www.cjes.e u

Tuba Aykaç

, MoNE of Turkey, Malatya, Turkey

Şan, İ. & Aykaç, T. (2020). Effect of English language teaching aided by khan academy on students’ academic

success. Cypriot Journal of Educational Science. 15(5), 1107-1116.

https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v15i5.5174

Received from: 16 Aug 2018 revised from August 10, 2020; accepted from October 20, 2020.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Khan-Academy-assisted grammar teaching on academic success in

English lesson. The videos used in the study were downloaded from the Khan Academy (n.d) website. The sample of the study

consists of 67 students (34: experiment group, 33: control group) in Sadreddin Konevi Anadolu İmam Hatip High School that is

located in Yeşilyurt, Malatya, Turkey. Semi-experimental design with control group of pre-test post-test was used. During the

experimental procedure, the videos in Khan Academy about present, past and future tense in English were watched by the

experiment group. Teaching process of control group was organized in accordance with English Curriculum. "The Achievement

Test on Tenses" which was developed by the researchers was used both as the pre-test and the post test.

At the end of the study, it was concluded that Khan Academy video-assisted grammar teaching made a significant difference

on academic success in English lesson.

*

* A preliminary version of the paper has been presented at WCES-2018.

* ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: İsmail Şan, İnönü University, Malatya, Turkey

1. Introduction

Language is one of the most important elements by means of which people and societies can

communicate with one another. It is one of the most important way to share the ideas and feelings. It

is not only a means of communication, but also it reflects the way people live and think. While language

contributes the progress of science and technology, it also sheds light on the history (Toklu, 2007, p.13).

There is also a relation between English reading proficiency and academic performance (Stoffelsma &

In order to follow scientific, artistic, commercial, social developments and changes in today's

information era, just a mother tongue cannot be sufficient. English is the most common language people

use when communicating with one another. This situation makes it necessary to learn it. In our country,

a big importance is given to foreign language teaching. Since 2014, English has been started to be taught

Although the main focus should be on communication in English teaching, when the conditions in our

country, Turkey, are considered, the grammar knowledge is required in exams such as in YDS (Foreign

Language Exam). Similarly, there is a need for grammar knowledge, even at the basic level, both in

business applications and in obtaining scientific documents (Mozafari, El-Alayli, Kunemund & Fry, 2019).

Changes in learning theories in recent years have also affected the language teaching process

(Freeman, 2020). Traditional foreign language teaching methods have begun to lose its effect as the

computers are wide and the internet becomes a part of routine life. This rapid change has saved the

education process from time and space. Studies have shown that the content will be more useful if it is

meaningful for the students. Therefore, grammar teaching should not be considered separately from

content and communication (Verhagen, 2019).

Quantitative data were obtained by pre-test and post-test scores of single-group students. Qualitative

data were obtained by taking the student's opinion against the "flipped class" approach. Analysis results

show that"a flipped class" approach designed with both Khan Academy and mathematical software

significantly enhances the achievement of students in terms of double integral. Rao, Hilton, and Harper

(2017) conducted case studies on Khan Academy videos in Chinese in the context of open educational

resources. The analytical information provided by Netease Open has been used to identify the most

watched videos in the Khan Academy. Analytical information from January 1, 2016 to September 30,

2016 has been utilized since there was no prior information before 2016. The results show that there is

a big interest for these videos and the most popular videos among the others are on finance, economics,

mathematics, science in Chinese Khan Academy videos. This

emphasizes the importance of additional learning and open licensed resources.

Adams (2016) examined the effects of Khan Academy on mathematics success by quantitative action

research. In his work, he has worked with 5th grade students, consisting of 3 groups, totalling 70

students. Two of the groups used the accelerated mathematics method, while the other used only the

Khan Academy. Analysis of the post-test results showed no significant difference between the two

groups.

In an effort to explore the effects of computer-assisted instruction in business life lessons with an

innovative educational approach, Gönül and Solano (2012) found that Khan Academy did not cause a

significant increase in exam scores of the students, but increased the length of time students spent in

the examination

In their research into the effects of using the Khan Academy to increase student participation in

Learning means a relatively persistent difference in an individual's behaviour. Very few of these

behaviours are outside the learning output. Reflexes or some behaviours, for example, done just under

some circumstances cannot be regarded as an output of learning behaviours. Teaching is the way

making it possible for an individual to learn. The words learning and teaching are two different

perspectives of the same process. From the point of view of the external factor providing the

behavioural change, the existing situation is teaching; the thing happening when you look at the window

of the individual who changes his behaviour is learning (Çırak, 2007).

Learning is an indispensable part of the individual, an essential necessity. The formal education

institutions have emerged in order for the learning to take place in a planned manner. Despite the

planned actions taken at these institutions, many students are faced with missing or inadequate

more permanent (Oral, 2007).

While education technology is concerned with the planning, implementation, testing and

development of all aspects of individual learning, teaching technology can be regarded as regulated

technologies in a subject area, taking into consideration that teaching is a sub-dimension of education.

For example, "language teaching technology" (Saban, 2012, pp. 57-59).

The educational system of a country has a very important role in the progress of it. It is unacceptable

that the education system remains the same in the age of information, where everything is moving and

changing very fast. The two most important elements of modern education are the technology and the

the highest rate of recall (Vural, 2004).

An educational software according to Vural (2004, p. 213-216) is compatible with the curriculum

programs specified by the Ministry of National Education, is easy to use, encourages for learning, and

includes multimedia technology which is developed and updated like audio, video, dimensions.

