Figure 1. Quizlet Main Panel
This study intends to indicate the perceptions of Turkish EFL teachers' on the use of Quizlet for vocabulary teaching and students' vocabulary learning process. The study involved a mixed design of Qualitative and Quantitative research. The study involved Turkish EFL teachers (n=50) as participants. The implementation period took 10 weeks and 50 teachers used quizlet vocabulary sets in their classes. These sets were prepared by the researchers. After this period, the teachers were asked to fill in a survey of perceptions developed by the researchers. Additionally, ten volunteers among the teachers volunteered to take part in focus group interviews for detailed discussion about their responses in the survey. The survey and focal interviews have yielded positive perceptions by teachers regarding the use of quizlet for vocabulary teaching, students' learning regarding the motivation of students, students' developing learner autonomy and empowerment of language skills at different degrees.
All around the world, people particularly from early school ages, put lot of efforts to learn a foreign language, especially English, at the late high school and even business ages. Although learners spend longer years to attain competency in English as a foreign language, they may somehow fall into desperation once they have problems with unknown words in speaking, writing, listening and the reading domains, no matter how much they are certified in English. To make clarification, vocabulary proficiency always stands out as a required component of English proficiency as it is considered a prerequisite through which all reading, listening, speaking and writing can be sustained (Blachowicz et al., 2006). Students can utilize English moderately, they can convey and receive the messages even if they are less proficient in grammar knowledge, but they are likely to get stuck when they need to use certain vocabulary during communication. In other words, learners may not be able to develop any grammar competency for communication, but they are more likely to be equipped with a vocabulary ground (Wilkins, 1972). Spencer (2008) also regards vocabulary competence as a vital necessity for meaningful communication and understanding the general topic in audio and oral passages.
Regarding the routines for vocabulary teaching and learning in Turkish class rooms for the specific context of this study, teachers mostly assign vocabulary lists to the students, and they are frequently expected to rewrite the words in the list or memorize by themselves. Even teachers can make students use vocabulary boxes while studying the word lists. However, both teachers and students do not have any standard routine, practice or habits for vocabulary teaching and learning. Additionally, teachers have not developed any mechanism or methodology to check the progress of students regarding vocabulary competency both at schools and after school. The current methods and strategies utilized by teachers no more st attract the students of 21 century because most of those strategies belong to the previous ages. In other words, digital natives do not show any interest in the current methods and strategies led by teachers (Prensky, 2001). Since digital natives consider Information and communication technologies indispensable for their daily life, teachers had better utilize such an interest that students are likely to develop further competency in vocabulary. Such a proneness of students can also increase students' interest towards English classes, particularly vocabulary learning and reading, listening, speaking and writing skills.
This study is likely to complete a special part in EFL classes in Turkey and indirectly in other countries in the respect that perceptions of EFL teachers will be uncovered as for the integration of ICT into English classes, particularly for vocabulary teaching and students' vocabulary learning. Having taken a detailed look into the literature, it is apparent that Quizlet, the chosen tool for this study, and other Web 2.0 tools, have attracted the interest of very few researchers for vocabulary teaching in a longitudinal experimental contact like the current study. This study will indicate the perceptions of teachers about the use of Quizlet for vocabulary teaching. This study will shed light on the strategies, methods led by EFL teachers for vocabulary teaching, students' vocabulary learning and motivation, and ultimately develop proficiency in English classes.
The current study will also determine significantly whether teachers are likely to develop positive attitudes towards ICT integration, particularly Quizlet, into vocabulary teaching and individual strategies for students' vocabulary learning success. Ultimately, this study will also bring new insights into the EFL classes regarding vocabulary teaching and learning in the global aspect as quizlet is a known tool used by teachers in comparison with traditional vocabulary teaching and learning routines which are mostly teachercentered. The research questions are like following:
The conceptual framework and previous studies dealing with ICT integration into vocabulary teaching and learning strategies in EFL classes will be handled in the following part.
In modern times, teens have started to show an unprecedented and somewhat in-born interest in computer technologies. In other words, teens of modern ages are deemed as the native speakers of digital technologies, called as Digital Natives (Prensky, 2001). As a counterpart for Digital Natives, Prensky (2001. p.1) uses “Digital Immigrants” for the adults of the 2000s in the aspect that they can adapt themselves to the digital technologies at the later stages of their lives. While digital natives show an inborn or natural proneness to computers and internet technologies, the digital immigrants may retain in the beginning at least. Accordingly, Prensky (2001. p.1) underlines an important point stating, “Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach”. Prensky (2001) continues to argue that “our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language”. This divergence is also accepted as usual since digital revolution is viewed as a natural development. “Digital natives currently have access to a great amount of materials on internet and they are akin to use target language however they are proficient in that language or not” (Kol & Schcolnik, 2000. p.68). Accordingly, it is highly inevitable that digital immigrants, teachers in this study, include new and different strategies into the classes by means of technology integration, with vocabulary teaching as the target domain of this study.
