İlkokul öğrencileri ve velilerinin harmanlaşmış İngilizce dersleriyle ilk karşılaşmalarında yaşadıkları deneyimler

The present study investigates what blended (hybrid) English learning, the first of its kind at their school, means to the primary school students and parents. It attempts to show how primary school students and parents experience and perceive blended (hybrid) English classes especially in their first encounter, to conceptualize the most common perceived benefits, and challenges of this new experiences using Turkey as a setting with regard to the existing theoretical framework: Social Presence Theory. This thesis has been conducted to help teachers, students, and parents specifically in a primary level English language education context, to exclude or reduce the barriers and maximize the benefits of the blended (hybrid) learning approach. To this end, cross-sectional survey design, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was adopted and 147 students and 138 parents participated in this master's thesis. Data was collected through online questionnaires, calculated using SPSS program, and analyzed through descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation. The data showed that primary school students and parents were generally pleased with their blended (hybrid) English class experiences in their first encounter. They found blended (hybrid) English learning experiences to be valuable and enhance their learning, especially in critical periods such as the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the face-to-face format is perceived more positively since both students and parents believe that there are limitations and challenges of blended (hybrid) and online English classes in terms of interactions and social elements. Based on the results of this study, some implications for ELT are provided as well as suggestions for further research.