used for these codes, thus, percentages and frequencies of each coding were identified and presented in related tables. 45 Chapter 4 Results and Findings 4.1. Quantitative Results The present study used the same KET exam as a pre-test without changing anything of the test and a post-test- changing the order of some parts- in order to compare the results of the test takers and find the differences between their exam points. In order to do so, the IBM SPSS Statistics 21 was used to find means for tests and the differences between and within the groups. With regards to the data given in table 3, the control group whose pre-test score was 16,36, had better scores compare to the experimental group whose pre-test score was 15,45. However, when the post-test scores of the groups compared, it can be seen that in table 3 the exprimental group’s performance is better than the control group’s even though it had worse score in the pre-test. So, the data shows us that after 11 weeks of treatment process, the experimental group showed a better progress than the control group. However, in order to see the progress is statistically significant or not, the difference of scores of groups was calculated and independent sample t test was applied. The data that have been produced can be seen in table 4 and table 5. 46 Table 3 The Pre-test – Post-test Results of the Groups Groups Mean Std. Deviation N Experimental Group 15,4545 4,82777 22 Pre-test Control Group 16,3636 5,77800 22 Total 15,9091 5,28190 44 Experimental Group 24,3636 5,36785 22 Post-test Control Group 23,0909 5,91132 22 Total 23,7273 5,61710 44 According to the table 4, the difference of scores of the experimental group between the post-test and the pre-test score is; 8,90 while the control group’s is 6,72. Table 4 The Difference of Scores Groups Groups N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Experimental Group 22 8,9091 3,47658 ,74121 DIFFERENCE Control Group 22 6,7273 3,35491 ,71527 To interpret the independent sample t test; as levene tests p value is ,874 (p>0,05), we needed to check the first column as equal variaces assumed. In that column t test’s t value is 2,118, p value is 0,040 which says that the experimental’s progress is significantly better than the control group’s. (t(42)=2,118, p < 0.05). 47 Table 5 Independent Sample t Test Groups N x̄ S sd t p Experimental 22 8,9091 3,47 42 2,118 ,040 Group Control Group 22 6,7273 2,35 42 In this case, using the EBA platform to improve listening skills of EFL learners in EFL classes instead of the coursebook has a substantial contribution on learners’ achievement level. However, this says us nothing about the size of the effect. In order to see the size of the effect, the easiest way is to use the t value of the t test. D= 2,118 x √ 22+22 / 22x22= 0,63 According to Green and Salkind (2005), the d value can be 0,-0,2,-0,5,- 0,8, and If it is 0, it means that means are equal (cited in Can 2017). The other ones can be addressed small, medium or big effect respectively. In this study, as d value is 0,63 which is slightly bigger than 0,5 it means that, the effect size is medium scale. 4.1.1. The Summary Of the Quantitative Findings The gathered quantitative findings indicates that, the experimental group demonstrated a better performance after the treatment and outscored the control group according to the scores of the post-test. These findings helped the researcher to find the answers of the research questions one and one-a which are, “Will EBA be effective to improve listening skills of the EFL learners?” and “Will there be a significant difference between the achievements levels of both groups?” . 48 According to the results of the SPSS analysis, it can be put forward that; using the EBA in EFL classes has an effect on enhancing learnings’ listening abilities to a certain degree. According to Green and Salkind (2005), it can be said that the size of the effect is medium since the d value is slightly bigger than 0.5 which is 0.63 (cited in Can, 2017). 4.2. Qualitative Results In order to gather qualitative data semi-structured interviews were conducted by the reseracher with the 10 participants in the experimental group. Ten questions were addressed to the participants in order to find out their perceptions about the EBA platform and the treatment process that lasted 11 weeks. 4.2.1 The interview question one. This questiom ‘Do you think that using the EBA listening materials in class has been beneficial to your English? Why or Why not ?’ aimed to understand the perceptions of succesful learners and unsucessful ones about the EBA platform and the listening actvities used in the process and understand their reasons why they thought it was beneficial or not beneficial. Table 6 The EBA platform usefulness Variables Frequency Percent beneficial 10 100% not beneficial 0 0% According to the table, it can be suggested that all the interviewees think that, using the EBA in the classroom has a beneficial effect to their listening skills. 