Effectiveness of Microsoft Teams in Student Teachers' Achievement in an EFL Teaching Methods Course

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Introduction
The need for e-learning has been stressed particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.However, before and after the pandemic started to diminish, E-learning was and is still much used especially in tertiary education (Tamm, 2019).The importance of online programs, especially after the face-to-face barriers were hard, was much highlighted (Pal and Vanijja, 2020).Teaching was done online via internet applications, e.g., Canvas, Blackboard, Zoom, Moodle, and Microsoft Teams (M.S.TS.), to name a few.M.S.TS.has begun to draw the most attention (Nguyen & Duong, 2021) and the platform rapidly emerged and spread, as it helped with teamwork exchange of information, particularly interacting: chatting, meeting, messaging, calling, and content-sharing (Rouse, 2020; Ilag, 2020: 2; Ilag and Sabale, 2022: 17;Nguyen & Duong, 2021: 18).Research asserts that M.S.TS. is a type of platform that enables online teaching and learning and has the potential to make easy the interaction between EFL instructors and their students, e.g.Rojabi (2020).
The Microsoft Company states the definition of M.S.TS. is officially a group of people, materials, and instruments focusing efforts around various enterprises and goals in an institution (Ibid.: 2).M.S.TS. is also seen as providing teams of people with the services of information-sharing and allowing them to use voice and video-calling and content-sharing, utilizing the services of Office 365, such as information stored in every feature of the platform (Ibid: 2).Cherub and Kessler (2022) see that the platform can offer corrective feedback but distinctively help with synchronous learning, i.e. comprising online oral discussions made alive, and asynchronous learning involving written forms made unnecessarily without live meetings.According to Ilag and Sabale (2022: 17-18), M.S.TS.reflects a type of cloud-based platform (i.e. which shares its origin with other social networking applications, such as Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, etc.) used for communications that facilitate collaboration.It has such features as meeting, calling, file-sharing, and chatting and, it can utilize other applications.They add that Microsoft 365 which comprises the platform, makes the work of M.S.TS easy.and makes possible multiple assignments in one communication and teamwork system.In addition, they assert, M.S.TS. is a serenely cloud-based interface that integrates capabilities for other tools and external products.M.S.TS. is even capable of self-management, i.e. maintenance, updates, and security.It is seen as the follower of Skype for Business whose capabilities are not jeopardized by the co-existence of the new platform.They (Ibid.)clarify that it has the advantage that an administrator can give selected users the authority to be enabled for occupying the subscription of Microsoft 365.Besides, they add, the platform has many cooperative capabilities, including a SharePoint spot and a Mailbox for mail exchange within a team.
Being cloud-based, M.S.TS.can handle large amounts of data: collect, source, dissect, store, and share it with further technologies and devices (Liu, 2021: 1).It is regulated by the internet and has some integrated potentials, such as distributing, data-grouping, and paralleling knowledge manipulation, as well as network data-saving, virtualizing, and toning capabilities, in addition to other types of features (Coccoli et al., 2022;Denis and Madhubala, 2021).
To differentiate between M.S.TS.and MOOC ( an acronym for the Massive Open Online Course), MOOC is used for social communication and is suitable for oral collaboration.That is why it enhances those elements (Daradoumis et al., 2013;Hashim and Yunus (2019).MOOC is effective in improving students' interaction.For example, Yaşar (2020) found that students appreciated the application much as it helped in raising their oral communication level of English.
Back to the M.S.TS, it is noted that it has many capabilities.The following briefs on examples of those capabilities.

Capabilities
According to Ilag and Sabale (2022: 19-24), the platform has many capabilities, Chat, Private Chat, and Channel Messages, for example.A team is a group of people, materials, and tools following different projects and goals.M.S.TS.can be organization-wide or Private.Private teams are only formed with the users who receive the invitation and join the activities.
1.1.1Channels reflect the spaces a team is made of and those where the work is performed.They are also spaces where users have meetings, hold conversations, and work on their files together.Standard channels are for all the team members to use for conversations while Private channels are limited to an identified number or small group of the larger group and they can share their files, conversations, and applications.This, in turn, helps manage or finish part of a project allocated for a certain sub-team.
1.1.2M.S.TS.Chat/Chat Rooms conversations can happen between all group members and even between a group member/groups in channels.Many key actions can be done while in a conversation, such as sending messages including files or not, stickers, emojis, and GIF files.There is also Private chat which allows communication without the mess of receiving unnecessary communication from others.Channel messages make conversations visible to group members.A user can send messages to a member, group, or other members/groups in other channels.
1.1.3M.S.TS.Collaboration Using Teams and Channels allow users to quickly form a team with people inside and outside an organization.End members can have conversations with other members to share or co-author work.Teams are formed by Owners and Members who join.
1.1.4Meetings permit participants to meet and an instructor to admin to host an audio or video meeting with other participants in an online session.Teams can share content and efficiently collaborate in a meeting using many tools, such as Whiteboard which acts like a real whiteboard.Members can have conversations, share content, and organize their event calendars.They only need to have a link to join the platform.Anyone with an email account and the link can join the event.M.S.TS.meetings reflect the central collaborative work of a team and they include audio, video, and content-sharing.Meetings are of specific importance to teams.1.1.5M.S.TS.webinars allow the making of timetabled events, recording a session or meeting, making an interactive presentation, and sharing attendance statistics for more interaction.
1.1.6M.S.TS.live events are an accessory to M.S.TS.meetings and it permits members to timetable and organize meetings.
1.1.7Phone Calls/Teams Phone System can be made in many formats and they have many features.This can happen in regular methods, or different manners, such as group calling, call transfers, or cloud voicemails.There are also Calls between M.S.TS.clients.This feature supports the capability for members to make VoIP (calls over IP addresses).

