The effect of Padlet on writing skills and attitude in teaching Turkish as a foreign language

For centuries, individuals have needed language to both communicate and pass on their culture to future generations. Over time, the need to learn foreign languages was felt in societies that wanted to learn the languages, cultures and lives of different individuals. Many different methods have been used to accelerate and facilitate the learning process in foreign language teaching. Advancing technology has been the factor that most affects the foreign language teaching process, and many technology-based applications have emerged in order to improve the four basic language skills of the learners and to make the lessons more effective. Web 2.0 tools in particular have had great importance in foreign language teaching. Technology and web tools are also used for different purposes in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. It has become an important need to use web tools in order to develop the writing skills, which is not popular in teaching Turkish as a foreign language, which is one of the most difficult language skills to acquire and is the latest learned compared to other language skills. There are different web tools used to improve writing skills in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. One of these tools, "Padlet", is an online writing board application that provides collaborational learning. There are many studies that reveal the effect of the use of Padlet on learners' writing skills and attitudes in foreign language teaching. When the the findings in previous researches are examined, no study has been found examining the effect of the use of Padlet on the writing skills and attitude of learners in teaching Turkish as a foreign language and investigating how this effect is. In this context, in the research, "What and how is the effect of Padlet's writing skill and attitude in teaching Turkish as a foreign language?" It is intended to look for an answer to the question. For this purpose, mixed research method was used in the research. In the quantitative research section of the study, the effect of Padlet use on the writing skills and attitude of those who learn Turkish as a foreign language was measured by an experimental research. The experimental and control group of the research consisted of a total of 30 students who learned Turkish as a foreign language at B2 level. The "Writing Skill Assessment Preliminary Test" and "Writing Skill Evaluation Final Test" developed by the researcher as data collection tools of the study and Melanlıoğlu's (2021) "Writing Attitude Scale for Those Who Learn Turkish as a Foreign Language" were used. The data obtained were analyzed with the SPSS program. In the qualitative research part of the study, the case study pattern was used. The study group of the research consisted of 15 learners. The research data were collected through the 'Padlet Effectiveness Evaluation Form' developed by the researcher. The obtained data were analyzed by content analysis. At the end of the research, it was determined that the use of Padlet in teaching Turkish as a foreign language had a positive effect on the writing skills of the students, but when the writing skills of the experimental group and the control group were compared, this positive effect did not make a significant difference between the groups. In addition, in the research, it was found that the use of Padlet had a positive effect on the writing attitude of those who learn Turkish as a foreign language. It was observed that this positive effect on the writing attitude made a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group. When it was examined what kind of effect this positive effect was determined for writing skills and attitudes within the scope of the research, 3 different themes were revealed based on the views of those who learned Turkish as a foreign language. These themes are 'Features related to writing', 'Features related to the format of the application' and 'Features related to the use of the application' themes. A total of 31 sub-themes were identified for the themes determined based on the learner's opinions. The most sub-theme belongs to the theme "easy use of the application". Among the sub-themes obtained from the study, the learners mostly expressed their views on the sub-themes of "being instructive about writing" and "instructor's quick feedback".