Having taken a detailed look into the strategies of teachers for vocabulary teaching, Nation (2005) has frequently emphasized that vocabulary teaching should be formatted in a student-centered approach involving diversity of teaching strategies. Vesely & Gryder (2007) indicated that most teachers opted for leaving students alone for vocabulary learning and these teachers favored the traditional strategies with which they were content rather than integrating research based strategies. The most common strategy was found as rote memorization without and visual aid which was encouraged by teachers.
Ma (2009) conducted a study with EFL instructors in order to uncover their beliefs and thoughts about vocabulary teaching strategies. The study involved EFL instructors from a Chinese University and the findings have revealed out that most of the instructors reported encouraging the students for frequent reading for vocabulary learning unlike the few participants who suggested rote memorization techniques for vocabulary teaching. They detailed rote memorization as memory repetition using bilingual sources. When the participants were asked about employing rhyming and imagery requiring high level cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, these strategies were reported as less favored by most participants. In another study by Kiliçkaya & Krajka (2010b), most common vocabulary teaching strategies, utilized by EFL teachers, were found as word lists, using flashcards and online dictionaries. Accordingly, the previous studies have disclosed that vocabulary teaching could be enhanced by means of student-centered strategies and extending the variety of these strategies (Chieh, 2006; Oxford, 1990; Allum, 2002; Chamot, 1999).
To sum up, teachers have mostly showed the tendency to implement traditional vocabulary teaching strategies in EFL classes and even to leave students by themselves in vocabulary learning process while Nation (2005) put the stress on the student centered strategies for vocabulary teaching.
Henceforth, this chapter will involve vocabulary teaching strategies of EFL Teachers, FATIH Project in Turkey and Teachers' Perceptions about using Quizlet / CALL in vocabulary teaching. All the sections will be related to the studies on the literature.
Turkish education system introduced technology as soon as the people started to use technology in social life. As for the communication technology, Turkey started to broadcast first through radio in 1927 an education Center with radio was established in 1962. Educational programs for the students were broadcasted by this center (Akkoyunlu & Imer, 1999). Ministry of National Education (MoNE) of Turkey started to use computers in secondary schools in 1984 (Akbaba-Altun, 2006).
After the mid-1990s, Turkey has started to increase the investment on integration of educational technologies in the schools. Accordingly, Basic Education Program (BEP) was initiated in Turkey by loaning 300 million dollars from World Bank, and it was the most comprehensive educational program in those years (Özdemir & Kılıç, 2007). The first phase of BEP was executed between 1998 and 2003. In that aspect, MoNE began to equip the schools with Information Technology classes, computers and other information technology tools were given to the schools both in urban and rural areas (OECD, 2005, p. 54). The secondary phase of BEP was executed between 2003 and 2010, and it was targeted at placing the educational technology infrastructure in the vocational and technical secondary schools (Özdemir & Kılıç, 2007).
The second movement of educational technology in Turkey was started in 2012 with FATIH project, which is an acronym for “The Movement for Increasing Opportunities and Enhancing Technology”. This project appears to bring revolutionary movements in the history of integration of educational technologies. FATIH project intended to equip all the schools with technological materials like multifunctional printers, Interactive White Board (IWB) and students and teachers with Tablet PCs. This can be interpreted as being inspired by the importance of equality in education (Bandura, 1997).
The website of FATIH project declares that it is composed of 5 basic components as listed below:
As for the studies related to FATIH project, Sayır (2014) investigated the attitudes of teachers and students. The study has dealt with the attitudes of teachers and students towards IWBs in EFL context. Both students and teachers have reported that IWBs boost their motivation and enable students and teachers to learn and teach English more efficiently. In accordance with the results of this study, Kızılet (2016) conducted a study composed of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and the participants were students and teachers of English at an uppergrade secondary school. The results of the study have highlighted that both students and teachers developed positive attitudes towards FP (FATIH Project); students opted for using the e-content not only in the school but also outside the school. English teachers also reported similar attitudes towards IWBs while they did not favor the use of Tablet Pcs.
