Authenticity via instructional technology in EFL classes at a private university in Turkey


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2015

Öğrenci: NUR GEDİK

Danışman: PERİHAN SAVAŞ

Özet:

The study aimed to investigate EFL learners’ perceptions on the implementation of the authentic tasks with the use of technological instruments and to find out to what extent these tasks had a positive or negative impact on EFL learners’ perceptions of the ability to use the language in authentic situations. Parallel convergent mixed method design integrating both quantitative and qualitative instruments was implemented in the study. The data were gathered from 68 students in three classes in two semesters. The analysis of the quantitative data was carried out through the SPSS IBM. For the qualitative data, with the constant comparison method, codes, categories and themes were aggregated and frequencies were calculated. The results of the study illustrated that learner’ perceptions of the ability to use the language in an authentic situation for authentic purposes increased significantly. Furthermore, learners acknowledged that the tasks were essential and they contributed to their language learning in addition to the affirmation of feeling of enjoyment during the tasks according to the statistical findings. In the same vein, semi-structured interviews and open-ended parts of the surveys and task evaluation forms unearthed learners’ appreciation of the implementation of authentic tasks in EFL setting thanks to the benefit to learning English, to the acquisition of world knowledge, literacy of technology and real life situations. Apart from certain problems with regard to both some specific tasks and foreign language education in general, learners’ recommendations for the amelioration of the tasks and new perspectives might be noteworthy for classroom practices.