Effectiveness in Achievement
It was observed that studies targeting assessing students' performance/achievement with M.S.TS.were much fewer than those related to investigating teachers' or students' perceptions or the perceptions of both.Notably, it was noted that all the studies related to perceptions in social sciences/humanities were in favor of the platform.For example, AlAdwani and AlFadley (2022), alongside other studies mentioned later, aimed at targeting the impact assessment of M.S.TS.for Kuwaiti students' learning, particularly concerning interaction, assessment, and learning, attempting to identify students' perceptions.The study found that online assessment and learning were performed successfully via the platform and both were strongly related.The study stated that the platform assisted in the interaction of students, learning of skills, and assessment of their achievement.
In another study which shared quite the same purpose as the present study, using a different online application/platform, Hussein (2016) explored the effect of Blackboard-based instruction on the achievement of student teachers in a teaching method subject at the Faculty of Education for Girls in Bisha in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Results revealed that Blackboard-based instruction was more effective in enhancing the students' achievement, compared to traditional instruction.The study pointed out that Blackboard provided the students with opportunities to explore alternate means of interaction with their teachers, classmates, and subject material.The study recommended that activities via the platform should be conducted not only for school partners but also for parents and that the Ministry of Education related should use it as well.

Effectiveness in Learners' and Teachers' Perceptions
A considerable quantity of research has been conducted to investigate EFL teachers' and learners' views on using M.S.TS. in recent years.It is observed that the majority of the studies targeted the English language courses delivered at higher education and used qualitative tools to obtain data.Rojabi (2020), for example, conducted a study and used questionnaires to achieve this purpose.The study found that learning via M.S.TS. was novel and encouraging for the students to use in learning because it facilitated interaction and access to educational content.Almodaires et al. (2021) had female student teachers at a Kuwaiti female teacher-training college.The study surveyed the EFL students in one of the three years at college studying the English course.The results were in favor of M.S.TS.because it was efficient, user-friendly, interactive, reflection-boosting, and functional.However, the participants stated it was not appropriate for collaborative and self-learning.Nevertheless, this contradicts the evidence mentioned later, e.g.Olugbade and Olurinola (2021).It can also be seen that this study was on female student teachers studying EFL.aimed at investigating Nigerian school teachers' views on using the platform.The study used a questionnaire in the description of the data collected.Results indicated that teachers' views about M.S.TS.effectiveness in assigning tasks, assessing learners' work, interacting with students, and organizing the classroom were positive.The study stated that the platform overcame student distraction and disengagement in the lectures.The study concludes by recommending the platform for other schools as it helped the instruction process.
However, the study was conducted in Nigeria and comprised school teachers randomly selected, including those teaching various subjects, not only EFL.Also, the participants were only at school, not at the university level.
Quite different in approach, EKİNCİ and EKİNCİ (2021: 32) explored if the platform had an effect on Turkish students' achievement in an online grammar course at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University in Turkey and if the platform helped in revealing assistance in improving the students' grammar knowledge.Data were collected via an achievement test and a questionnaire.The study found that students' achievement in, and perception of, grammar knowledge improved.However, the students argued that they still needed live teaching.
It is noteworthy that the study above dealt with grammar, not EFL teaching methods, in another country than Egypt.The most thought-provoking finding was that the participants wanted face-to-face instruction although their grammar achievement and perceptions improved.Bsharat & Behak (2020), in the stream of studies, aimed to have an insight into the impact which the platform had in supporting the teaching and learning of EFL in Malaysia during the Coronavirus time.The most significant and useful features, i.e. resulting from a questionnaire, were found to be the file and content-sharing/ screen-sharing capabilities which gave the teachers the possibility of selecting what they wanted to present.The teachers indicated that the platform enabled interactive options for students, teachers, and the community inside and outside the classroom.The study conclusively recommended utilizing the platform.
Besides, Rababah (2020), had an interview with Jordanian EFL university students to investigate their views on using M.S.TS.Among the benefits of the platform were content-sharing, efficacy, and easiness.The students, however, mentioned that they had trouble dealing with related technicalities.Furthermore, Shokri et al. (2020) explored students' views on synchronous instruction via ICT tools.The study results indicated that students found the learning useful but saw that face-to-face instruction was more useful.Alameri et al. (2020), moreover, utilizing a questionnaire for data collection, found out that EFL students at a Jordanian university were so optimistic about learning owing to Moodle, Zoom, and M.S.T, as they enabled self-learning and academic achievement.The students were positively influenced by the applications.The study did not use an achievement test, nor did it test achievement.