Upon reviewing the literature on the effects of CALL on teaching / learning English, most of the studies have been found out to focus on the perceptions and attitudes of teachers towards the use of CALL, more frequently than perceptions and attitudes of students (Alshwairkh, 2004; Eyyam et al., 2010; Genç, 2011; Hismanoğlu, 2010; Işık, 2009; Johnson & Heffernan, 2006; Ma & Kelly, 2006; Pekel, 2002; Bakla & Çekiç, 2017). A short review of the literature indicates that integration of CALL was deemed as advantageous in terms of flexibility, independence of time and place, attracting the learners' needs and interests, and recurring practices (Alm, 2008; Yang, 1998; Ahmad et al., 1985).
Regarding the attitudes of ELT teachers towards the use of computer technology in English language teaching, Karakaya (2010) conducted a qualitative study, collecting data from ELT teachers all around Turkey within the fullfilment of master arts degree. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to the teachers and findings of both interviews and questionnaires have indicated that the teachers developed positive attitudes towards technology integration in language teaching but not similar attitudes towards use of technology in language instruction. The participants attributed discrepancy to the lack of competency of integrating technology into language classes. Moreover, Albirini (2004) carried out a study to determine the attitudes of Syrian EFL teachers towards technology integration. The findings from a mixed metholodolgy used in the study have indicated that the teachers held optimistic attitudes towards the use of ICT tools in language classes.
Correspondingly, Arkin (2003) focused on the attitudes of English language instructors in Turkey. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to 93 instructors; data analysis has revealed that the teachers showed eagerness and positive perceptions towards the use technology integration into the language classes. Interestingly, this study has also reported that teachers are mostly prone to integrated technology for instructional goals rather than suggestions and expectations of CALL. Accordingly, Akcaoglu (2007) conducted a study in order to determine why and how preservice and inservice teachers use technology in language teaching, and it was found out that teachers showed the tendency to employ technology tools as teacher tools rather than student tools. Tuzcuoglu (2000) carried out one of the initial studies in Turkey regarding the attitudes of teachers towards ICT integration into language classes in Eskişehir sample. The findings of that study also concluded that teachers held positive attitudes towards technology use in language teaching.
In a comprehensive study, Rafiee & Purfallah (2014) handled the perceptions of teachers towards CALL integration. All the participants were EFL teachers from 7 junior high schools in Azerbaijani. The questionnaires administered to the teachers have revealed that the teachers perceived CALL integration as motivating the students, enjoyable, as well as saving time and efforts of the teachers. The teachers also agreed that CALL integration just addressed to the needs and interests of students.
Taking a detailed study on the effects of CALL on teachers' perceptions, Ozerol (2009) administered questionnaires to 60 EFL teachers and interviews to 21 EFL teachers in Turkey. Both the quantitative and qualitative findings of the study have pointed out that the teachers developed positive perceptions towards CALL integration regarding attraction to the students' needs and interests, efficient teaching / learning, aiding learning with audio-visual materials, making learning enjoyable for students, increasing motivation, and boosting pronunciation (Torlaković & Deugo, 2004).
As one of the most common advantages of computerized education, Devi (2005. p. 18) highlights “increased motivation, low anxiety, removal of affective filters”. Computer integration into education was also found out to provide the learners with the opportunity to boost their selfesteem, occupational readiness and language abilities (Dunkel, 1990). Motivation was also reported as a common finding in studies dealing with the effects of using computer integration by means of online wikis, blogs and audio-visual materials (Alm, 2008). Kim (2008) carried out a study with 10 teachers who were also graduate students in Cleveland University, and computer or CALL integration was mostly reported as a primary motivator among students. Accordingly Dashtestani (2013) conducted a comprehensive study involving both EFL learners and teachers to determine the effects of online vocabulary dictionaries. The findings of both the teachers and the students have indicated that online dictionaries primarily increased the motivation of students through a strong emphasize on the individualized learning mechanism available in softwares. Motivation was reported by teachers as a common advantage of CALL integration regarding time and location barriers for teaching, students learning and fear-free learning environment, promoting individualized learning (Mohsen & Shafeeq, 2014; Shin & Son, 2007; Bakla & Çekiç, 2017; Yousefzadeh, 2011).
