Blended English course with MOODLE

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate Turkish high school students' attitudes towards the use of MOODLE in English Language Teaching (ELT) blended instruction. Possible differences in attitudes in terms of gender are also investigated. In addition, the study intends to find out whether the use of MOODLE in English lessons as a tool for blended instruction makes a significant difference to the achievement of students. The study was conducted with one control and one experimental group. A total of 44 students participated in the study ranging in age from 16 to 18 selected on the basis of convenience sampling technique. The control group consisted of 22 students, 10 of whom were female and 12 male. The experimental group consisted of 22 students with 12 females and 10 males. After a fifteen-week treatment, a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were administered to the experimental group. In addition, three exam results of an experimental group were compared with the exam results of a control group in the second semester. The qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews were processed using content analysis. The quantitative data collected through questionnaires and exam results were analyzed using SPSS (v.16.0). Paired samples T-test and Mann-Whitney U-test were also applied to see the difference between the two groups. The overall analysis of the data from both questionnaires and interviews indicates that Turkish high school students who participated in this study have positive attitudes towards the use of MOODLE in ELT blended instruction. It is also found that there is no significant difference between the scale scores of the students in their attitudes towards the use of MOODLE according to gender difference. With regard to 1st term and 2nd term English exam scores of the experimental and the control group, there is a statistically significant differences between 1st and 2nd English exam scores of the students in the experimental group (t=-3.085 sig=0.005), indicating that the use of MOODLE in blended EFL lessons increased learners' achievement. Key words: MOODLE, blended-learning, course management system