THE APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING GRAMMAR TO EFL LEARNERS: THE ROLE OF ANIMATED SITCOMS

Building upon previous research into the effectiveness of using videos for language teaching purposes, this study utilized an English animated situation comedy (sitcom) as an authentic type of multimedia to teach a particular grammatical structure, namely conditional sentences. This study also aimed at investigating the learners’ attitudes toward this approach to grammar instruction. To achieve these purposes, 34 participants were selected and divided into two groups. In the control group (N=17) conditional sentences were taught through the explicit way of teaching grammar whereas the participants of the experimental group (N=17) learned about the conditional sentences through exposure to the animated sitcom. The results pointed to the effectiveness of using the aforementioned animated sitcom in teaching conditional sentences. Moreover, students showed a positive attitude to the animated sitcom as well as its use in teaching conditional sentences. The findings of this study have implications for L2 learners, encouraging them to change their view of grammar and looking at it from a more communicative perspective.