Research in this stream also claimed that it found that M.S.TS.had a positive effect on students' skills, interaction, attitude, and achievement in the EFL subject, e.g.AlAdwani and Alfadley (2022:132).The study was conducted in Kuwait and used a quantitative structured questionnaire to explore EFL learners' views/perceptions.However, it is argued that when a structured questionnaire is used, it is rather used to assess students' perceptions, not students' achievement as proposed by the study above.A test, not a structured questionnaire, can only inform of students' achievement.Yen and Nhi (2021: 12), furthermore, showed how the platform employed the teaching and learning of non-EFL classes in Vietnam.The study used a survey and found that using M.S.TS. was of effect on the teaching-learning process as it helped the continuity of activities.The study also found that although university students participating reported positive views, they mentioned they did not know how to use all the aspects/features of the platform.The study focused on other subjects than the EFL teaching methods ones.Calvo (2021), in turn, also found that EFL students had positive views about the platform.The study explored students' views and found that their experience was useful in improving their speaking, pronunciation, and writing, in addition to other areas.Krsmanović and Petrovi (2021), besides, carried out a study investigating ESP students' perceptions of the platform.They found that the students at the Faculty of Technical Sciences Čačak showed constructive views.The students reported that the platform's capabilities were manageable.Sobaih et al. (2022: 1-4), furthermore, conducted a study at the College of Tourism and Hotel Management in public institutions in Egypt.The study comprised student participants seeking a degree in tourism and hotel management, and it investigated their perceptions of social network applications, such as Facebook, and M.S.TS.used by public university instructors during the Covid time.The study used a pre-teaching post-teaching online questionnaire to verify and compare students' views.Students' responses were in favor of the two applications as they helped with access to the learning material, their structure of knowledge, reflection, and satisfaction.The study also administered a paired sample t-test on questionnaire pretest-posttest results and revealed statistical differences between the pretest and posttest questionnaire results related to every single course.The challenges met by students incorporated limited encouragement by their instructors and classmates, and low attendance levels in lectures via M. S.T.The students also reported low-level evaluation via the social network applications.
It is still noteworthy that the study conducted a pre-post questionnaire, not a test, to tourism and hotel management students.Therefore, it is, again, argued that the study assessed students' perceptions of their achievement, not their actual achievement.Besides, it was carried out in a non-Egyptian context incorporating non-EFL subject areas.Hamarsha and Bsharat (2022), in addition, carried out a study to explore the views of teachers in Palestine about M.S.TS.and Zoom medium effects on instruction.The study used a questionnaire to achieve its purpose.Zoom was given preference by the teachers asked, but they stated that both media enhanced the teaching and learning process.They added that both had features that enabled the students to refer to the material anytime.Teachers attributed reasons why the two media were positive to claims that both were easy to use and included a recording option which helped the students to refer to the materials after teaching.Also, the teachers added that they communicated well with the students via the two media.The study did not provide challenges met by the teachers.
It is seen that literature to date mainly focuses on students' perceptions of M. S.T. as a medium for instruction.It is also noted that several studies focused on only challenges; others on strengths and weaknesses.Approximately all the studies used qualitative tools, except, to some extent, for AlAdwani and Alfadley (2022) and Sobaih et al. (2022) which both used descriptive quantitative questionnaires.The only study using both a test and a questionnaire in a quasi-experimental approach was the Turkish EKİNCİ and EKİNCİ (2021).M.S.TS. is reported to have some limitations besides the ones mentioned earlier at the end of each study investigation that was discussed.Nguyen & Duong (2021), for instance, aimed at investigating learning challenges faced by EFL students while learning via M.S.TS.during the COVID-19 time.They stated that having difficulty connecting to the internet, lack of necessary computer-related skills, having online errors, inadequate internet access in rural areas, difficulty interacting during a session, and having trouble with other social networking applications represent those challenges.However, they concluded that M.S.TS. was not hard for students to use.Generally, the study revealed that the majority of students had no difficulty reviewing their courses via the M.S.TS.Tu and Luong (2021) explored EFL university learners' insights regarding the difficulties they encountered learning English via Moodle and M.S.TS., to offer ways to overcome those challenges.A semi-structured interview was used to attain the study purpose.The study found that the learners faced difficulty dealing with technical issues, interferences, and solidarity from the social context.Also, Sameh and Razkane (2021) found that students were anxious about using the program.Utami et al. (2022) indicated that instructors saw that cloud-based technology online instruction via Microsoft 365 was hard because of teacher unfamiliarity with the features embedded.The study reached mixed results in investigating teachers' views but stated that the applications did not show user-friendliness.
El-Sobkey (2022) also stated that online teaching via MT was not the most appropriate alternative for colleges teaching physical therapy in Egypt.The study clarified that the reasons for this were related to the practical and clinical study nature.

