b. Journal:CALL EJ online, Vol. 8, No. 2, January 2007
c. Authors' name: Hee-Jae Shin and Jeong-Bae Son
LINK: http://eprints.usq.edu.au/1924/1/Shin_Son.pdf
INTRODUCTION
The journal EFL Teachers' Perceptions and Perspectives on Internet-Assisted Language Teaching was written by Hee-Jae Shin and Jeong-Bae Son. Hee-Jae Shin is an EFL teacher at Buyeo Girls' High School in Chungnam Province, Korea. Her main research interest is in Internet-assisted English language teaching and learning. Jeong-Bae Son is a teacher educator in applied linguistics with specialisation in computer-assisted language learning. He teaches applied linguistics (TESOL & LOTE) courses and supervises research projects in the Facult of Education at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He is currently President of the Asia-Pacific Association for Computer-Assisted Language Learning.
SUMMARY
This section aims to give a better understanding on purpose of the study, methodology, findings that were put by the respondents in the study.
This study was conducted due to the widespread Internet connections in Korean secondary schools. However, little computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research particularly on the use of the Internet for teaching EFL to Korean secondary school students has been conducted so far to the teachers in the school. The study reported in this article attempts to respond to the need for more CALL research in the Korean context through an investigation of Korean secondary school EFL teachers’ perceptions and perspectives on the use of the Internet. The purpose of the study is to explore the teachers’ perceptions and perspectives on the use of Internet in the classroom for English language teaching purpose.
METHODOLOGY
The subject in the study was 101 Korean secondary school EFL teachers (52 Males and 49 Females) from 150 schools in Korean. The age range of the respondents was from 23 to 63 years with the mean of age 38. Besides, the range of teaching experience was less than 5 years to more than 25 years with a mean of 13 years. A questionnaire was used in this study. The questionnaire consists of three sections: a demographic section to get respondents’ background information; a multiple-choice section to find their perceptions and perspectives on the use of the Internet using a modified Likert scale; and an open-ended question section to elicit their general opinions or comments on the use of the Internet for teaching purposes in the classroom. The questionnaire was administered online and offline to EFL teachers in the 150 schools in Kyungki and Chungnam provinces in Korea. A total of 101 completed questionnaires had been returned within two-month time and the data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
FINDINGS
The finding of the study was the Korean secondary school EFL teachers’ attitudes toward the use of the Internet for teaching purposes were positive. They did use the Internet in their teaching in the classrooms. Of the 101 teachers, majority of the students which was 51 teachers used the Internet for students in the actual classroom which was to prepare teaching materials. Most non-Internet users wished to use the Internet if allowed and most non-participants in in-service training courses showed willingness to take training courses if available. A total of 92 teachers believed that Internet resources could be used for teaching purposes. They believed that the Internet can be an effective tool for finding authentic resources, sharing information, communicating with target language speakers and motivating students. However, they seemed to have difficulties in using the Internet in the classroom. Contextual reasons for not using the Internet include limited computer facilities, limited class hours, inappropriate class size and limited technical support and unexpected Internet disconnections. It seems, nevertheless, that Korean secondary school EFL teachers are aware of the advantages of using the Internet in the classroom, seeing the Internet as an invaluable source of useful information for teaching their teenage students. The potential of the Internet can be enormous if they make efforts to find and use Internet resources with positive attitudes.
REACTION
I. Does the research interest you?
I will say absolutely say YES! The reason why I review this article is because I truly believe that Internet is a very important tool for teachers to use in language teaching. As this research is all about Internet usage and teacher’s perceptions on internet assisted in language teaching, as a future teacher, I am keen on knowing deeper about what teachers have done using internet in their classroom as well as what are their perceptions and problems that they face in integrating Internet in language teaching. If we reviewed the emergence of technology, in recent years, computer technology has begun to play an important role in education. The possibilities for computer enhanced teaching and learning has been on the forefront of educational studies.