49 When they were asked why they think in that way, they stated 6 different reasons which are shown in table 7. Table 7 The reasons why learners think the EBA is beneficial Variables Frequency Percent Contains visuals and sound 3 25% More fun 3 25% Makes us more active 1 8,3% Contributes to pronunciation 1 8,3% Contains more questions 1 8,3% The book is boring 3 25% It is clearly seen that, learners think that the EBA contributes to their listening skills by showing reasons such as; it contains visual which is absent in coursebooks (25%), more fun (25%), and the book is boring (25%). For example; one of the interviewee said that “ In addition to audios, having visuals helped us improve our English”. One another interviewee stated that “Using the coursebook listening materials is boring, that is why using the EBA materials is more fun and beneficial”. They also state that this platform allows them to be more active in listening activities (8,3%), to solve more questions (8,3%) and it also contributes to their pronunciation (8,3%). 4.2.2 The interview question two. This question ‘Has your listening ability improved as a result of listening materials used in the class? What do you think ?’ aimed to explore how do learners feel about their listening skill improvement levels. 50 Table 8 Has your listening ability improved as a result of the listening materials used in the class? Variables Frequency Percent Yes 10 100% No 0 0% It is obvious that all the participants think that their listening skills have improved as a result of the chosen tools applied in the course. They stated 5 different reasons about why they think so. Table 9 Why do you think the EBA improved your listening skills ? Variables Frequency Percent Being fun motivated us 2 25% Easier to understand 2 25% Contributed word knowledge 1 12,5% Contributed exam performance 2 25% Should be used all time 1 12,5% It can be said that the interviewees think that their listening skills have improved with the help of the EBA tools stating various reasons for that. They said that, the EBA is more amusing than the coursebook, and thus, motivated them (25%), having easier activites (25%) helped them understand better, and it contributed to their vocabulary knowledge (12,5%). Morover, some of them said that (12,5%) using the EBA enabled them to show a better performance in the exams. One interviewee stated that; “Thanks to the EBA listening activities, I could answer all the questions in listening part in the first and second exam”. 51 some stated that (12,5%) this process should continue throughout the year. One of the interviewee said that “My listening ability has improved thanks to the EBA tools, and we should continue to utilize the platform all the year”. 4.2.3 The interview question three. ‘Are the EBA listening materials easier to understand than the coursebook materials? Why?’ by asking this question, it was aimed to find out the best option for learners, the coursebook or the EBA content and which is why. Table 10 Are the EBA listening materials easier to understand than the coursebook materials ? Variables Frequency Percent Yes 6 75% No 2 25% 75% of the learners stated that the EBA materials are easier to understand while 25% says the opposite. They asserted some reasons for their choices shown in table 11. Table 11 Why is the EBA easier or difficult ? Variables Frequency Percent Suitable Level 5 41,6% Book level is high 2 16,6% The EBA has multiple choice 1 8,3% questions More Fun 2 16,6% The book is boring 2 16,6% 52 Nearly half of the students think that the EBA content is more suitable for them, as it is more fun and has multiple choice questions and visuals which attracts learners attention more than just a voice record. One of the interviewee expressed that; “I think the EBA activies are easier and the coursebook activities are harder. And while using ‘Watch and Learn’ application, having multiple choices questions helped us”. Another interviewee said that “The activities in the coursebook are harder than the ones in the EBA”. Almost 20% thinks that the coursebook is dull and the level is above them. So it can be said that learners choose the EBA listening materials instead of the coursebook materials. 4.2.4 The interview question four. This question ‘Has your pronunciation improved with the EBA listening materials? If so, how? ‘ aimed to find out whether the EBA tools have an impact on learners’ pronunciations or not. Table 12 Has your pronunciation improved with the EBA listening materials? Variables Frequency Percent Yes 6 60% No 2 20% Not Sure 2 20% 60% of the learners stated they have a beneficial effect on their pronunciation skills by stating some reasons shown in table 13. 