Rationale
Based on the literature above, it is observed that a little number of studies assessed the actual effectiveness of M.S.TS. in EFL students' achievement using a quasi-experimental approach.Also, a number of them proposed that they were targeting the effect on students' achievement while they were targeting students' perceptions of achievement because they used questionnaires to assess the effect.
It is inevitable to explain that semi-structured questionnaires are claimed not to be used for investigating students' achievement, but rather for uncovering queries, perceptions, and matters (Brown, 2001: 5).Achievement, by contrast, is rather tested through achievement tests.Wu (2018: 28) proves this claim, stating that knowledge and abilities are the elements assessed by a test within an area subject.
It is also contended that, to the best knowledge of the researcher, no study exploring the effectiveness of M.S.TS. in EFL majors' achievement in EFL Teaching Methodology subjects/courses.The majority of studies were in a non-Egyptian setting and when they addressed EFL courses, they investigated students' and /teachers' perceptions, mostly using qualitative instruments; no achievement test was used except in the case of EKİNCİ and EKİNCİ (2021).
There was also a study focusing on tourism and hotel management students' views, but it is not related to the present study as the present study focus is the EFL students enrolled in a teaching methods course.A number of studies assessed the effect of other technologies than M.S.TS. on students' achievement in EFL teaching methodology in the Egyptian context, e.g.Hussein (2016).It is, thus, observed and even concluded that there is so far no study investigating the effectiveness of M.S.TS. in the EFL pre-service teachers' achievement in any EFL Teaching Methodology subject in Higher Education in Egypt.
From another perspective, the Suez Canal University, Egypt, has requested the professors to use M.S.TS. as a medium for online teaching.Briefly, there is so far no evidence stating that there is a study that was performed on the Suez Canal University campus that examined the effectiveness of the M.S. TS. in EFL students' achievement in any given course.

Aim of the Study
Based on the above-mentioned rationale, this study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of M.S.TS. in the student teachers' achievement of an EFL teaching methodology course, namely Teaching Methods I, at the Suez Canal University in Ismailia, Egypt.It also aimed at exploring students' perceptions of the platform.

Questions of the Study
The study aimed to answer the following two questions: 1. How far is M.S.TS.effective in the EFL students' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course?2. Compared to traditional teaching, how far is M.S.TS.effective in the EFL students' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course?
3. What are the students' perceptions of M.S.TS.used for learning the EFL Teaching Methodology I course?

Significance of the Study
This study provides practitioners and researchers with a comparative effectiveness of M.S.TS.instruction with the traditional method.It particularly investigates the role of the M.S.TS. in the teaching methods course, an area which is claimed, to the best of the researcher's knowledge, to be uninvestigated in research to date.The present study fills this research gap.Besides, it is done in the Egyptian context, comprising using the instrument of an achievement test to assess actual achievement and a student perception form, not only surveys or questionnaires on perceptions of using the platform or together with other applications, which may be considered as quite novel at least concerning teaching methodology courses.

Hypotheses of the Study
For probing into the effectiveness of M.S.TS.instruction in EFL students' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course, the following two hypotheses were first formulated and then tested.
1) There are statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level between the pre-and-posttest mean scores of the experimental group in the achievement of EFL Teaching Methods I, in favor of the post-test mean scores.
2) There are statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level between the posttest mean scores of the experimental group and those of the control group in the achievement of EFL teaching methods I, in favor of those of the experimental group.

Delimitations of the Study
The present study was limited to 1) third-year students formally enrolled in the English Department at the Faculty of Education, Suez Canal University, Egypt.The teaching/learning was done online.The instruction was not in a blended-learning form.The students received instruction in the teaching methods course at their homes, as this suited both the instructor and the students, and the university did not mind this and gave the freedom to all instructors and students on campus to decide on the best means that suited their circumstances.Another reason for this was that there was no appropriate infrastructure at the university, i.e. an ample number of computers updated and ready to be used.
The term platform is used persistently in this study to describe Microsoft Teams to show the internet and data sourcing, analyzing, distributing, and data-storing capabilities.The term application is not used for M.S.TS in this study.

Definition of Terms
Some terms were repeatedly used in this study.The definition of these terms is presented below.
M.S.TS. is a platform medium that is cloud-based and it utilizes instruction to enable students' collaboration, interaction with the instructor, materials storage, communication, and task fulfillment.

Design
The study adopted a quasi-experimental approach comprising two groups: a control group (N.16) and an experimental group (N.16).At the beginning of the first term of the academic year 2022-2023, a pretest (The EFL Teaching Methods I Test -see Instruments) was administered to the two groups.
Then, both groups were taught the teaching methods course.Twelve sessions were distributed over the duration of the experiment which was four weeks.Students were asked to attend online teaching three times a week.Each session lasted for three hours.The total time was 36 hours in total, including pretest and posttest times.At the end of the experiment, the posttest (the EFL Teaching Methods I Test) was used to assess students' post-intervention achievement.

Participants
The participants were third-year majors enrolled in the English Department at the Faculty of Education in Ismailia, Suez Canal University training to be future teachers of EFL at public and private schools in Ismailia Governorate, Egypt.Egyptian university student teachers are only allowed to begin studying teaching methods courses during their third year of study at the department.The students' study program is four years, including preparation in applied linguistics and educational areas.
The Faculty gave permission to the researcher to carry out the experiment and the participant students agreed to participate, in turn.The participants were both females (n.26; 13 in each group) and males (n.6; 3 in each group), forming a total of 32 students.The experimental group was instructed via M.S.TS., while the control one received instruction in the traditional method.The experimental group participants had previous experience with the platform during their previous two-year study at the department as the university requested that each student have an account with M.S.TS.and use it for learning with the instructors who had to use it as well.The students were familiarized with M.S.TS.meetings.They knew how to join a meeting, do chatting and audio and video-calling, share files, and use emotions on the platform before the experiment was performed.

