Students' and Teachers' Views on Instructional Use of Blogs in Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language

As it promotes communication and interaction, the use of Web 2.0 tools has gradually increased in modern education system where technological capability is discussed as one of the basic language skills. This study has been conducted to investigate the effects of blogs on teaching Turkish as a foreign language, when designed as an out-of-class learning environment. In the light of the principles of blended learning, a blog page was created by the researcher and it was aimed to revise and improve the material based on the participants' feedback. The implementation process of the study lasted six weeks and was conducted with the participation of 2 4 university students who a re learning Turkish as a foreign language in B2 proficiency level. In order to investigate the effects of blog use on teaching Turkish as a foreign language, semi-structured interviews were held with seven students and two instructors, who were randomly selected after the implementation process, and they were asked to evaluate the scope and method of the study, activity types and the content and technical features of the blog site. The qualitative results of the study showed that blogs, as a new learning model for students, improve motivation for learning by preparing an enjoyable and interactive learning environment. When compared with traditional learning methods, the results also showed that blogs have up-to-date and interesting content, and therefore they increase participation and communication among students. These findings suggest the need for further research on developing blog content considering other proficiency levels and exploring the implementation of blogs in class environments.