53 Table 13 How did the EBA applications contribute to your listening ? Variables Frequency Percent By subtitles 8 57% Comparing 2 14% Having Visuals 4 28% Students clearly stated that having subtitles (57%) in tools, and comparing (14%) these subtitles with audio-records helped them improve their pronunciation skills. One of the interviewee stated that “By looking at the subtitles and comparing them with audio-records helped me so much. For example; before using the EBA applications, I mispronounce the word ‘Who’. Later, I learnt how to pronounce it correctly”. Besides, having visuals (28%) allowed them to focus more and improve their pronunciation skills. 4.2.5 The interview question five. This question ‘Do you prefer to use the EBA materials rather than listen to those provided in the course book? Why?’ aimed to find out learners’ choices about the EBA materials or the coursebook ones and the reasons behind their choices. Table 14 Do you prefer to use the EBA materials rather than listen to those provided in the course book? Variables Frequency Percent EBA 9 90% Course book 1 10% 54 Almost all the interviewees chose the EBA materials by stating these following reasons. Table 15 Why do you chose the EBA materials ? Variables Frequency Percent More Simple 1 5,8% Attracts more attention 2 11,6% More interesting content 2 11,6% Having Visuals 2 11,6% Easier to understand 4 23,5% Harder 1 5,8% 29% More fun 5 Except one student who expressed that the EBA content is harder (5,8%), by stating that; being harder contributes learners improvement more than the coursebook content, the rest of them prefered the EBA listening materials to use in their classes showing some reasons, such as: it is more fun (29%) and easy (23,5%) to follow the EBA content in the classroom. They also stated that, as it has audiovisuals (11,6%), more interesting topics (5,8%), and being simple it attracts the attention of students more (11,6%). One of the interviewee said that; “The EBA has different topics and conversations”. Another one stated that; “I think using the applications attracted our attention more and we were more active during the lesson”. 55 4.2.6 The interview question six. This question ‘Are the EBA listening materials more interesting than the coursebook materials? Why?’ aimed to find out that which material gives more joy to learners to practice their listening skills. Table 16 Are the EBA listening materials more interesting than the coursebook materials? Variables Frequency Percent Interesting 10 100% Uninteresting 0 0% All the learners found the EBA materials more interesting than the coursebook content. They stated some reasons for their choices. They are demonstrated in table 17. Table 17 Why do you think the EBA is more interesting ? Variables Frequency Percent More educative 1 11,1% Visuals are advantage 3 33,3% More attractive 3 33,3% Rich content 1 11,1% Better pronunciation 1 11,1% The interviewees find the EBA content more intersting than the coursebook, as stating that EBA is more educative (11,1%), more attractive (33,3%), and richer in content (11,1%). One of the interviewee expressed that; “The EBA’ content is different and entertaining. This makes it more attractive for us”. Besides, having visuals provides an advantage (33,3%) to the 56 EBA over the coursebook. One of the learner stated that; “When we use the coursebook, we just listen. But, when we use the applications we both listen and see. This is more beneficial for me”. Finally, they stated that the pronunciation of the EBA tools are better (11,1%) than the coursebook’s. 4.2.7 The interview question seven. ‘How did using the EBA listening materials affect the classroom atmosphere? Positively or negatively? Why?’ This question aimed to discover how using the EBA materials affect the classroom atmosphere and the reasons of their choices. Table 18 How did using the EBA listening materials affect the classroom atmosphere? Variables Frequency Percent Positively 10 100% Negatively 0 0% All the interviewees stated that using the EBA content provided a positive atmosphere in the class. They thought like that because of the following reasons demonstrated in table 19. Table 19 Why do you think the EBA created a positive atmosphere ? Variables Frequency Percent Attracts more attention 3 23% More participation 6 46,1% More focused & quieter class 2 15,3% More amusing than course book 2 15,3% 57 The learners find the EBA more amusing than the coursebook (15,3%), so this provides a more focused and quiet group (15,3%), and more participation (46,1%) to the lesson. One of the interviwee said that; “We were quieter when we use the EBA applications”. One another said that; “After we started to use the EBA materials, the participation increased. That is why we can say that using the EBA affected classroom atmosphere positively”. Moreover, the EBA content attracts students’ attention more (23%). All of these created a more positive atmosphere in the class to practice listening activities. 4.2.8 The interview question eight. ‘Do you prefer to use listening materials provided in the coursebook? Why?’ This question was directed students to compare participants’ answers in the fifth question and see whether they are confirming each other or not. Table 20 Do you prefer to use listening materials provided in the coursebook? Variables Frequency Percent Yes 0 0% No 10 100% It can easily be seen that, the first choice of students is the EBA compared to the coursebook. They do not prefer the coursebook as a source for listening activities by expressing following reasons which are shown in table 21. 58 Table 21 What are the reasons behind not choosing the coursebook ? Variables Frequency Percent No Visuals 4 40% The book is boring 3 30% Hard to understand 1 10% Shorter texts 1 10% Poor content 1 10% Table 21 shows us that, the coursebook is boring (30%) than the EBA content. As the coursebook has no visuals (40%), it causes students get bored easily or not concentrate well to follow listening audios. They also stated that while the EBA has more videos for same topic, the coursebook has only one audio for each topic. This can be addressed as the poor content of the coursebook (10%) and some of the students expressed that the audios in the coursebook are harder to understand (10%). All these data leads us the idea that, learners would rather study listening with EBA materials than coursebook which overlaps with the findings of fifth interview question. 4.2.9 The interview question nine. The question; ‘What are the advantages or disadvantages of using the EBA materials in the class?’ was intented to reveal the perceptions of students about the EBA and share the advantages or disadvantages of the application. 59 Table 22 Advantages of the EBA Variables Frequency Percent Has Visuals 2 25% Contributes to Pronunciation 1 12,5% Simpler 2 25% Easier 2 25% Attractive 1 12,5% Table 23 Disadvantages of the EBA Variables Frequency Percent Time Consuming 2 20% Long Video Clips 2 10% Technological Deficiency 2 20% Causes Noise 1 20% They stated that the EBA has both advantages and disadvantages. Having visuals, being simpler, attractive and easier can be counted for advantages while long videos, technology deficiency of the learning environment and being time consuming can be seen as the disadvantages of the platform. However, it can be argued that technology deficiency is not the disadvantage of the EBA platform but it is the disadvantage of the learning environment that learners have. 60 4.2.10 The interview question ten. Overall, what did you like or dislike with regarding the Eba listening activities? (English Path / Watch and Learn). This last question was intented to investigate the overall evaluations of participants with regard to the applications and the lesson. It was found out that none of the students were unsatisfied with the course throught the term. Table 24 What did you like or dislike with regard to the EBA listening activities? Variables Frequency Percent Satisfied 10 100% Unsatisfied 0 0% Table 25 Reasons why they liked /disliked My English Path Variables Frequency Percent Simple 2 33,3% Gives Points/Stars 2 33,3% Easier 2 33,3% As it can be seen they liked it for these reasons and they did not mention any negative things about this application. 61 Table 26 Reasons why they liked /disliked Watch and Learn Variables Frequency Percent Longer Videos 2 25% Subtitles 1 12,5% Harder 2 25% More fun 2 25% Choosing Level 1 12,5% They liked this application for the reasons given in the table 26, but some of them did not like it for some reasons. For example one of the interviewee said: “ I like the EBA exercises more than the coursebook ones, especially My English Path, because the tool gives us stars or points as long as we answer correct” One another interviewee said: “I did not like the EBA platform because some of the videos were long and hard to follow.” 4.2. 11. The Summary Of the Qualitative Findings After the treatment process that lasted 11 weeks, the researcher conducted semi- structured interviews with 10 participants of the whole sample to understand their perceptions about the EBA platform and analyze them to find answer to research question three. In order to reach the aim, 10 interview questions were asked to the interviewees and the results were interpreted in the Discussion part. 62 Chapter 5 Discussion 5.1. Overview In this chapter, the findings and results that have been revealed through the qualitative and quantitative data will be discussed. Besides, the researcher will seek the answers to the research questions and present the conclusion of the study as well as the recommendations for further research. 5.2. Discussion of the Findings with Relation to the Research Questions The present study was carried out with the aim of finding to what extent the EBA is effective on improving learners’ listening skills in comparison to the course book materials. Besides, it was aimed to find out whether the difference of learners’ scores are statistically significant or not. Finally, it was aimed by the researcher to find out the perceptions of the learners about the platform. 