7th grade students' use of vlogs for the development of their listening and speaking skills

In this study, the effect of using vlogs on the listening and speaking skills of 7th grade students was examined. In the study, it was aimed to prepare vlogs by 7th grade middle school students in Turkish lessons and to improve their listening and speaking skills by using these vlogs. The study group of the research consisted of students attending the 7th grade in a middle-level socio-economic state secondary school in Aydın province in the 2023-2024 academic year. An explanatory mixed design was used in the study. In the study, one of the quasi-experimental experimental models, the pretest-posttest control group experimental model was used. The experimental and control groups were administered the "Listening Comprehension Achievement Test" and "Speaking Skill Assessment Form" developed by the researcher before the experimental applications. Practices were carried out with the students in the experimental group for ten weeks, two class hours per week, in the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. A few minutes of vlogs were prepared by the students and the lessons were taught with listening activities prepared based on these vlogs. While the experimental group was applied, the control group was given a pre-test and post-test without any application. At the end of the applications, the tests presented as pre-tests were also used as post-tests to evaluate the differences between the groups. At the end of the application, the "Opinion Form for Vlog Applications" developed by the researcher was applied to obtain the opinions of the students in the experimental group about the situation. The quantitative data collected in the study were analyzed using SPSS 25 program. In the normality analysis, the Shapiro-Wilk test was applied since the experimental group and control group students were less than thirty people. It was seen that the pre-test and post-test total scores of the control group and the experimental group in both listening and speaking skills were normally distributed. Since both data groups were normally distributed, parametric tests were used to analyze the data for all sub-problems. Independent samples t-test was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the listening/watching comprehension skill pre-test scores of the experimental-control group, between the listening/watching comprehension skill difference scores of the experimental-control group, between the speaking skill pre-test scores of the experimental-control group and between the listening/watching comprehension skill difference scores of the experimental-control group. Paired samples t test was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the listening/watching comprehension skill pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group, between the listening/watching comprehension skill pre-test and post-test scores of the control group, between the speaking skill pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group, and between the speaking skill pre-test and post-test scores of the control group. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. A content analysis framework was determined for the interview form prepared to determine the students' views on the use of vlog applications in Turkish lessons, and the data obtained according to the list of themes, categories and codes were examined, coded, and brought together in a meaningful and logical way. As a result of quantitative and qualitative findings, it was seen that vlog applications were effective in terms of the development of listening and speaking skills. KEYWORDS: Listening Skills, Speaking Skills, Turkish Education, Vlog