My journey with fourth graders in search for raising interest in English courses

This dissertation is an action research study about enhancing students' interests, class engagement and promoting a positive attitude towards English in an elementary public school in Turkey in educational year of 2014-2015. Research was conducted to find answers to the question how using various activities contribute to young learners. Whole research was carried out within grounded theory. Qualitative data with different tools were gathered for triangulation. Selected short stories, rewards, TPR method, sorting hat, learning diaries, direct participatory observation and semi-structured interviews were used in the study. Students' reflections in the diaries were assessed descriptively while observations of the researcher were examined with content analysis and semi-structured interviews were analysed with 12th version of MaxQDA social science data analysis program. Various materials and activities were found to be contributing for internalizing the information easily, for increasing interest in class and for supporting interaction.