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The impact of social media as an instructional tool in Japanese culture teaching

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate how social media tools, in other words social network services (SNS), affects the success of Japanese language learners in learning Japanese culture in undergraduate programs. For this research, a mixed method approach was used with a quantitative, quasi-experimental research design including a pre-test-post-test control group experimental model for quantitative data and an open-ended follow-up questionnaire for qualitative data. The topic of Shintō was selected for the Japanese culture lesson to be taught to a control group (indoor and face to face) and three experimental groups with different SNS tools (Zoom, YouTube and Instagram). An achievement test was used to measure success, with 30 questions in a pilot test reduced to 27 after item analysis. Two-factor ANOVA was used for the analysis. After measurement four groups’ value was found insignificant, a Sample Pair Test was implemented for each groups’ pre-test-post-test results. The results revealed that all groups showed a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores. The traditional Group and the YouTube Group had the highest mean achievement score,. This suggests that the social media teaching environment is as effective for the learning process as the indoor and face to face environment and learning tools. Furthermore, the qualitative data collected in this study revealed both positive and limited aspects of SNS tools. Participants highlighted the inadequacies of using SNS as the main learning environment. In the light of these data, this paper concludes that traditional classroom training is still useful in teaching Japanese culture, and SNS can be used as a supportive instrument.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Change history

  • 07 December 2023

    Springer Nature’s version of this paper was updated to remove the degrees found in the online version of the author group as well as to include the missing ORCID for Tolga Özşen and Levent Çetinkaya.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Serhat Temel, an alumnus of the Department of Japanese Language Teaching at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, for his assistance in the preparation process of the YouTube video for this project. We would also like to express our gratitude to Mrs. Sheila Christopher Gökkaya for her valuable assistance in proofreading the English language in this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japanese Language Teaching Graduate Program Alumni, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, 17010, Çanakkale, Türkiye

    Tuğçe Karapolat

  2. Department of Japanese Language Teaching, Faculty of Education, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Türkiye

    Tolga Özşen

  3. Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Türkiye

    Levent Çetinkaya

Authors
  1. Tuğçe Karapolat
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  2. Tolga Özşen
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  3. Levent Çetinkaya
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Contributions

In light of the workload types given below, authors’ contributions are as follow.

Work/contribution types:

1. managing the project

2. theoretical contribution and/or guidance

3. creating/establishing/designing the experimental framework

4. idea support

5. secretariat

6. data input

7. data interpretation

8. designing/developing images & graphs & tables

9. chapter/section writing

TK: 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

TÖ: 2, 3, 4, 7

LÇ: 3, 4, 7d

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tuğçe Karapolat.

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Ethical approval

Ethical approval for this study was obtained from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University.

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The authors declare they have no financial interests.

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Table 9 1 Workflow of research
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Karapolat, T., Özşen, T. & Çetinkaya, L. The impact of social media as an instructional tool in Japanese culture teaching. Educ Inf Technol 29, 695–719 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12290-7

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