5.2.1. Discussion of research question one. In the present study, it was aimed by the researcher to utilise the EBA materials instead of the course book materials in EFL classes and to find out whether it has a positive role in improving learners’ listening abilities as it is presented in research question 1; thanks to the the quantitative results that have been presented in chapter 4, we can find the answer to this question. According to the quantitative results, the difference of the scores of experimental group between pre-test and post-test score is; 8,90 while the control group’s is; 6,72. Hence, it is clearly seen that using the EBA materials contributed to EFL learners’ listening skills in a positive way. These findings overlap with some studies carried out in the field. For instance, Baltova (1999) argued that making use of subtitled videos to improve listening skills of learners is much more effective that utilising the traditional ways. Buran (2008) suggested in 63 her study that, techonological tools affect learners’ listening skills in a favorable way and generate a substantial difference between the groups. According to the results of the study conducted by Jones (2003), when verbal and visual aids are provided for learners, they show a better performance in improving their listening skills. Sejdui (2017) says that to improve EFL learners’ listening skills multimedia technology is an effective way. Yasin, Faisal and Rizki (2018) stated as a conclusion in their study that; audiovisual materials had a substantial contribution on developing learners’ listening skills and improving them significantly. Morover, the findings accord with the studies carried out in the Turkish context, as well. For example, it is put forward by Ekinci (2017) that subtitled movies may offer a very remarkable experience to enhance learners’ motivation and listening skill levels. A very recent study carried out at the National Defence University in Turkey by Bal (2019) points out that the ICT tools can enhance the success levels of learners and help them develop their listening abilities. 5.2.2. Discussion of research question one-a. This question aimed to understand whether there is a meaningful difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the groups after the treatment. In order to answer this question, quantitative results were examined and interpreted closely and carefully. The results of Independent sample t test says that t value is 2,118 So, it points out that there is a significant difference between the scores of each group in favor of the experimental group. By looking at these findings, it can be claimed that there is a consistency between the present study and previous ones (Buran, 2008; İsmaili, 2012; Sejdui, 2017;Dewi, 2018; Bal, 2019). 5.2.3. Discussion of research question two. In order to find out the perceptions of the learners, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants of the experimental group. Tables 7,11,15,17,19,21,22,23,25,26 can make a great help to demonstrate the perceptions of the learners towards the treatment and the EBA platform. 64 All the interviewees stated that they find the EBA beneficial to their listening skills and they listed six different reasons given in Table 7, why they find the platform useful. They stated that, having visuals and sound are the primary reasons and it is also more fun than the coursebook. They also stated that using the EBA in the class makes them more active as classroom has a more positive atmosphere. Belet Boyacı and Güner (2018) says that audiovisual materials can be a good choice to attract learners’ attention and create a positive learning environment. Mathew and Alidmat (2013) express that utilising audiovisual materials in the classroom enables for both teachers and students to have more interesting and effective lesson. It also contributed to their pronunciation. Apart from these, they mentioned that having more questions is an advantage and the coursebook is boring. In Table 10, the participants expressed that the EBA listening materials are easier and they stated 5 reasons to support their ideas. They said that the content of the EBA is more suitable for them as it is more fun and has multiple choice questions and visuals which attracts learners attention more than just a voice record. Başaran and Köse (2011) stated that EFL learners find vieo materials fun, helpful and attractive. In Table 15, the interviewees listed seven different reasons why they chose to use the EBA materials in the classroom instead of the coursebook ones. These are: being simpler and fun, easier to understand and containing more interesting content, having visuals and attracting their attention more. This finding supports the findings of Hughes (2015) study which says that learners embrace the utilisation of technology positively. In Table 17, the learners stated that they find the EBA listening materials more interesting than the coursebook materials as it is more educative and attractive. It