As implicated in relation to motivation, independence of time and place, flexible teaching / learning and individualized setting within the realm of teachers' perceptions towards CALL integration, learner autonomy was also seen as a recurring benefit deriving from CALL integration in the literature. Dashtestani (2013) found out teachers' positive perceptions about CALL integration revolving around interactivity, accessibility of teaching / learning material, boosting learner-autonomy which were frequently reported by the participant teachers. Learner anatomy was also found as an outstanding contribution suggested by university teachers teaching EFL at a university in Bangladesh (Rahman, 2013). Rahman (2013) directly investigated the relation between learner autonomy and CALL integration referring to teachers' and students responses, and reached at that learner autonomy as for goal-setting, self-assessment, tracking progress and self-reliance of students. The review of the literature has also indicated learner autonomy as one of the common benefits of CALL integration in several studies (Park & Son 2009; Golonka et al., 2014; Al-Seghayer, 2016; Bakla & Çekiç, 2017; Yousefzadeh, 2011).
Being the target of one of the research questions of this study, the relation between CALL integration and development of any language skill has also been handled in the previous studies (Li, 2010; Nomass, 2013). İnce (2017) has disclosed that the teachers reported that CALL integration reinforced development of various skills in EFL classes. Listening and speaking were the common skills to be boosted by computerized teaching in that study. However, Kim (2008) has suggested that all the four language skills were not reported by teachers to be equally supported by CALL. Kim (2008) ascertained that CALL empowered the development of listening the most, but writing and speaking the least. Park & Son (2009) also tackled with the relation of any language skill development and CALL integration. The results of the study has uncovered that writing was opted by the teachers as the most sustained skill via CALL integration. In accordance with the suggestions by Park & Son (2009), it is also common in the literature that CALL has been found out to influence the development of English Language Learners' (ELL) writing positively regarding the fluency, accuracy and motivation for this skill (Fidaoui et al., 2010; Jafarian et al., 2012; Farrah & Tushyeh, 2010). Fidaoui et al. (2010) handled both teachers and students' perceptions toward the effects of CALL on the development of writing skill at an elementary level in a Lebanese context. After a three months period of study with the observations, interviews and questionnaires, both students and teachers reported the common view that CALL mediated the development of writing skill, boosting the positive perceptions toward CALL integration. Similar findings were also reached at a high-school level in Iran by Jafarian et al., (2012). In their study, experimental group students using CALL outweighed the control group students who didn't use CALL for writing, and both instructors and students revealed the motivational effect of CALL for written work. Farrah & Tushyeh (2010) also uncovered similar findings in a study involving university students in Hebron, Palestine. The researchers employed an experimentation and disclosed that reading and writing skills were the two skills mostly sustained by CALL integration, and favorable attitudes from both students and teachers were commonly reported.
Shortly, CALL was found to give rise to an increase in the positive perceptions of teachers in the light of the abovementioned studies in this chapter. The surveys and interviews administered to the students and teachers indicated pedagogical suggestions about how to provide the students with strategies and techniques to learn the vocabulary. The previous studies also suggested that CALL was mostly reported by teachers as increasing the motivation of the students by promoting learning autonomy, developing any language skills to some extent and bringing enthusiasm in EFL / ESL classes. As for the instrument used in this study, the previous research on Quizlet showed that Quizlet enabled the students to recall and retain vocabulary more effectively than traditional tools and methods. This study seems to shed light on the intersection between the strategies suggested by former studies and the learners' perceptions, and preferred tasks and activities available on Quizlet rather than just proving the effect on word recognition.
This study has employed a mixed research design. As a quantitative research, the survey of teachers' perceptions on quizlet was administered to the teachers. For the qualitative research, focus group interviews were implemented with 10 teachers. Below are the parts the methodology of the study for piloting the participants involved in the research, detailed organization of implementation and data collection procedure and tools employed in the whole study.
The participants were 50 EFL teachers from different cities of Turkey. These teachers were employed in public secondary schools, and they were teaching to 8 graders at the time of the study. The teachers were asked to declare their consent in written for taking part in the study. During the study, the teachers used the common and public quizlet sets prepared by the researchers. Teachers were chosen randomly on a nation-wide Facebook group, English Bee, which is a favorite Facebook group among Turkish EFL teachers in Turkey. Most of the posts and sharing in the th group are related to the curriculum of 8 Grade. Totally, the study involved 50 teachers, and 10 of these teachers were male and 40 were female.
This study administered a survey of perceptions to 50 teachers, and a focal group interview was also given to 10 of these teachers. The survey and the interview were administered to the teachers after a 10 week experimentation period.
The survey prepared by the researchers was composed of only 1 section. It involved 3 open-ended questions, 1 multiple choice item and 4 check-box items, making a total of 8 items in the survey. The survey was prepared on Google Forms, and it was delivered to the teachers online (See the Appendice 1, Survey on Teachers' Perceptions). The survey was firstly piloted to 50 teachers who didn't take part in the study, and pilot results were given to SPSS statistics regarding reliability and it was found to be .79.