In Malaysia Internet is also developed into a significant tool in education line. In early 1970’s, the Malaysian government has introduced various initiatives to facilitate the use of information, communication technology (ICT) in every field including education (Salbiah, n.d.). The Ministry of education sees ICT as a means, not end in itself in promoting teaching and learning (Chan, n.d). Chan further added that, the concept of ICT in education, as seen by the Ministry of Education, includes systems that enable information gathering, management, manipulation, access, and communication in various forms. The Ministry has formulated three main policies for ICT in education: ICT is for all students. ICT in education is seen as a teaching and learning tool, as part of a subject, and as a subject itself and ICT is used to increase productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of the management system. Based on the policy mentioned, the Ministry intends to make ICT-enhanced teaching and learning, distance learning, video conferencing and Internet-links as common features in the Malaysian schools (Ministry of Education, 2004). Malaysian schools would have unlimited access to an extremely large source of information. It is also hoped that the utilization of ICT would encourage constructive learning and collaborative classroom discussion making education more meaningful. The ministry’s aspiration and hope will only be achieved if teachers give full cooperation by using the ICT in the classroom as suggested. Thus, the study has investigated the use of Internet in Korean classrooms which can be the paradigm for Malaysian teachers to replicate it in the classroom in line with the ministry wishes. Therefore, it somehow can be the eye opener for the teachers especially me as a future teacher to be familiar with the usage of Internet in classroom teaching and learning.
ii. Do you think the research well conducted?
What I can see is the study is a good sample of research done in this field. The strength of this study is the instrument used. First, it uses questionnaire which consists of three sections: a demographic section to get respondents ‘background information; a multiple-choice section to find their perceptions and perspectives on the use of the Internet using a modified Likert scale; and an open-ended question section to elicit their general opinions or comments on the use of the Internet for teaching purposes in the classroom. The strengths by using surveys is permitting the researcher to summarize the characteristics of different groups or to measure their attitudes and opinions towards some issues (Ary, Jacobs and Razavieh, 2002). The open ended questions are also good to triangulate the data obtained as well as to look deeper into the issue investigated. However, there is still a room for improvement on numbers the participant which is only conducted in one high school. The sample of the study might not be generalized to the population. It is better if more schools are involved in the study.
Since this is a piece of good research, I personally think that this research is applicable for those who have interest to conduct a similar research especially teachers who want to investigate deeper about this subject area. This is because the setting of this research is in school and the participants also school teachers. Thus, it is somehow give precious information and aspects to be looked into in future research in school setting. Furthermore, they can actually try to look into different perspective in investigating the use of IALT in language teaching such as the activities carry out by teachers using Internet.
iii. What are the implications of the research in the teaching and learning of ESL?
In general, I believe that the results can give some invaluable input for teachers to use Internet and to expend knowledge about Internet usage in class. In this research it is stated on how teachers think about IALT, how they use the Internet, what types of resources they use on the Internet and key factors affecting the use of the Internet in the classroom. So based on the results of this research, teachers can update their knowledge on the use of Internet in language learning and somehow adapt it in their language teaching. Apart from that, they can eventually know the problems faced by the other teachers and can find solutions for the future purpose.
Well, this study also gives implication towards Malaysian context. It gives a valuable insight on teacher perspectives and perceptions toward Internet Assisted Language Learning which can be taken into Malaysian context. Since it was done in Korea, it is much similar to Malaysia as both countries are Asian countries. From the article, one of the most important issues that I want to highlight here is more than half of the teachers reported that they did not undergo this in-service training. So, I believe that the same situation happens in Malaysia. There are a lot of teachers who do not know how to operate computers as well as use the Internet. Therefore teachers need to be given in-service training courses to learn how to use the Internet for teaching purposes. Government should alerts with this scenario and they can help by giving allocation and grants for each school to conduct in-service training for the teachers to master the use of computers. Besides, schools should have peer group coaching in order to help teachers who are incapable of using the internet.As a result, teachers can update their style of teaching by using the Internet. Therefore, I think that this research has quite impressive implications in broad as well as in Malaysian context especially for to the ESL teachers.
REFERENCES
Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., & Razavieh, A. (2002). Introduction to Research in Education.USA: Wadsworth.
Chan, F. M (n.d). ICT in Malaysian Schools : Policy and Strategies. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from http://www.unpanl.un.org/
Ministry of education (2004,July). The development of education. National report of Malaysia. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/ICE47/English/natreps/reports/Malaysia.pdf
Salbiah. I.( n.d.). ICT in the classroom : A Malaysian Perspective. Retrieved February 22, 2011 from http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/
Ok, 8.3/10
ReplyDeleteTYVM Sir :)
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