Achievement Test
For data to be collected, unlike most of the studies in literature, preparation of a teaching methods achievement test was necessary to be used as a pretest-posttest.The test was designed to attain the purpose of assessing students' achievement in the course.The test questions (Appendix 1) were seventeen and they were represented substitution, multiple-choice, and short-essay question types.The total item points for all the questions were 64, and the test time was three hours, as mentioned earlier.

Test Validity
To determine the test validity, two methods were used: face validity and intrinsic validity.

a) Face Validity
The test was submitted to three juror ELT staff, i.e. two full-time professors and a lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Suez Canal University, to decide whether the test items tested the course objectives comprising the skills needed by the students.The jurors were asked to request necessary modifications.According to the jury members' directions, valid items remained on the test while those with questionable validity were either revised and reworded or deleted.Items replacing the deleted ones were introduced.

b) Intrinsic Validity
The test's intrinsic validity was determined through the square root of the test reliability coefficient (El-Said,1979: 553).The test reliability coefficient was 0.924 (see test reliability below).The intrinsic validity was then √0.924 = 0.961.This meant that the test was intrinsically valid.

Test Reliability
A test-retest reliability method was adopted.The test was administered to thirty third-year English Department students during the first term of the academic year 2020-2021 at a two-week interval.Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (Brown, 1996) was calculated.It was 0.924.This implied that the calculated correlation coefficient was statistically significant (i.e. according to Brown, 1996).For the final pretest-posttest, see Appendix (1).

Student Perception Form
A student perception form was designed and used at end of the experiment.It aimed at exploring students' perceptions of the platform.Students' views were investigated for the platform usability, functions, effectiveness, ease of access, interaction support, and team content-sharing.Also, the form explored the students' satisfaction with the platform, the challenges they encountered, and the benefits they had during the experiment.The form comprised seven positive statements to determine the extent to which they applied to students (see Appendix 2), with a Likert-type scale questionnaire of four choices: Always, Often, Rarely, and Never.The results were addressed descriptively at the end of the course.

Procedures
Approximately two years before the experiment, the Teaching Methods I Test was designed, based on the course objectives.After that, the test validity and reliability were reached by the end of the second term of the academic year 2021-2022.The experiment began in the first week of the academic year 2022-2023.The participants were oriented on the aims and implications of the study.Next, they were assigned either to the control group (N=16) teaching in the traditional face-to-face method or to the experimental group (N=16) that was taught via M.S.TS.Afterward, the researcher explained to each group what their roles and jobs required during the experiment.The experimental group received brief training on manipulating the Teaching Methods I course via M.S.TS.Then, the pretest (the Teaching Methods I Test) was administered to the two groups before the experiment.During the time of the experiment which lasted for four weeks and thirty-six teaching hours, including six testing hours, the researcher taught both groups, to avoid instructor skill differences.The experimental group accessed the online course from home, as instructors were encouraged to do so by the Faculty management for not encountering equipment and internet connection problems on campus.At the end of the experiment, the posttest was conducted on the two groups.Finally, relevant statistical analysis of the data obtained was carried out, and the results were discussed and recommendations offered.

Materials
The study used the teaching methods course of Abu-Rahmah (2017), English Methodology: A Task-Based Course in English Pedagogy, as the instructional material for the course.The course book was written by Professor Mohamed Ismail Abu-Rahmah, a professor at the Faculty of Education, Suez Canal University, and it was approved by the Teaching Methods and Instruction Department Board at Suez Canal University.The researcher obtained written permission from the author to teach the course.For related course goals, contents, teaching calendar, and student tasks see below.

The Course Goals
The course was composed of the seven chapters.These were the Challenges of ELT in Egypt, Methodology Definition, Traditional Approaches, Audio-Lingual Method, The Communicative Approach, The Integrative Approach, and The Eclectic Approach & Post-Method Pedagogy The following course goals were to be achieved by the participants by the end of the teaching time.Accordingly, they were then anticipated to be able to 1) describe briefly the challenges facing ELT in Egypt. 2

Statistical Procedures
To obtain results, the statistical analysis was administered to the data collected, using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).Specifically, t-tests were performed.First, to ensure the necessary procedure that the control and experimental groups had no statistically significant differences in their mean scores on the pretest, an independent samples t-test test was administered.Then, after the course was taught, the test was re-administered to both groups to examine the differences in the mean scores of both the control and the experimental groups.It was also conducted on the experimental group on the pretest and posttest occasions as well.The Eta Square Equation (i.e. as in Haddock et al. (1998) was administered twice to calculate the effectiveness of the course in participants' achievement of the course, i.e. both on pretest-posttest experimental-experimental levels and posttest control-experimental group levels.
When the t-test was administered to both groups' results on the pretest, it was found that the mean scores were 6.33 and 6.31, for the control and experimental group results, respectively.The t-value was 0.08, which meant there were no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the two groups.
Also, statistics of student numbers and related percentage calculations regarding students' responses to a certain statement on the Student Perception Form were carried out.This was to enable comparison of certain findings on the form in a quantitative form to make pertaining conclusions.

