ERGENLERİN MOBİL TEKNOLOJİLERE YÖNELİK TUTUMLARI: iNGİLİZCE DERSLERİNDE WHATSAPP ÖRNEĞİ

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate teenagers'' attitudes towards the use of one of the mobile technologies, namely WhatsApp, in a language classroom. Mobile technologies include social media tools and they have a great influence on people's lives all over the world. More and more students are spending a great amount of time on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and WhatsApp. With social media tools' becoming an inevitable part of everyday life, researchers have started to investigate their use in education with many studies. With these studies in foreign language education new terms such as Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) and Mobile English Language Learning (MELL) have entered in the literature. Considering the potential benefit of social media tools in English language education and the amount of time students spend on using them, this study was carried out to explore teenagers' opinions about social media, particularly WhatsApp, to support their English lessons. The sample of the study consisted of 50 high school students who were all familiar with mobile technology tools at a private school in Turkey. Descriptive study was selected as a research method and mixed-method research design was used. A 5 point Likert-type survey specifically developed for teenagers and semi-structured interviews were employed in the study. At the end of the study, although there were also some negative remarks, it was found that students have a positive attitude towards the use of WhatsApp, as a supporting tool in English language classroom.