It is possible to connect to the current and valid educational softwares which will provide learning

diversity in education via internet. Learning through the Internet is carried out by utilizing the

possibilities provided by the Web in order to provide meaningful and lasting learning. One of the usage

areas of the internet-based learning is to provide internet support to the lectures (Şahan, 2015).

In this research, the researcher had previously downloaded the videos in Khan Akademy and

227).

In this research, the researcher, who is teacher at the same time, paused the videos and make

explanations at points where she thinks that the students are confused. In addition, she strengthened

the videos by worksheets about the tenses. The experimental group worked on the worksheets after

watching videos.

A web-based educational software, Khan Academy offers lessons on mathematics, science,

economics/finance, arts/social sciences, and computer science with over 10,000 videos and more than

150,000 interactive exercises. Khan academy is a technology-supported education model that offers the

opportunity for teachers to learn in their classes, for students to learn at their individual speeds, for

parents to learn in their homes, with equality of opportunity and lifelong learning (Khan Academy,

Despite the importance given to teaching English in our country, most students who graduate from

the high school do not even know the basic sentence patterns in English, and have difficulty in making

simple sentences. By emphasizing that the communicative dimension of language should not be

ignored, the importance of the English grammar knowledge in Turkey is great. When examining the 9th

grade English curriculum, it appears that more emphasis is placed on the communicative dimension,

where grammar rules are backward. However, students who cannot grasp these rules cannot dominate

the language either in writing or verbally. Khan Academy, which gets the facilities of technology with

grammar teaching, makes the learning more enjoyable and lasting. There are few studies on Khan

1.1. Research problem

What is the effect of English language teaching aided by Khan Academy on the academic success of

students?

of the experimental groups?

of the control groups?

questions is 25. The KR 20 reliability coefficient calculated over 25 questions is 0.72. The timetable for

statistically by using Man-Whitney U test and there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between

normal distribution. Therefore, the differences between groups were analysed statistically by using

Man-Whitney U test.

3. Results

The experimental and the control groups were tested before and after the application process.

According to data obtained, it was investigated whether there were any significant difference between

the median scores of groups.

group exposed to English language teaching aided by Khan Academy and control group exposed to

English Curriculum, a statistically significant difference was observed in favour of the experimental

group among the achievement scores (U = 348,00, p<,05). Taking into consideration mean ranks, it was

seen that the students who are supported by Khan Academy are more successful than those who are

learning by English curriculum.

34 participants were recruited to understand the effect of English Language Teaching aided by Khan

Academy on achievement test on tenses. Of the 34 participants recruited to the study, the academic

success in the post-test elicited an increase in 29 participants compared to the pre-test whereas five

participants did not get success as high with the pre-test score. The difference scores were

symmetrically distributed, as assessed by a histogram. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test determined that

-4, 633 p = .000.

achievement test on tenses. Of the 33 participants recruited to the study, the academic success in the

post test elicited an increase in 23 participants compared to the pre-test, whereas two participants saw

no improvement and eight participants did not get success as high with the pretest score. The difference

scores were symmetrically distributed, as assessed by a histogram. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test

determined that there was a statistically significant increase in academic success (Mdn = 12.00%) when

subjects imbibed the post-test (Mdn = 68.00%) compared to the current curricula (Mdn = 64.00%), z = -

2.463, p = .014.

4. Discussion and Conclusion

According to the results of Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test conducted to reveal whether there is a

significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the control group, it was concluded

that there was a statistically significant difference between the test scores. The difference in favor of

the positive ranks shows that the teaching conducted according to the 2017-Secondary Education

study conducted by Akpinar & Karadeniz (2015) support this finding. The researchers covered the topics

The findings of the study carried out by Gömleksiz and Düşmez (2015) comparing the current method

between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group. The difference is in favor of positive

ranks, showing that video-supported learning has a significant impact on students' academic success.

The findings of the study conducted by Zengin (2017) support this finding. In the study, he observed

that using mathematics software and Khan Academy significantly increased student success in teaching

mathematics.

According to the results of Mann-Whitney U test conducted to compare the post-test scores of the

control group studying according to the 2017-Secondary English Course Curriculum with the video-

supported experimental group, a statistically significant difference was observed in favor of the

experimental group. When the average of the ranks are taken into consideration, it is seen that the

students who are supported with video are more successful than the students who study according to

students were not specified on which subjects they would study, but they made this choice. However,

in this study, the teacher decided which videos to watch and brought them to the classroom.

In the study of Kelly and Rutherford (2017), the lessons were fully based on Khan Academy and no

additional explanations were made by the teacher about the content. In this study, the videos in Khan

Academy were used as supportive, and after the examples given by the teacher, the rules were made

clearer with the examples given by the students. After the videos, students were given worksheets and

their development was followed in this way.

The results of the study conducted by Gonul & Solano (2013) differed from the results of this study.

The students of Business Administration have studied some topics through Khan Academy and given

online homework. As a result, there was no significant difference between the exam scores of the

not just follow the videos of the Khan Academy. The teacher supported the process with the worksheets

and explanations in experimental group.

Khan academy videos motivated the learners by adding vitality to the courses and created a dynamic

learning environment. They made the lessons more visual. In addition, one of the biggest handicaps of

video instruction is that the teacher may be too passive in the process and the learners cannot decide

which information is more important for them. In this research, due to the short duration of the videos

and to cope with this problem, the teacher occasionally needed to pause the videos and give more