Results
The study's questions needed to be answered and hypotheses verified.To answer the first study question, "How far is M.S.TS.effective in the EFL students' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course?" the following Table (2) shows the difference reflected in experimental group statistics: difference in mean scores, standard error deviation, t-value, degree of freedom, and 95% confidence interval of the difference between pretest and posttest administrations.2), the experimental group pretest mean score was 6.31 while it was 49.1 on the post-test.The difference in mean scores is -42.8, which is huge.The t-value is -18.8, which implies a statistically significant difference.Considering the 95% confidence interval of the difference (Lower case -47.7 and upper case -38), it is evident that the difference is statistically significant at the 5% level in favor of the experimental group post-test mean scores.This confirms the first study hypothesis, "There are statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level between the pretest-posttest mean scores of the experimental group in the achievement of EFL Teaching Methods I, in favor of the posttest mean scores." The Eta Square effect size was calculated to assess the practical significance (effectiveness) of the M.S.TS.; it was found to be 0.959.This was a high effect size, which meant that the M.S.TS. was highly effective in third-year EFL students' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course.This answers the first study question, "How far is M.S.TS.effective in the EFL students' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course?" To answer the second study question, "Compared to traditional teaching, how far is M.S.TS.effective in the EFL participants' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course?" the mean scores were statistically obtained through the computerized t-test: 39.93 for the control group and 49.13 for the experimental one.To decide whether the difference in mean scores was statistically significant at the 0.05 level, first, a comparison between the posttest mean scores of the experimental and control groups was made.Then, a calculation of the related effect size was administered.Table (3) shows both groups' post-test related statistics, i.e. t-value, degree of freedom, two-tailed significance, mean score difference, standard error deviation, and 95% confidence interval of the difference.The statistical data in Table (3) displays the t-test for equality of means and the 95% confidence interval of the difference.The t-value, df, significance (two-tailed), mean difference, standard error difference, and lower, and upper 95% confidence interval of the difference are -2.904, 29.945, .007, -9.188, 3.164, -15.64, and -2.73, respectively.This means that the two groups have statistically significant differences in mean scores at the 0.05 level in favor of the experimental group.This verifies the study's second question, "There are statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level between the posttest mean scores of the experimental group and those of the control group in the achievement of the EFL Teaching Methods I course, in favor of those of the experimental group." The Eta Square effect size was calculated to assess the practical significance (i.e.effectiveness) for the difference between the two groups on the posttest.The result was 0.219; it was high, which meant that the M.S.TS. was highly more effective in the third-year EFL students' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course than the traditional method.This answers the second study question, "Compared to traditional teaching, how far is M.S.TS.effective in the EFL students' achievement of the Teaching Methods I course?" To answer the third study question, "What are the students' perceptions of M.S.TS.used for learning the EFL Teaching Methodology I course?"data from the Student Perception Form in Appendix (2) was collected, and the number of students choosing a certain case for a statement and related percentages were calculated.Table (4) reflects this calculation.
Table 4. student-choice statistics
These statements are related to platform functions, course achievement, content-sharing, and enjoyment.The least high student percentage statement was no. 4 (0.69), and it was related to the access to the platform.Three students (0.19%) reported that it was rarely easy for them to access the platform.
In their comments, 100% of students pointed out that they liked the calling, interaction, teamwork, content-sharing, recording, and emotions capabilities on the platform.Three students (reflecting a minority of 19%) reported they had the challenges of slow access to the program.However, since the vast majority of students were for all the positive Form statements, this implies that they were generally in favor of it.

