The contributions of using key-pal as A communication tool for english as A foreign language secondary school students

This research was carried out in order to find out the contributions of key-pal in the process of learning English as a foreign language with 7th grade learners in a Turkish secondary school. The perspectives and reflections of ten secondary school students-participants about having a key-pal were also gathered in this study. Three types of instruments were used for data collection. First of all, after an initial social media interaction with their pals, the participants were interviewed via a semi-structured interview to collect the necessary data to answer the research questions. Thereafter, a further semi-structured interview was held with an English language teacher of the participants to gain a deeper understanding. Finally, notes of the researcher were used when necessary to supplement the findings. Due to the nature of the study, content analysis was used to describe the emerging themes. The classifications were shaped by the data shared by the participants, the English language teacher and the researcher. The content was then identified and the data from the various instruments was compared and cross-referenced. The findings were verified against the theory outlined in the literature review in order to identify the similarities and differences about the effects of using key-pal in the language learning process.