also has better pronunciation and rich content. Moreover, having visuals is a good advantage over the 65 coursebook. Safranj (2015) stated that using movies in the classroom not only enhanced listening skills of the students but also students had fun during lessons. In Table 19, students claimed that, using the EBA content created a positive atmosphere in the classroom by stating these reasons. The class was quieter and we were more focused, there were also more participation as the EBA content is more amusing than the coursebook content. So it attracted our attention more and motivated us. Boztepe (2013) put forward that, the motivation levels of learners can be increased by utilising audiovisual materials in the classroom. Table 21 gives us nearly the same results as the Table 15. These tables confirm each other about learners choice of the EBA or the coursebook. In this table, learners stated that they do not prefer the listening materials in the coursebook because of the poor content and being more boring as there are no visuals. They also added that the texts are short and harder to understand. As the EBA platform have been favored by the learners, the advantages and disadvantages of the EBA activities were investigated by the researcher and according to Table 22 and 23. While learners stated 5 advantages, they listed 4 disadvantages of the EBA. According to Table 22, the advantages of the EBA are; it is simpler, easier, more attractive and it has visuals and contributes to pronunciation. According to table 23 the disadvantages are; it is time consuming and it causes more noise. The technologial deficiency of the class and some long video clips. In Table 24 all the participants stated that, they were satisfied with using the EBA materials for the treatment process. In Table 25 they listed 3 reasons why they liked the My English Path application. These reasons are: it is simple and easier. Besides, it gives points/stars when they answer correctly. When it comes to the other application, Watch and 66 Learn, some of them liked it stating that having subtitles and being fun and allowing them to choose levels while some stated that this tool has longer videos and harder than My English Path. 67 Chapter 6 Conclusion 6.1. An overview of the study The present study focused on using the EBA platform- designed, improved and recommended by MONE in Turkey- to improve listening skills of EFL learners at a secondary state school in Bursa. The EBA platform provides numerous educational materials for teachers and students for each subject taught in the Turkish Curriculum as well as being a distance education tool. The EBA platform has been a subject for lots of fields, but in Language learning and teaching field there is a very limited number of studies carried out and this study is one of them, maybe the only one. This study tried to investigate the listening comprehension skills of EFL students and the amount they improved it during the procedure. During the process there were 2 groups as the experimental group and control group and each of them consisted of 22 paticipants. The treatment process started with the pilot study which lasted one week and continued for eleven more weeks. The pre-test-post-test technique was used and semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten volunteer participants. With the help of the data obtained via the tests and interviews, the research conducted an evaluation of finding; and in this part, the final word will be stated as answers to the research questions and references from the literature of the research field. 6.2. Conclusion According to the quantitative results of the study, it can be said that the experimental group outperformed the control group even though they had worse scores in their pre-test results. The experimental group showed a better progress than the other one and improved significantly. Therefore, the study has shown us that using the EBA listening materials in the classroom enables EFL students to increase their achievement levels and improve their 68 listening comprehension skills. The results accord with some studies carried out in the language teaching and learning field. For instance, Baltova (1999) claimed that using subtitled videos in language classes give better results than making use of conventional ways. In accordance with her result, Jones (2003) proposed that providing audiovisual aids for learners gives them an opportunity to improve their listening skills. Mossaab (2013) stated that using audiovisual materials lead to a better achievement in comprehension ability of learners and enhancing their listening skill. Dewi (2018) expressed that, using authentic materials has a significant effect on improving learners’ listening skills. In the local context, Özel (2013) concluded in his study that the web 2.0 tools may help EFL students develop their language abilities including listening and advance them in various ways.Moreover, Bal (2019) reported in his study that integrating the ICT tools to EFL classes help students increase their achievement levels and develop their listening skills. The qualitative findings of the study says that; students are in favor of using the EBA listening materials instead of the coursebook. They find it more beneficial and more attractive than the coursebook. They also expressed that using the EBA materials create a more positive atmosphere in the class and cause more participation of the students. So it can be said that using the EBA materials increases learners’ motivation levels. Holden (2002) proposed that utilising movies enhance both learners’ lanaguage skills and motivation levels. In accordance with this view, Ekinci (2017) found out that movies with subtitles can be a way of developing students’ listening abilities and motivation. A very recent study conducted by Bal (2019) stated that integrating the ICT tools to the language class not only improves their listening skills but also incerase their motivation. As a consequence, the education environment has to keep up with the technological advances and shareholders must do their part to integrate them into the class. The learners of the century are perceived as digital learners and their needs should be satisfied. The present 69 study has proven that, in order to improve learners’ listening skills the EBA materials can be a benefical way. Considering all of these, the present study was carried out to find out the effects of the EBA on listening skills of learners and to understand the perceptions of the learners about the platform. The results of the study can be an example for language teachers/learners who hesitate to make use of the EBA and policy makers who are not sure whether the platform is beneficial or not. 6.3. Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Further Studies The present study was applied for 11 weeks throughout an academic term, that is why it is advisable for further researches to be carried out for both terms. Moreover, the number of the participants in this study was 44. Conducting research with a bigger sample size may reveal different results. Finally, the study was carried out with the beginner level of students; as different results can be obtained from different levels it can be conducted with other levels. 70 References Altın, H.M. & Kalelioğlu, F. (2015). 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Yi-Chun Liu (2009) The Utilization Of Listening Strategies In The Development Of Listening Comprehension Among Skilled And Less-Skilled Non-Native English Speakers At The College Level Yıldırım, S. (2013). A Comparison Of Efl Teachers’ And Students’ Perceptions Of Listening 85 Comprehension Problems And Teachers’ Reported Classroom Practices. Unpublished Ma Thesis. Bilkent University, Ankara. Yıldırım, S., Yıldırım, Ö. (2016). The Importance Of Listening In Language Learning And Listening Comprehension Problems Experienced By Language Learners: A Literature Review. Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 16 (4), 2094-2110. 86 Appendices Appendix 1 Interview Questions: 1. Do you think that using the EBA listening materials in class has been beneficial to your English? Why or Why not? 2. Has your listening ability improved as a result of listening materials used in the class? What do you think? 3. Are the EBA listening materials easier to understand than course bookmaterials? Why? 4. Has your pronunciation improved with the EBA listening materials? 5. Do you prefer to use the EBA materials rather than listen to those provided in the course book? Why? 6. Are the EBA listening materials more interesting than course bookmaterials? Why? 7. How did using the EBA listening materials affect the classroom atmosphere? Positively or negatively? Why? 8. Do you prefer to use listening materials provided in the coursebook? Why? 9. What are the advantages or disadvantages of using the EBA materials in the class? 10. Overall, what did you like or dislike with regard to the EBA listening activities? (My English Path /Watch and Learn). 87 Appendix 2 Application 1: My English Path http://myenglishpath.eba.gov.tr/ 88 89 90 Appendix 3 Application 2: Watch and Learn http://izleogren.eba.gov.tr The tool aims to improve listening skills of the learners directly and it contributes to develop speaking, reading and writing skills of the learners indirectly. The tool was developed by the contributions of Gazi University and Tömer. 91 92 Öz Geçmiş Personal Info: Name Surname: Ali KILIÇ Place of Birth: Trabzon Education: High School: Yomra Lisesi BA: English Language Teaching, Uludağ University Professional Experience: Teacher – Ambarlık Ortaokulu (2010-2014) Keles Çok Programlı Lisesi (2014-2018) Somuncubaba İmam Hatip Ortaokulu (2018- -) Presentations: KILIÇ, Ali (2018) Electronic Complaints: An Empirical Study On Complaints On Amazon. 7th International Conference on Narrative and Language Studies, NALANS 2018. Trabzon, Turkey.