Discussion
The experimental group showed students' statistically significant differences between pretest and posttest administrations (t= -18.8).This implies that a big difference in students' achievement occurred.It is believed that the majority of this change occurred because students preliminarily came from a vacation during which they did not study to prepare themselves for the pretest.Besides, they had almost no idea about the terms/ teaching methods presented by the course before, especially about the questions related to acronyms used on the test (see questions of the test in Appendix A).On the posttest, by contrast, they were taught the course and gained necessary knowledge and skills via M.S.TS., which may interpret their high results.
However, part of the change can be attributed to the M.S.TS.intervention, as proven later, when comparing the post-test differences in mean scores between the control group and the experimental group (t=2.904).The difference was in favor of the experimental group.This difference had an effect size of 0.219, which was high.This means not only did the experimental group achieve higher but also the difference in mean scores with the posttest control group was practically significant (or effective) in favor of the experimental group.This difference can be attributed to the M.S.TS.used.This result is consistent with Hussein (2016) in which effectiveness in students' achievement was evident.However, there are two differences between Hussein (2016) and the present study results in that 1.) Hussein ( 2016) used a Blackboard Collaborate Application while the present used M.S.TS.and 2) Hussein ( 2016) involved females as participants while the present study both males and females.Also, the present study results conformed to those of EKİNCİ and EKİNCİ (2021) regarding the M.S.TS.effectiveness in achievement.The study investigated the effect of the platform in a grammar course while the present study used a Teaching Methods course for the same purpose.
Notably, students' perceptions in the present study were highly in favor of the platform.Reasons for this may be referred to the platform itself where students performed many interactive tasks during the meetings, such as group work in Chat Rooms where they were divided into groups where the researcher sometimes intervened with their discussions to ensure compliance, facilitate points, or direct to a certain point.Also, the content-sharing made it easy for students to be engaged and follow the materials as if they were in real classrooms.Especially, the Whiteboard capability can be said to particularly assist in this regard.Also, the other functions represented in e-mails between the instructor and the students, Class Notebook where important information was written by the instructor, Calendar scheduling which helped organize meetings, Assignments where homework was given, corrected, and sent back, and Webinars where students could record lectures and make enjoyable unique presentations.All these capabilities may have led to achieving the present study results.
Statements 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 on the Student Perception Form received the highest estimates as students used the platform functions well, simply because they were attracted by the technology where they navigated and obtained knowledge related to how to employ new capabilities they had not explored before through mere curiosity.They reported they had not used certain capabilities before the beginning of the experiment, the Chat Rooms, for example.Although this study result is mainly in line with Almodaires et al. (2021), the only difference was that Almodaires et al. (2021) comprised only female participants.
Students reported that they interacted well whether with the researcher or with other students when required.This reporting meant the platform was successful to a large extent in helping in attaining the general interaction and communication leading to the course goals.This conclusion copes with the results of AlAdwani & AlFadley (2022).Nonetheless, their study did not assess the M.S.TS.effectiveness in students' achievement and did not use a test, either.
Students also reported that they enjoyed the platform.This claim may be attributed to such functions as Calling where they called the instructor and one another before and after the lecture to ask certain questions about homework.Also, the individual messaging, in particular, helped much in clarifying certain matters concerning newly joining student guidance.Besides, the sending of stickers and emojis helped in creating a sense of humor and reinforcement/ inquiry as well.The content-sharing informed of the students' desire for knowledge.
Some students (a minority of 19%) complained that the platform took a while to be accessed.That is why the related statement on the Students' Perception Form received the least high rank from the students.Reasons for this observation might be referred to the low-speed internet package those students' parents subscribed to.Most of the students came from low-to-moderate economic backgrounds, basically.
Although the present study results also conform to those of EKİNCİ and EKİNCİ (2021) regarding M.S.TS.effectiveness in students' perceptions, the difference was in the grammar course used by the EKİNCİ and EKİNCİ (2021) while the present study course used a teaching methods course.
One important observation which particularly attracted the researcher during the experiment was when students performed group work via the platform Chat Room capability.They noticeably showed much attraction, involvement, and enthusiasm.These changes in students' behaviors influenced their motivation towards learning the course via the platform, and it apparently caused much enjoyment seen in their willingness to do other activities.This observation was not evident in the control group.
Another point was that students were eager to make their presentations using the platform.They showed much organization while utilizing the Webinar, Files, and Content-Sharing capabilities.This remarkably made easier their presentations of work.
A third point was the Webinar which also helped them record the lectures.The Webinar is thought to have helped them refer to the material after they had taken the lectures, in addition to boosting presentations.This observation is of an important implication for the continuity of learning, a capability that was not automatically offered to the control group.
The researcher believes that, particularly, the three points mentioned above, including particular platform capabilities, much helped more than the other platform capabilities in improving students' achievement and perceptions of the course.It is presumed that they were directly linked to raising students' motivation.The reason for this claim was that students showed more attraction and enthusiasm toward using those capabilities as well as involvement, as mentioned earlier.The researcher thinks that these capabilities are even the most influential among all the other ones which led to the present study results.The present study supposes that only when a knowledgeable instructor is skillful at using and employing the platform capabilities, a significant difference in students' motivation and, hence, learning/ achievement and positive perceptions can then occur.
During the experiment, when students were asked if they had used certain capabilities, they said, "We had used neither the Chat Rooms to do group work nor the Content-Sharing, Files, and Webinar to make presentations before."

Conclusions
The M.S.TS. was effective in improving third-year students' achievement of the knowledge and skills related to the EFL Teaching Methods I Course.Students' views/ perceptions were in favor of the platform as well.It is concluded that the M.S.TS.intervention is more effective than the traditional face-to-face method, mainly due to the attraction capabilities in the program; namely, the Chat Rooms, Content-Sharing, Files, webinars, audio and video-Calling, and Calendar, in particular.It was observed that the platform generally boosted students' motivation towards learning and this motivation-raising caused a difference in achievement with the control group, as well as leading to posive perceptions.However, the results of this study could be limited to social sciences and humanity-affiliated teaching programs, as the case of practical sciences is different (see El-Sobkey, 2022) as the platform was not seen to be of much use in their practical programs.
It is, then, suggested that the platform should be used whenever there is a need or when circumstances demand as long as the teaching is theoretical and problem-free.It is also recommended that it be used not only at colleges but also at schools when face-to-face interaction becomes hard for the teachers and students to meet.It should be used with other theoretical subjects as well, not only with the teaching methods subject.The platform capabilities, such as the main one, Meetings, and the minor ones, Chat Rooms, Content-Sharing, Webinars, Audio and Video-Calling alongside others much attracted the present study participants and made them interact well and be much involved in learning and later discussion with the instructor.All these capabilities may have led to the overall students' final platform effectiveness and positive perceptions of the platform.
However, it must be noted that instructors at the university should receive more training for maximizing the potential of M.S.TS.Still, some capabilities need more stress and investigation, such as using Multi-Channels.Besides, the teaching methods activities ought to be well integrated more professionally within the platform.These are two important notes which are seen to assist in making future differences.

