An investigation of cyberloafing behaviors in learners of Turkish as a foreign language

Cyberloafing can be defined as using technological devices for extracurricular activities during the lesson. The misuse of technological tools and facilities in educational environments causes many learning problems. One of the most important behaviors that cause this problem is cyberloafing. The explorative and main aim of the current study is to examine the reasons behind the cyberloafing behaviors of those who learn Turkish as a foreign language in terms of various variables and explore the phenomenological point of view of participants. The research was carried out in accordance with the convergent parallel mixed method design. The “Cyberloafing Behaviors Scale” was employed to collect quantitative data from a total of 207 students learning Turkish in 5 different TÖMER (Teaching Turkish Center); in the process of qualitative data collection, open-ended questions formed by the researcher were used. For examining mean differences in terms of categorical variables t-test and separate ANOVAs were run. In ANOVAs, in order to minimize the possibility of error that may occur in the ANOVA test, type I error was controlled with Bonferroni correction. To determine predictors of cyberloafing behaviors of the study group multiple regression analysis was utilized. According to the findings of the current study, there was no significant difference between gender and time spent on social media and cyberloafing behavior; in the real-time updating dimension, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the B1 level and B2 and C1 levels. Having devices such as laptops stands out as the variable that predicts cyberloafing the most. It was also observed that cyberloafing behavior decreased as speaking skill increased. When the qualitative data was examined, the students stated that they were cyberloafing due to reasons such as messaging, sharing photos and videos because of boring lessons.