Administrators', teachers' and students' perceptions about the benefits of and barriers to TELL at Koya University

Abstract

This study examined the feelings and viewpoints of administrators, EFL teachers and EFL students on the benefits of and barriers to technology-enhanced language learning (TELL). This study has been conducted in an English Department at a state university in the north of Iraq. The purpose of this study was to understand the attitudes of teachers and students who infrequently use technology for educational purposes towards the use of technology for language teaching and learning. Moreover, this study aimed to find out the participants‘ level of technology use. Finally, barriers that administrators, teachers and students encounter were examined. Questionnaires and interviews were administered in order to collect data. The first questionnaire was distributed to 124 EFL students whose educational grades were freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. The second questionnaire was administered to nine EFL teachers at the same university whose educational degrees were PhD, MA and MA candidate. Moreover, three administrators, three teachers and four students were interviewed in order to get further information. The findings showed that despite their positive attitudes towards technology integration in education, the teachers and students were infrequently incorporating technology into their education. The infrequent use of technology is due to several barriers. Deficiency of technological instruments, financial problem and lack of electricity are challenges that prevent teachers and students from integrating technology into their language teaching and learning. In addition, the results indicated that lack of proficiency in using technology and lack of technology-training courses are also barriers that students suffer from. Finally, this study presented several pedagogical suggestions such as providing sufficient funding for technological instruments, training courses and electricity in order to increase technology integration in education.