The researcher finally conducted focus group interviews with 10 teachers taking part in the study and giving their responses in the survey of perceptions. The interview included a detailed discussion of teachers' responses in the survey. Before its implementation, a piloting of the focus group interview with one colleague out of the participants was conducted to get detailed insights into the teachers' perceptions of Quizlet effects on vocabulary teaching. Below are the samples of interview questions:
Quizlet, the target tool of this study, is mostly used by teachers and students as flashcards platform to teach / learn vocabulary effectively. Both teachers and students can prepare the vocabulary sets as flashcards and share these sets with millions of people all around the world. Teachers can also create classes, include their own flashcard sets in these classes and add their students into these classes and enable their students to study vocabulary by themselves at their individualized pace via the following tasks categorized as “study” and “play” mode (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Quizlet Main Panel
This study was carried out in October and early December in 2018 for a 10 week period. The participants were chosen and their consent forms were taken via email by the researcher with a declaration of the study in early September, and they were given online training by the researcher, and these trainings included tutorials on how to use Quizlet in EFL classes for vocabulary teaching. Before the actual study, 50 teachers were asked to use Quizlet for 2 weeks as a test period in case of any problems with the implementation process. The experimentation period started in the first week of October and ended in the second week of December. Participants used Quizlet adding their students to their online classes and tracked their students' progress reports individually and class-wise. They could also reach at the class performance for each vocabulary set. While the survey was conducted online, interviews were arranged via WhatsApp audio calls. The audio calls were recorded by using voice recorder tool of Windows PC.
The findings of the survey and interviews were analyzed separately. Firstly, the survey of perceptions was analyzed with the aim of discovering the perceptions of teachers towards quizlet effects on vocabulary teaching. The responses of teachers for multiple choice and checkbox items were analyzed in terms of frequency and arithmetic means. The responses of teachers for open-ended items in the surveys and the focal interviews, which were conducted in the light of the survey responses by teachers, were analyzed through descriptive analysis. The responses were categorized and concrete examples out of focus group interviews were presented under categories.
This part will include the results of the study as for the responses out of the survey of perceptions of teachers on Quizlet and detailed interview findings based on the responses is given in the survey.
This part shows the results of the survey of perceptions of the teachers on Quizlet use regarding vocabulary teaching. In addition to the survey, the researcher implemented focus group interview with 10 teachers who completed the survey and were volunteers to give detailed responses about their choices. Focus group interviews intended to obtain deeper insights of teachers' responses for the items in the survey, so that interviewees were asked to respond the survey questions in more details. This section also gives information about the findings of the interviews regarding the questions in the survey.
This section includes the quantitative results of survey regarding the items 2,4,6,7,8. These items required the participants to opt the choices according to their Quizlet use experiences. These items were analyzed regarding the frequency. Except item 2, the participants could circle more than 1 choice.
As Table 1 shows, most of the teachers responded “Yes” for Item 2 asking whether they agree on that Quizlet students learn vocabulary (F=45). 90% of the teachers think that Quizlet helps learners develop their vocabulary.
Table 1. Frequency Analysis of Teachers' Responses for Item 2
Table 2 reveals that all teachers favor Matching (F=50) as the best Quizlet activity followed by Spell (F=40) and Test (F=40) respectively. Teachers lastly favored Live (F=5) followed by Write (F=15) and Learn (F=20) consecutively.
Table 2. Frequency Analysis of Teachers' Responses for Item 4
As seen on Table 3, all the teachers think that Quizlet (F=50) increases motivation. Most of the teachers also think that Quizlet integrates vocabulary learning with entertainment and enables the students with individual paced learning (F=45). Teachers lastly regard the evaluation according to the individual performance (F=5) rather than comparison, followed by tracking individual progress, lowering the anxiety respectively (F=10), (F=35).
Table 3. Frequency Analysis of Teachers' Responses for Item 6
As Table 4 illustrates, teachers' responses for Item 7 which reveals that Quizlet enables which one(s) attractive for vocabulary learning. Word recognition (F=50) is reported with the highest frequency, followed by Pronunciation (F=35), Writing (F=30) and Word Use (F=30) respectively.
Table 4. Frequency Analysis of Teachers' Responses for Item 7
Table 5 illustrates the responses of the teachers for item 8. 3 language skills, Reading (F=40) and Writing (F=40) have been reported to have equal frequency. Speaking (F=10) has been found out to have the lowest frequency. Based on these frequency rates, teachers think that speaking is not sustained by Quizlet as much as the other skills are.
