The effect of digital storytelling on creative writing skills in teaching Turkish to foreigners

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of digital storytelling on the development of creative writing skills of students who learn Turkish as a foreign language. In this research, it is examined whether digital storytelling contributes to creative writing skill, writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy of students who learn Turkish as a foreign language. In addition, researcher observation notes, students' opinions and products formed by the students were evaluated in the research. In the research, triangulation design was used which is one of the mixed method designs in which quantitative and qualitative data are collected and interpreted together. The quantitative dimension of the study was designed in accordance with the quasi-experimental design "pre-test and post-test control group" model; In the qualitative dimension, the phenomenology pattern, which is one of the qualitative research designs, was used. The study group of the study consists of B1 foreign students studying at Harran University TOMER. Two classes selected from TOMER were selected for the research. and experimental and control groups were determined by neutral assignment. The research was carried out with 40 students, 21 of whom were in the experimental group and 19 of whom were in the control group. The application process of the study lasted ten weeks (60 hours of lessons) and it started from B1 level to the end of B2 level. Quantitative data of the research were collected with Written Expression Grading Scale Key for Turkish language learners, Writing Anxiety Scale, Writing Skill Self Efficacy Scale and Digital Stories Evaluation Key. Qualitative data of the research were collected with "Semi-Structured Interview Form", "Personal Information Form" and researcher field notes and student products. In the quantitative data analysis of the research, Mann-Whitney U test was used to evaluate written expression skills; t-test to evaluate writing anxiety and two-way analysis of variance test for mixed measures; t-test was used to evaluate writing self-efficacy. SPSS 23.0 software was used for data analysis. The scores obtained from digital stories were interpreted by presenting graphs. In the analysis of qualitative data, content analysis was used. According to the quantitative dimension of the research; it was found from the post-test scores of experimental and control group students that there was a significant difference in favor of experimental group in terms of creative writing skills, writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy. This situation revealed that writing lessons with digital storytelling were more effective than writing lessons with the current program. According to the qualitative dimension of the research, the results obtained from the interview and researcher field notes indicate that the students developed their writing skills, learned grammar, spelling and punctuation rules and their vocabulary developed. The students also mentioned that during the application process they learned and applied the stages of digital storytelling, they felt happier in the lessons and loved writing activities more with digital storytelling. In addition, the students stated that digital storytelling was effective in their other skills like listening, reading, speaking, technology literacy, creativity and communication skills.