A mixed-methods study on exploring the attitudes of pre-service EFL teachers towards language learning through social media

Abstract

Considering the popularity of Social Media (SM) in every field, including languagelearning and the importance of the attitudes of pre-service EFL teachers in their languagelearner personas, this study aims to explore the attitudes of pre-service EFL teachers towardslanguage learning through SM. With this aim, to provide a more comprehensive and nuancedunderstanding of the research topic, an explanatory sequential mixed-method design whichintegrates qualitative and quantitative data was implemented. Hence, to collect data, initially,a standardized questionnaire with several categories designed specifically for exploring theattitudes of pre-service EFL teachers was answered by 188 pre-service EFL teachers fromthe ELT department of a public university in Turkey. Next, the interview part which wasdetermined by the results of the questionnaire was carried out with 11 of those participants.The results of the quantitative part analyzed through descriptive and inferential statisticsindicated that the majority of the participants had strong positive attitudes towards languagelearning through social media specifically towards receptive skills and vocabularydevelopment. Furthermore, gender was not a determining factor for the attitudes of the preservice teachers in this regard. Additionally, those who utilized SM more frequently had moreaffirmative attitudes compared to other users. Evaluated through content analysis, the resultsof the interviews, on the other hand, yielded several underlying reasons for the findings ofthe quantitative part. Based on these outcomes, the present study puts forward invaluablejustifications for curriculum designers and teacher educators to provide more room for SMfor language development of pre-service EFL teachers.