The effect of the use of Web 2.0 tools in foreign language teaching on the listening achievement and anxiety of seventh grade students: A LyricsTraining example

The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of using the LyricsTraining Web 2.0 tool in the seventh grade foreign language course on the listening achievement and anxiety of secondary school students. A quasi-experimental design with experimental and control groups, consisting of pretest, posttest and retention tests, was used in the research. The study groups consisted of secondary school students in a medium-sized province of Türkiye. The study took place in the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. Listening Achievement Test and Listening Anxiety Scale were used as data collection tools in the study. While the listening activities prepared with LyricsTraining were applied to the experimental group, the activities in the seventh grade English Textbook of the Ministry of National Education were applied to the control group. Achievement test results were evaluated by Mixed Pattern ANOVA, and anxiety scale results were evaluated by ANCOVA. According to the results of the research, when the scores of the students in the experimental group and the control group were compared in the post-test application, it was determined that there was no significant difference in favor of the experimental group. However, when the scores obtained by the students in the experimental group and the control group in the permanence test were examined, it was revealed that the training supported by LyricsTraining supported the permanence of listening skills more effectively than traditional methods in the control group. The control group showed a certain improvement in training with traditional methods, but could not make a difference in terms of permanence. Additionally, a statistically significant decrease was observed in the listening anxiety posttest scores of the experimental group. This revealed that the use of LyricsTraining had a strong effect on reducing listening anxiety. The findings show that the LyricsTraining tool contributes to the development of listening skills in terms of permanence and reduces students' anxiety levels. In this context, it is recommended that the application be carried out more frequently and at regular intervals to increase the effect of LyricsTraining.