The effect of linking theory based English curriculum on 10th grade students' academic achievement, retention and metacognitive awareness levels for English lesson

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of English curriculum, designed based on the Linking Theory developed by Tennyson and Rasch (1988), on the academic success of 10th grade students in English, retention in learning and cognitive awareness levels. In this mixed method research, the nested mixed research design was used, in which quantitative and qualitative research methods were used simultaneously. In the quantitative part of this research, which was organized according to the mixed method, a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test control group was used, and a case study was used in the qualitative part. Before the main implementation, a pilot implentation was carried out in tenth grade in a public school and feedback was received for the main implementation. The main study group of the research consists of two different tenth grade students determined as the experimental and control groups. While the designed curriculum based on the Linking theory was implemented to the experimental group, the current curriculum supported by worksheets was implemented to the control group. English Achievement Test, English Skill Exams and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory were applied as a pre-test before the implementation, a post-test after the of the implementation and a retention test five weeks after the implementation of the curriculum. While the curriculum was being implemented, the students wrote their feelings, thoughts and evaluations in their reflective journals. The researcher and a different foreign language teacher participated in the teaching process in the experimental group as observers. In addition, field notes were taken by the observer. After the implementation of the curriculum, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students in the experimental group. The data in the study were collected through mixed research method. Quantitative data was collected with measurement tools, and qualitative data was collected with a triangulation strategy. Quantitative data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA to determine the intergroup differences. Qualitative data were analyzed using content and descriptive analysis techniques. According to the research findings, it was observed that there was a statistically significant increase in the academic achievement, English language skills and cognitive awareness levels of the students in the experimental group in which activities based Linking Theory were applied. In addition, activities based on Linking Theory aroused curiosity in students and made the lesson fun and enjoyable. It can be said that students' thoughts and behaviors regarding the curriculum carried out with an instructional design based on Linking Theory are positive.