Information and communication technologies supported online connectivist foreign language listening skill teaching in fifth grades

While digitalization in education often progresses faster than educators can keep up with, it has been even more difficult for educators to conduct education entirely remotely due to the pandemic. Moreover, today's students are intertwined with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and this element has an important place in their lives. Therefore, the use of ICT in digitalized education seems inevitable to reach today's students. It does not seem easy for educators to adapt to this situation, and one of the main reasons for this is that learning theories are not fully compatible with this new situation. In this sense, it is aimed that the connectivist learning theory, which is put forward for an education knitted with digital networks, will guide the learning-teaching processes specific to the technology age we live in. Accordingly, this research was carried out with fifth grade students in order to determine whether it is possible to develop foreign language teaching, which is significantly affected by digital transformation in education, and especially listening skills in foreign languages, which do not receive enough attention in research, through activities based on connectivist learning theory and ICT-supported. The research that employed mix method integrated action research method and used participant and researcher diaries, interview form and listening achievement tests developed by the researcher as the data collection tools was carried out in a state secondary school in the central district of Aksaray province in the 2020-2021 academic year. According to the results of the research, activities based on the connectivist learning theory and supported by ICT were statistically significantly effective in obtaining the fifth grade listening outcomes determined by the Ministry of National Education. In addition, the participants expressed mostly positive opinions and showed a positive attitude towards such activities; it is seen that their negative thoughts are mostly related to technical problems and partially related to event design. It has been observed that the participants support their learning processes through self-direction and peer interaction through behaviors that can be evaluated within the context of connectivist learning theory.