İngilizce öğretmeni adaylarının sosyal medya aracılığıyla dil öğremine yönelik tutumlarının belirlenmesi üzerine bir karma yöntem çalışması

Considering the popularity of Social Media (SM) in every field, including language learning and the importance of the attitudes of pre-service EFL teachers in their language learner personas, this study aims to explore the attitudes of pre-service EFL teachers towards language learning through SM. With this aim, to provide a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the research topic, an explanatory sequential mixed-method design which integrates qualitative and quantitative data was implemented. Hence, to collect data, initially, a standardized questionnaire with several categories designed specifically for exploring the attitudes of pre-service EFL teachers was answered by 188 pre-service EFL teachers from the ELT department of a public university in Turkey. Next, the interview part which was determined by the results of the questionnaire was carried out with 11 of those participants. The results of the quantitative part analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics indicated that the majority of the participants had strong positive attitudes towards language learning through social media specifically towards receptive skills and vocabulary development. Furthermore, gender was not a determining factor for the attitudes of the pre-service teachers in this regard. Additionally, those who utilized SM more frequently had more affirmative attitudes compared to other users. Evaluated through content analysis, the results of the interviews, on the other hand, yielded several underlying reasons for the findings of the quantitative part. Based on these outcomes, the present study puts forward invaluable justifications for curriculum designers and teacher educators to provide more room for SM for language development of pre-service EFL teachers.