The article titled “EFL Teachers' Perceptions and Perspectives on Internet-Assisted Language Teaching” is one of the articles that I found on the net that is related to Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). It is written by Hee-Jae Shin from Buyeo Girls’ High School, Korea and Jeoung- Bae Son from University of Southern Queensland, Australia. I took this article from CALL – EJ online, article number 2, Volume 8. The writers submitted this article in January 2007.
Internet has become the number one stop for learning, entertainment, business, teaching, and so forth. Many of us use the Internet without realising that we use it on our daily basis. It has become an important tool in our daily lives. Everything that we want to know in this world is at our fingertips. As noted by Warschauer, Shetzer and Meloni (2000), the Internet has been reshaping many aspects of society such as on-line education, advertising, marketing and sales. Along with the impact of information and communication (ICT) on society, the Internet is widely used in many sectors. Since 1990s the Korean Ministry of Education has provided and supported both primary and secondary schools with multimedia computers, software programs and Internet connections to encourage the use of computers and the Internet for education in Korea. Since Internet provides variety of resources and materials, many Korean teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) use it for their teaching purposes. Language teachers, accordingly, can make their classes individualised and personalised, resulting in self-empowerment and autonomy in learning (Warschauer, Turbee & Roberts, 1996). They can create homepages for the purpose of their lessons and put their materials on-line (Meagher, 1995). Muehleisen (1997) recommends ESL/EFL teachers to utilize the Internet in their classes for motivating students to use the English language outside the classroom and to make the language a part of their daily lives. However, many teachers do not make full use of it. There is little computer -assisted language learning (CALL) research done particularly on the use of Internet for teaching EFL to Korean secondary school students, even though they have easy access to the Internet in secondary schools.
Therefore, this article is to address this issue and reports the results of a study that examined Korean secondary school EFL teachers’ perceptions and perspectives on the use of the Internet for teaching purposes.
A study was conducted and 101 Korean secondary school EFL teachers (52 males and 49 females) were given a questionnaire to document Korean secondary school EFL teachers’ perceptions and perspectives on the use of the Internet for English language teaching purposes. The questionnaire consisted 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. It was distributed online and the data collected from the questionnaire were analysed quantitatively and quantitatively.
The results of the questionnaire indicate that a majority of the EFL teachers actually used the Internet for their teaching purposes. They used the Internet mainly for the preparation of teaching materials than directly with students in the classroom. More than half of the teachers (51 out of 101) used the Internet with their students in the classroom for teaching purposes. Of the 51 teachers who used the Internet with their students in the classroom, 45 teachers used the Internet more than once a month. Most teachers (88 out of 101) also used Internet resources to prepare their teaching materials. Of the 88 teachers who used the Internet for preparation of their teaching materials, 61 teachers used the Internet more than five hours a week. The results of the questionnaire also stated the types of Internet activity used in the classroom by these teachers and the reasons for preventing Internet use in the classroom. These respondents also stated the problems they might have with the use of internet in the classroom. Many students will play computer games or chatting, slow internet connection, and the difficulties to find materials to suit the school’s curricula. Overall, teachers gave positive comments, feedbacks and suggestions towards the use of CALL and the future of IALT in Korea.
I find that this article is really interesting because I feel that using the Internet in teaching is actually a step that every teacher must take. I feel that teachers should provide plenty of opportunities for students to use their linguistic knowledge imaginatively in different contexts. New technologies offer many opportunities for students to learn independently and use language creatively. Teachers can try using weblogs, emails, internet conferencing, videos, interactive multimedia activities, and podcasts that can enhance teaching-learning environment.
In my opinion, this research is well conducted. The researchers clearly stated the aim and objectives of the study and it is well organized. The charts and graphs make it easier for readers to further comprehend it. I think that there should be more studies done on this issue so that teachers out there not only in Korea but also in Malaysia to actually realise and start making full use of the Internet in their teaching. Nowadays, however, I think it is much more clearly understood that the computer can play a useful part in the language class only if the teacher first asks: What is it that I want my students to learn today, and what is the best way for them to learn it? In most cases, the answer will probably not involve the computer, but there will be occasions when the computer is the most suitable and, for the students, most enjoyable way to get the job done.
This is the link to access the article:
http://eprints.usq.edu.au/1924/1/Shin_Son.pdf
