Effectiveness of implementing breakout rooms in online reading lessons in EFL classes: Reading achievement and students' perspectives

This present research aims to evaluate the efficacy of reading sessions with breakout rooms for collaborative teaching in a preparatory school English reading course. The study was conducted with participants from two distinct intact courses from a preparatory school at a foundation university in Turkey. The purpose of the study was to determine the perspectives of the learners, whether using breakout rooms to be helpful and motivating for their reading development and to see if there would be any changes in their post scores after the experiment. In a total of nine weeks, which covers one module for students, control (N=16) and experimental (N=21) group students were assessed on their performance in reading levels. For that, the triangulation method was used. The quantitative aspect included the participants' pre and post-tests, which were later analysed via SPSS. The qualitative aspect dealt with the perspectives of the participants toward use of breakout rooms in reading classes via semi-structured interviews with students. During this period, the materials used were provided by the university and the book is covered online. The experimental group was exposed to breakout rooms where they worked in groups to complete the given activities by the teacher researcher for five weeks, whereas the control group went through the activities and lessons in the online platform without breakout rooms or collaborative ways, doing the activities on their own after listening and reading the text. The results of the study found that the experimental group had mainly positive attitudes and perspectives towards the use of breakout rooms in the online sessions and had higher achievement in their post scores compared to their pre-tests and the control group's post-tests.