The use of EBA (Education Information Network) in teaching vocabulary and grammar to efl young learners

In our rapidly changing world, technology and the Internet have created new and important opportunities to foster foreign language learning. Digital technologies used in language education have enabled students to improve communication and collaboration skills in a student-centered environment. In parallel with these developments, educators and researchers have shown a growing interest in online tools and platforms to evaluate learning through online studies in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the effects of online follow-up activities conducted through EBA, a digital learning platform, on student success and to identify EFL young learners' perceptions and attitudes towards these activities. For the study conducted in 2019-2010 education year, 32 4th grade students (aged 7-8) at a primary school in Muğla were selected as participants and divided into two groups as experimental (N=17) and control (N=15) groups. During the 7 weeks process, the experimental group performed online follow-up activities while the control group followed traditional ones. To meet the objectives of this study adopting embedded mixed method design, data were gathered quantitatively from vocabulary and grammar achievement test applied as pre-test, post-test and delayed test, and qualitatively from semi-structured student interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 programme with independent and paired samples t-tests, and qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings revealed that the levels of vocabulary and grammar achievement and retention of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group; however, these results were not statistically significant. On the other hand, the findings from the delayed tests showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than their post-tests unlike the control group i.e. traditional activities were not efficient in retention of language items as much as online activities. The qualitative data results indicated that online activities affected their ideas about English positively and EBA created an enjoyable learning atmosphere for young learners.