Table 5. Frequency Analysis of Teachers' Responses for Item 8
The Qualitative results of teachers' surveys and interviews were analyzed via descriptive analysis. The common themes out of the detailed responses of teachers were coded as effects, advantages and limitations. The analysis of responses of survey and interview has found out the following categories as effects, advantages and limitations referring to concrete examples out of teachers' responses.
The teachers responding in the survey generally stated motivation, individual paced learning, enjoying vocabulary learning, diversity of activities and flexible learning. This is th st the 6 item in the survey and 1 item of the interview worded as “What are the prominent effects of Quizlet on Students' vocabulary learning” dealing with the ideas of teachers about Quizlet effects on teachers' vocabulary teaching and students' learning. Upon asking the details of their statements for this open-ended question, 10 teachers also suggested the positive effect of CALL, here Quizlet, on the emergence of learner autonomy and they all supported these primary effects of Quizlet like referring to original sentences by interviewees.
T1: Students enjoy using Quizlet and they do not need to apply other classical methods like writing with pencil; particularly matching activity attracts them. Diversity of games also attracts the students
T2: Students are not dependent upon the class program to study vocabulary thanks to Quizlet and this increases their motivation.
T4: Students can control the type of activities and choose the number and type of questions
T2: Students learn the meanings of the words more quickly than they did before
T5: Students can hear the pronunciation of the words whenever they want since Quizlet provides pronunciation in almost all activities.
T7: Students' control of their individual performance and Quizlet settings in all the activities enable them to build their autonomy on vocabulary learning. T8: Students can choose the type of test questions and they can even choose the words to be practiced, this is the Effect 1: individual control
T4: My students mostly do not go out in the breaks because they wait for their turn to play matching
T1: IWBs provided my students have the experience of gamification while using Quizlet for vocabulary learning, a gift of FATIH project.
The third item in the survey and the second question in interview which is open-ended deal with the ideas of teachers about advantages of Quizlet compared to classical materials and methods. 10 teachers revealed the primary profits of Quizlet over traditional methods and materials as attraction for digital natives, more enjoyable memorization, interactive learning to practice the words, diversity of the activities, support for individual learning and continuous repetition. The sample statements by teachers to boost these advantages are below:
T5: These students are crazy about technology and they are digital natives and digital kids T7: Our students are more interested in technology than we are, as teachers.
T3: In the past, we could not memorize the words and we used different methods like word boxes etc. but Quizlet enables memorization amusing T6: Quizlet doesn't promote rote memorization but a different nature of memorization
T1: Students can set the activities according to their performance and system gives immediate feedback
T4: My students mostly enjoyed the chance to track their individual progresses according to their performances
T2: Students can choose the activity among Flashcards, Test, Learn, Matching, Gravity, Spell, Write etc
T9: Students can spend longer time while practicing the words and they may never become bored even after several hours
T6: Quizlet provides the learners with the option to reinforce previously learned or missed words according to their individual progress. Learners can also decide on what they will practice with their selected activity.
T8: When students study vocabulary on Quizlet, as teachers we do not need to spend time on vocabulary learning, at least for spelling and pronunciation
T8: Students can see all the words in different activities more than once.
T3: Students may become more motivated to write the words more accurately as they frequently face the words
The fifth item in the survey and the third question in interview deal with the ideas of teachers about limitations of Quizlet. This is an open-ended question, and 40 teachers in the survey reported and 10 teachers in the interview argued limitations of Quizlet in details as: technology problems, health risk, the likelihood of incorrect spelling, speaking, limitation to pronunciation, recognition and writing and of context. The respondents reported the following statements for these limitations.
T1: Some students do not have PC or mobile devices and internet connection at their homes.
T3: Students can misuse the permission to use computers or mobile devices, from their parents.
T6: Students can also prepare flashcard sets of vocabulary and these sets are used by other students.
T2: Students cannot test their fluency and speaking performance.
T8: Students cannot use the learned words in sentence level. They are just pronouncing, writing the words, this means that they are just recognizing the words.
T8: Students are not given any context to see and use the words. Target words should also be given in the context
This section indicates the discussion of the findings from this study regarding the previous studies mentioned in the conceptual framework. Each research question included in this study will be handled one by one in the light of qualitative and quantitative findings.
