The link to the reviewed article is attached below this picture:
Summary
The purpose of the
research is to look into the sources of discouragement in CALL in language
teaching. The research is governed by two research objectives which include to
identify the relationship between the familiarity of teachers with computers
and their perspectives on the source of discouragement in computer use and also
to identify the most influential factor that discourage the teachers in using
computers in their lessons. A total of fifty in-service male and female
teachers with at least three years of experience from various English language
teaching institutions in Tehran participated in this survey research. The
instrument used is a 33-item questionnaire on the sources of discouragement in
computer or technology use. It is intended to measure the teachers’ familiarity
and interest in computers and the sources of discouragement and unwillingness
that they might have experienced in their teaching career.
The findings of the
research indicate that there are no significant relationship between the
teachers’ familiarity with computers and their recognition of the sources of
discouragement in computer use and lack of facilities has been recognized as
the most influential factor that discourages the teachers to use computers in
their lessons.
The research finds that
lack of time is more discouraging than perceived usefulness and others’
attitude while lack of administration support has been found to be more
discouraging than both perceived usefulness, others’ attitude as well as low
mastery. Low mastery, on a different note, is more discouraging than perceived
usefulness and others’ attitude but it is less discouraging than lack of
facilities. It is also agreed that perceived usefulness and others’ attitude is
not as discouraging as perceived ease of use and lack of facilities. Since lack
of facilities is the most influential factor, others’ attitude is less
discouraging than the issue with the facilities.
Reaction
In
my opinion, I do find the research to be interesting. Even though the issue
that is being discussed can be considered a rather normal and a common issue, I
still do believe that knowing which factor actually influence the teachers’
willingness the most in incorporating computers in their lessons could help in making
the normalization of CALL possible. I think the term normalization caught my
attention with the fact that if something is considered as normal, the teachers,
as well as the students would not feel so intimidated or anxious about the use
of computers in their teaching and learning activities. Things are only
intimidating when we are not used to it. New things intimidate us, that is a
normal occurrence. This is why the normalization of CALL is important so as to
make it a norm. However, in order for us to get there, a lot of work needs to
be done and knowing the reason to why teachers are reluctant to make use of
computers in their lessons could assist in the effort to achieve normalization
of CALL.
Generally,
I believe that the research is well conducted. This is because, since it seeks
to look at the teachers’ perception, a survey should get the work done. If
there is any improvement that can be done to the research, probably having a
few interviews could help in getting a more in-depth opinion on the issue. Survey
questions that are constructed in the likert scale form are very much
close-ended. No explanation can be given and thus there is no clearly explained
reason to why such answers were given. Therefore, if some interviews are
conducted, then maybe a more clearly explained reasons and justifications can
be made by the teachers for their answers.
The
research is definitely related to the teaching of language not only in Tehran,
where the research is conducted, but also every other language teaching
institution. If we look at the Malaysian context, the government is directing
our education system to move towards incorporating computers in the teaching
and learning in schools. However, as stated in the findings of the research,
the lack of facilities provided is the most influential factors in discouraging
the use of computers. The situation is the same in Malaysia because I believe
that in language teaching, most teachers would love to use the computers
because many things can be done using the programmes that are created for
language teaching. However, problem arises when issues like the limited number
of functioning computers and also the practicality of incorporating CALL when
not all students can be in front of a computer during the lesson. Having them
sharing the computer or maybe just looking at the teacher’s computer (if the
school does not have computers), makes the learning ineffective and thus most
teachers would opt to not incorporate CALL in their lessons.
According
to the findings, perceived usefulness is less discouraging than low mastery.
This means that the teachers do believe that the use of computers in language
learning is very much beneficial. However, the low mastery of level of the
teachers with the use of computers discourages them to use it. If they do not
have enough knowledge in cooperating computers in language learning, not much
can be done and thus the computers would not be utilized to their highest
potential. Other than the lack of facilities, perceived ease of use is also one
of the most discouraging factors. With the lack of mastery, definitely the
teachers would feel that using computers is tedious and this is added with the
lack of facilities provided by the government for the schools to be able to
implement the use of computers at a larger scale. Therefore, the Malaysian
government should really consider training the teachers in the use of computers
while also working on providing enough facilities for the school. This should
include the maintenance of the computers as well as assisting the education
community to believe in the use of computers and thus accepting the
normalization of CALL in schools.
Reference
Maftoon, P., & Shahini, A. (2012). CALL normalization:
A survey on inhibitive factors. The Journal of the JALT CALL SIG, 8 (1),
17-32.
