The impact of storyline method on teen's attitude towards EFL

Throughout the language education history, great numbers of teaching methods, approaches and applications had been suggested and experimented with the attempt of presenting a guideline to both the language teachers and the learners to achieve the goal of teaching/learning language effectively. In 1967, Storyline method, a specific pedagogical application of task-based language teaching, emerged in Scotland as the result of the studies of a group of academics in Jordanhill College of Education. Albeit its authenticity, practicality, and meaningfulness, the method has received limited attention so far. The current study aims to investigate this relatively unrecognized approach and its impact on the students' attitudes towards EFL classes. The study also intends to explore the students' perceptions of Storyline method. With this purpose the study was conducted involving 7th grade students (15 female and 9 male: 24 in total) at a private secondary school in Sakarya, Turkey. Moreover, the study was carried out in the light of the stages of an action research and conducted as a case study. For triangulation of the data, quantitative results were supported by the qualitative data. The data were collected by means of a pre-test and a post-test (student attitude towards EFL), and a semi-structured open-ended interview. In the quantitative data analysis, means and standard deviations of the responses to the scale items were calculated. Paired sample t-test was utilized to demonstrate whether the students' attitudes towards English subject showed any significant difference in pre and post-test results. The qualitative data were interpreted in the light of thematic coding. The findings revealed that the students' overall attitudes towards EFL lessons, the features and importance of English subject and the teacher's style did not show any significant difference. On the other hand, student's attitudes towards the content of the lessons showed a significant difference after the implementation of Storyline method. Interview responses showed that most of the students found Storyline method "enjoyable" and "collaborative", but some disliked "group work".