This study has shown that almost all teachers were convinced of that Quizlet helped them teach vocabulary easily according to their responses both in the survey and focus group interviews. As the detailed interview responses suggested, teachers reported their introduction with a systematic approach for vocabulary teaching regarding creating their own vocabulary sets to teach, while tracking students in terms of their progress. In relation to the previous studies mentioned in the literature review, this study mostly seems to converge with the suggestions by Ozerol (2009) like flexible learning environment, low-level anxiety, authentic and visual aids, attracting the students and increasing motivation. “Integrating vocabulary learning with entertainment” can also be found in correlation with finding CALL integration as “enjoyable” by Rafiee & Purfallah (2014). Particularly, individual paced learning and tracking individual progress were reported as the common benefits of CALL integration (Kiliçkaya & Krajka, 2010b; Yousefzadeh, 2011). The same emphasis on individual learning for students was also significantly reported in relation to learner autonomy by Bakla and Çekiç (2017). These findings agree with the studies carried out by Albirini (2004), Tuzcuoglu (2000), and Arkin (2003) pointing out positive perceptions of teachers toward technology integration. However, the suggestion of the study appeared in contradiction with that of Karakaya (2010) which found similar findings as for teachers' perceptions stating that teachers did not report positive perceptions for their own use of technology due to the lack of their competency.
Descriptive analysis and thematic coding of teacher interviews have revealed that teachers would allocate time to other language learning skills like speaking, writing etc. as students could already control their own vocabulary development. Teachers reported that they could allot more time to practice the vocabulary particularly for higher tasks like using the words in sentential level. To give details, teachers reported that Quizlet enabled the teachers to make their students recognize words, practice the pronunciation, writing, reading and listening. More than half of the participants indicated that Quizlet helped them to leave more space for their students to practice all four language skills: reading, writing, listening and even speaking. As İnce (2017) has suggested that CALL integration enhanced various language skill development, this study went hand by hand with the previous studies (Kim, 2008; Park & Son 2009). The most striking finding which was reported similarly in both survey and focus group interviews was that teachers' favored “speaking” as the least to be sustained by Quizlet in the survey and it was also recurring in the focus group interviews. It was a common finding that teachers reported “speaking” was not aided by Quizlet among the focus group respondents. Regarding speaking skill development, this study is congruent with the similar findings by Kim (2008). The results of this study have yielded the positive effects on fostering the skills of listening, writing and reading, and particularly influences on writing and reading which coincide with the studies by Fidaoui et al., 2010; Jafarian et al., 2012; Farrah & Tushyeh, 2010. Particularly, Fidaoui et al., (2010) suggested CALL integration aroused the motivation for writing and it has been the widely-reported and confirmed by findings of this study. Nonetheless, this study fell into contradiction with Kim (2008) suggesting writing as the least supported by CALL. Additionally, it doesn't appear as a surprising finding of this study since it converges to some extent with that of Li (2010) who suggested computer mediated teaching mostly reinforces reading, compared to other skills. The focus group interview shed a great deal of light on the options of teachers for the effects of Quizlet on the development of language skills. While teachers preferred reading, writing and listening equally in the survey, Quizlet was found not going beyond the writing according to the detailed responses in the interviews, which partially correlates with CALL which was regarded to empower reading and writing (Nomass, 2013; Park & Son 2009). Teachers also seemed to agree on Quizlet rarely promoted the use of vocabulary in sentential level on one hand. On the other hand, most of the teachers reported agreement on the positive effect of Quizlet on vocabulary pronunciation. These suggestions were in positive relation to that of Li (2010) which showed computer mediated teaching enhanced receptive skills like reading.
Regarding the components of FATIH project, the observations revealed that the focus group interviews have yielded that students experienced gamification when they studied vocabulary via Quizlet on IWBs. This finding is very close to the research done by Sayır (2014) in order to determine the perceptions of teachers and students regarding CALL. The responses of teachers for the survey and statements for the focus group interviews are congruent with the aims of FATIH project regarding the interests and needs of digital natives, students in this study. Particularly, sense of fun, user-friendly characteristic, tracking students' report and students' arranging their own study schedule, teachers' immediate access to missed or learnt words on Quizlet which forced the teachers to use IWBs more frequently than before, suggest Quizlet to their colleagues in other grades.
All in all, it can be firstly inferred from this study that Quizlet use provides the teachers with opportunities to develop flexible teaching, creates individual paced learning contexts for students, includes entertainment while teaching vocabulary, increase motivation, lower the anxiety, enhance learner autonomy and present diverse activities and tasks for students. Teachers also agree that all these benefits enhance their motivation to integrate Quizlet while teaching vocabulary to their students. Secondly, the study has also suggested that Quizlet use was found to have direct positive effects on reading, writing and listening as discussed above. Vocabulary pronunciation was also mentioned by teachers as promoted by Quizlet. Besides, Quizlet was reported to contribute to the development of speaking skill at minimum. Lastly, this study highlighted that teachers found Quizlet recommendable, compatible with the objectives of FATIH project, bringing innovations into vocabulary teaching, blending individual learning with entertainment in a non-comparative format, leaving flexible time for teachers' efforts for vocabulary teaching and creating more time for other language teaching tasks in the class.
