چکیده (انگلیسی):

Information technology has opened up prospects for rich and innovative approaches to tackle
educational issues and provide solutions to the increasing demands for learning resources.
YouTube, a video-sharing website that allows users to upload, view, and share video clips, offers
access to new and dynamic opportunities for effective and non-traditional patterns of teaching and
learning. In Saudi Arabia, this technology has not been exploited much for educational purposes.
The present study aims at experimenting the impact of integrating YouTube technology into
English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction on enhancing EFL college students’ learning of
the content of the course: “Observation in Schools 2”. This course is one of five courses taught in
the program “Elementary School Teacher of English” which aims at developing certain
observation skills for effective teaching in elementary school. Such skills could include using
particular frames or lenses to gain insight about the classroom and teaching and learning, and
developing methods of observing and recording. For the purpose of the study, a quasi
experimental design was adopted. Based on such design, two groups of second year college
students at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the Faculty of Education at Princess
Noura University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were randomly assigned to the experimental and the
control groups of the study. There were forty- five students in the control group and fifty -one in
the experimental group. A pre-posttest covering the theoretical background of the course
"Observation in School 2" was developed to be administered to all subjects of the sample before
and after the experiment. Subjects of the experimental group were instructed the theoretical
background of the course through the use of YouTube videos about observing the classroom,
combined with discussion and power point presentation. Students of the control group were taught
the same content through the usual lecture-based method. Instruction was provided to both groups
by the researcher and took place throughout the second term of the academic year in 2011 for a
period of 6 weeks, 2 hours per week. Statistical procedures were applied on the data obtained
using a t-test, and major findings yielded results favourable to the use of the YouTube technology.
The study shows positive gains for the experimental group students’ outcomes as a result of the
integration of video technology in instruction. Thus, it was recommended that YouTube should be
considered as an effective instructional tool for enhancing content learning of EFL college
students and as an important teaching resource in classrooms.