The Impact of Technology on the Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Motivation of Students in Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language

With global developments, the need for the use of technology in almost every field increases on a daily basis. In particular, foreign language teaching is no longer possible using only traditional methods without including innovative technology applications. In this study, the difference between the use of the traditional method and the technology-based method in Turkish language teaching is compared based on the results of the scales applied to the experimental and control groups. This study aims to evaluate the impact of technology-based foreign language teaching on students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, and motivational development. In addition, it is also aimed to reveal how technology-based foreign language teaching contributes to the retention and sustainability of the language studied. The research included two groups of foreign students who took the Turkish course at NEU’s Faculty of Medicine in the 2023–2024 academic year. For consistent results, the students were selected from 3 countries. In the study, language teaching was offered to the experimental group using a technology-based teaching method, and it was implemented in the control group with the traditional method. The results of the study revealed that the improvement of language learning in the experimental group was better than the control group, which highlights the significance of the integration of technology in language learning. In this study, it was determined that the motivation of the students in the experimental group, who were given technology-based teaching in the foreign language teaching process, increased more than the students in the control group, who received traditional teaching. It was also found that there was more development in the knowledge and skills of the students in the experimental group. According to the results of the study, the use of technology is effective in elevating the knowledge level of the language learners in foreign language teaching and making their learning permanent and sustainable, increasing their skill levels, and developing their attitudes and motivations. In addition, it is revealed that there can be progress in language learning when technological elements are used.