The last research question of the study deals with the perceptions of the teachers about the effects of quizlet on motivation of the students while learning the vocabulary. The survey directly points out the motivation with the 6th item and focus group interviews along with the open-ended question about the motivation which also highlighted the positive effect of Quizlet on motivation. These results seem to have a lot in common with Devi (2005. p. 18) ascertaining that “increased motivation, low anxiety, removal of affective filters”. That teachers' reporting the eagerness of students to use Quizet appears to signify the ICT / CALL integration. Likewise, computer integration into education was also found to provide the learners with opportunity to boost their self-esteem, occupational readiness and language abilities (Dunkel, 1990; Alm, 2008; Kim, 2008; Dashtestani, 2013).
Accordingly, focus group interviews administered to 10 teachers also highlighted “the autonomous learning due to adaptable settings of Quizlet for individual preferences” related to high level of motivation among students (Torlaković & Deugo, 2004. p. 120). The responses out of focus group interviews also shed light on the effects of Quizlet on students' learner autonomy and presence of variable teaching strategies due to activity variety on Quizlet as seen in the previous studies dealing with CALL integration (Rahman, 2013; Dashtestani, 2013; Park & Son 2009; Al-Seghayer, 2016). In that aspect, teachers' perceptions are complimentary with suggestions by Chieh (2006), Nation (2005), Oxford (1990), Allum (2002) and Chamot (1999), who mostly put forward the necessity of various vocabulary teaching / learning strategies, posing the students teaching how to learn vocabulary individually. This study has also found out that teaching mechanism available in Quizlet also enabled the teachers to become more motivated towards high level vocabulary tasks in classes.
To sum up, this study has showed that teachers appeared to be strongly convinced of the positive effects of Quizlet on students' motivation for increasing the self-esteem, occupational readiness, the strength of learner autonomy and reducing the anxiet. In other words, Quizlet integration into vocabulary classes was found to encourage both teachers and students to deal with further vocabulary tasks.
This study has dealt with the perceptions of teachers towards Quizlet use in terms of CALL integration into EFL classes for vocabulary teaching under the potential effects of FATIH project. It was found that almost all the teachers taking part in the study reported positive perceptions towards Quizlet use for vocabulary teaching. The mixed research design of qualitative and quantitative methodology disclosed that teachers favoured the use of Quizlet while teaching vocabulary in attribution to its benefits like increasing students' motivation, providing individual learning mechanism for students, tracking their students' progress reports, boosting learner autonomy, keeping students independent of time and location for practice. However, the findings were in line with the previous studies regarding the direct effect of Quizlet or CALL integration in generally on the development of four language skills, reading, listening, writing and reading since both questionnaire and interview data do not have a lot in common. In other words, it doesn't seem to ascertain that Quizlet boosts all language skills equally. Lastly, Quizlet was found to serve well to address the objectives of FATIH project as suggested by this study.
In such a digitalized recent world, educational activities cannot be considered excluding the innovations of ICT technology. Most probably, needs and interests of digital natives cannot be disregarded while drafting the format of the classes, particularly for language classes since language itself is fed by the conditions and changes of this digital era. As Turkey has launched a digital revolution in schools and digital natives, students have a somewhat inborn tendency towards digital integration, digital immigrants, teachers have found themselves in such a position that they are not expected to close their teaching repertoires to technological trends. FATIH project requires teachers to take advantage of its components to the maximum extent. In that aspect, it is essential that practice and application become intertwined to each other. In other words, real class practices are expected to ground on academic findings in relation to all variables like age, gender, experience of teaching etc. A control group of teachers can also be included in the study, even international group of teachers since Quizlet is an international tool. Studies can be drafted to deal with mere effects of Quizlet on skill by skill etc.
Regarding the limitations, this study firstly excludes the age, gender, experience of teaching, graduate degree and educational background. Secondly, the participants cannot be generalized to whole teachers' population in Turkey as the study didn't focus on geographical regions of teachers. Thirdly, the study period can be extended further and even a control group of teachers can be included. Additionally, the study also limited the participants just to the teachers, maybe both students and teachers can be involved at a longer period study. Lastly, the participants were just restricted to the teachers who were expected to focus on vocabulary in their classes due to the exam-driven program led by curriculum.