EFL teachers’ perceptions of bichronous online teaching

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors’ perceptions about bichronous online teaching and to examine if the perceptions change according to their age, academic qualification, professional qualification, years of experience in the profession, and perceived competence in the use of educational technologies. This quantitative descriptive study was conducted with 141 English preparatory school instructors of a public university in Ankara, Turkey. The items related to teachers’ perceptions of bichronous online teaching were adapted from Venkatesh et al. (2003) for the online questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The results showed that age, academic qualifications, professional qualifications, years of experience in the profession, and perceived competence in the use of educational technologies seemed to have affected the perceptions of some groups of EFL instructors on bichronous teaching, even though most of them were in favor of bichronous online teaching with the constructs in the “Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model” (Venkatesh et al., 2003). The findings also indicated that there is a need for encouraging the instructors to get further training and qualifications, and having a support system and an online community. The instructors should also be motivated so as not to feel intimidated and forced. Furthermore, there should also be rationale justification and clarification as to why and how to use bichronous online teaching.