Teachers' Views about the Use of Digital Stories in Language Teaching Courses of Primary Schools in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the views of primary school teachers who gave language courses (mother tongue and foreign language) at the primary school level, about the use of information technologies, digital story preparation, and its use in lessons in the language teaching process. In the study, the phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The participants were primary school teachers and English teachers who took part in the Digital Story Preparation training given within the scope of the European Union Comenius Regio. Among the 30 teachers who joined the training, 14 voluntarily participated in the study. At the end of the training, a written form prepared to consult the written views of the teachers was used as a data collection tool in the study. According to the research results, the teachers had positive attitudes and thoughts about the use of information technologies in the language teaching process and used them in the preparation, teaching-learning process, and evaluation stages of their lessons. However, their tendency to use ready-made e-learning content was found to be high. In addition, it was concluded that the practice-based Digital Story Preparation training they attended was beneficial and that the training contributed positively to their own professional development as well as to their thoughts and attitudes regarding technology integration into education.