The use of digital stories to develop listening skills in the elementary school fourth grade Turkish course

Listening plays an important role in individuals' daily and education lives. Listening skills are acquired and develop naturally at preschool period. An effective mother tongue education at school makes it possible to raise students who can comprehend, synthesize and evaluate what they listen. Despite its critical role in language acquisition and effective communication, listening in educational environments does not get enough emphasize and is generally neglected. For this reason, it is necessary that listening skills should be focused and developed in Turkish course in elementary education and that new, authentic and different methods should be used to develop listening skills. One of these methods is to use digital stories. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of digital stories on developing listening skills of fourth grade elementary school students in Turkish course. The study was designed in embedded experimental design in mixed methods and was conducted in 4/D and 4/E classes in an elementary school in the city of Eskisehir in the spring semester of the 2014-2015 school year. While the 4/E class was appointed as experiment group, 4/D class was appointed as the control group in the study. During the 8-week implementation process, Turkish lessons were conducted using digital stories and activities were designed depending on the digital stories. While the lesson plans were put into action by the classroom teacher, the researcher observed the process. The research data were gathered through a listening comprehension test, a listening attitude scale, teacher and student interviews, observations, learner materials, student and researcher journals. In order to analyze the quantitative data obtained in the study, t test was used for the listening comprehension test, while Mann-Whitney U test was used for the listening attitude scale, respectively. On the other hand, in order to analyze qualitative data, descriptive analysis was conducted for the other. The findings obtained in the study were interpreted depending on the aims of the study. Depending on the findings of the study, the results are as follows: • When the scores in listening comprehension posttest of both the experimental and control groups were compared, it was found out that there was statistically meaningful difference. Accordingly, the use of digital stories in Turkish course developed the listening comprehension skills of the students in the experimental group. • When the scores in listening attitude scale posttest of both the experimental and control groups were compared, it was found out that there was statistically meaningful difference. The listening activities relying on digital stories had a positive effect for students in the experimental group to develop positive attitude towards listening. • Within the scope of activities based on digital stories, the students did activities to activate their prior knowledge, set the listening aim and work on key words. During the visual reading activities, both the teacher and the students utilized such resources as the pictures of the digital stories, information technologies, newspapers and magazines. It was observed that such activities made it possible for students to comprehend and make sense of what they listened. It was also observed in self-expression activities that the students tried to produce oral and written productions which had logical unity, cause and effect relations, and coherent line in events. However, the students were not able to present the expected speaking skills in speaking activities. Some of the visual presentation activities were conducted within speaking or writing activities. In visual presentation activities, the students drew pictures, wrote slogans, participated in role-playings. During these activities, the students were observed to use information technologies, visuals or realia suitable for their presentations. • During the listening activities based on the digital stories, students conducted activities to accomplish the listening objectives stated in Primary Education Turkish Course Teaching Program. Within the scope of these listening activities, it was observed that the students; - listened to the digital stories, the texts which were read aloud and speeches in compliance with the objectives under the heading of listening rules in the program of Turkish course for 4th year students, - used their prior knowledge, payed attention to the stress, intonation and pronunciation of the person dubbing the digital stories, comprehended and interpreted what they listened and watched by making use of the pictures of the stories, - developed their listening comprehension skills; however, they were not able to determine the main idea and find personal solutions to the problems in what they listened and watched, - had difficulty in predicting the meanings of the words during the pre-listening activities, but comprehended the meaning of those words in during and post-listening, - did attended, selective and quizzical listening; listened and watched tales, stories, songs; listened to the group and classroom discussions within the scope of the objectives under the heading of applying convenient listening type, method and techniques, - had increased motivation and developed positive attitudes in pre, during and post-listening activities. • It was observed from the interviews that both the teacher and students stated their opinions about the components of the digital stories (music, effects, sound recording, pictures, the content, etc.), the Turkish lessons and listening activities based on the digital stories. They stated that; - they liked the pictures, music, effects and sound recording used in the digital stories, - the components of the digital stories helped them to comprehend, visualize and predict what they listened and watched, - the music and effects conveyed the emotion of the digital stories, - they developed positive attitude towards Turkish lessons thanks to the activities based on the digital stories, - the level of participation, motivation in Turkish lessons and sympathy for Turkish course increased, - the listening skills developed, - they developed positive attitude towards listening. • It was also concluded from the interviews that both the teacher and the students made suggestions on the design of the digital stories in terms of music, effects, sound recording, pictures and content, the listening activities based on the digital stories and the use of digital stories in other courses. They suggested that; - the digital stories should be animated as in animated cartoons, - different voices should be used for sound recording, - the numbers of the pictures in the digital stories should be increased, - besides the written activities during the listening activities, other types of oral activities and/or drawing pictures should be included, - digital stories should be used in other courses such as Science, Mathematics, Foreign Language, Social Sciences. Key Words: Elementary School, Turkish Course, Digital Story, Listening Skills.