Directions for Further Research
Based on the literature reviewed earlier and the results of this study, the following points may be worth considering: • More insights into M.S.TS. in terms of platform capabilities which have the most effect on learning appear necessary.
• A larger-scale experiment is needed.
• More subject-area investigation should receive focus.
• Possibly, the effectiveness of the platform's capabilities can be assessed when college and school administrators hold meetings with teachers and students.
• A study can be performed to distinguish between male and female achievement using social networking applications/ platforms, including M.S.TS.

•
A thorough comparative study is required to compare the uses of the various social application features in teaching to identify the most useful ones to be utilized in a specific situation in instruction.
• A comparison between synchronous and asynchronous teaching involving needs to be of more specific focus.
• Various assessment techniques performed via M.S.TS., such as E-portfolio-assessment whose constituents are collected by instructors, needs to be compared to traditional classroom assessment ones.Related effectiveness needs to be explored as well.
• Investigation of E-group learning via the M.S.TS. is highlighted.Chat Rooms should receive more attention.
• The effect of M.S.TS multi-Channel teaching of different ELT courses performed simultaneously and synchronously via the platform needs to be of focus.
2. When the students had finished reading and translating the passage, the teacher asked them in Spanish if they had any questions.One girl asked about the meaning of the Paddle wheel and the teacher replied in Spanish.
3. The teacher moved on to the comprehension questions underneath the excerpt.She asked the students to read them and write down their answers.She helped the students to do the first question; one asked the question and another replied.She encouraged the answer by saying `Bueno' (i.e.OK).
4. After some time, the teacher checked the students' answers.Each student read a question and then read their answer.If it was correct, the teacher called on another student to read the next question.If not, the teacher herself corrected the answer or selected another student to give the correct answer.
5. The teacher moved on to deal with another exercise related to lexical items.She asked the students to give the Spanish translation or antonyms for some words taken from or have antonyms in the excerpt.
6.The teacher moved on to the grammar section.She read over the description of the rule and the examples that followed it.Next, she asked the students to do an exercise applying that rule.When they had finished, they read their answers aloud (one by one).
7. For homework, the teacher asked the students to memorize the first 20 words/idioms and their Spanish translations from the list at the end of the chapter.She also asked them to put each word/idiom in a sentence of their own.
25.The following procedures represent which method of teaching (ALM-GTM-CLT-IA): 1. Dialogues containing everyday expressions are used as a language input.They are learned through the mim-mem (mimicry-memorization) process in which learners listen to the teacher or a recorded model in the normal class or language laboratory.
2. When learners have learned by heart the sentences in the dialogue, pattern drills are used to practice structures.They are first practiced chorally after the teacher, followed by smaller groups (not like the group work in CLT), then on an individual basis.
3. After that learners are introduced to the printed script for reading.
4. For writing there are two types of activity: (1) controlled for beginners through answering a series of questions to compose a short précis or through filling in the gaps in a short paragraph and (2) uncontrolled for advanced learners through writing compositions based on the material they have covered in the reading.
26.The following principles may belong to which method of teaching (ALM-GTM-IA-CLT): a. Speaking activities consume most of the class time.Any receptive tasks (e.g.listening or reading) should be used as a preparation for the practice of speaking.
b.No use of L1 in class -if it is used, it will be just for classroom management or for giving the equivalent of an L2 word or phrase.This, however, should be the last resort and 'an exception rather than a rule.
c.The negotiation of meaning and exchange of information should be the focus of all classroom activities; not the form and structure of the language.
27.The following procedures represent which method of teaching (ALM-IA-GTM-CLT): First, find a cardboard tube which has contained sweets, or a kitchen roll, and take off the lid.Carefully cut a small slit in the open end.Find five used match sticks.Now make four small holes underneath the tube for the legs and push in the match sticks.Next, make a similar small hole at the top of the back and push in the last match stick.Make a careful tracing of the dog's head from the picture.Stick it onto a stiff card and cut the shape neatly.Now push the neck carefully into the slit you have made in the tube.Of course, you can make him look much better if you paint his head a nice brown.(Adapted from Mills, 1985:55).
28.The following procedure suits………….themost.(ALM-IA-GTM-CLT) The teacher introduces the lesson to the learners, saying that they are going to learn about how to make a paper dog.As they write the following verbs at random on the blackboard (henceforth b/b), they pronounce them clearly: Push stick make

Push fin cut
Take off cut out Paint Push trace find make Then, the learners are asked to read them, then locate them in the input text and underline each one.Next, they are asked to organize these words according to the order in which they appear in the input text.To create a competitive atmosphere in the classroom the teacher may write three lists on the board, each including the numbers from 1 to 13, and asks each row of students to fill in the list in front of them.The row which organizes the words first is the winner.This will result in the following column: The learners are asked to locate them in the input text and put a circle around each one.Through the responses of the learners, the words are put in a second column in the order in which they appear in the text.Here the teacher, depending on the duration of the period, decides whether to have a competition or not.

Find
another set of words (the ones on the second column in Transition Notes above) at random on the board.These words are:

Analysis 1 .
Analyze, giving examples of principles of the grammar-translation method.(10 points: an item receives 1 point, and a related example ½ a point) Evaluation 2. Evaluate the relative importance of only three drawbacks of CLT.(9 points) Understanding 3. How can 'drifters' differ from 'true eclecticism'?(3 points)

Table 1 .
course calendar, session topics, student tasks, and contact hours.

Table 2 .
paired sample statistics for differences between the experimental group on the pretest and posttest