Page 222 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Prospective EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Using CALL in the Classroom

Table 3. PTs’ proposed features of technology

Feature f %
Easiness 54 50.9
Inevitability 35 33.0
Accessibility 30 28.3
Facilitation 19 17.9
Communication 15 14.2

When the qualitative data was analyzed, it could be seen that 50.9% of the participants perceived
technology as easiness. The participants believed that life was much easier with the help of the technology,
especially by means of the Internet. They could easily communicate, share their ideas and communicate
with other users of the Internet. The second category was about its inevitability. Of the participants, 33%
believed that technology is inevitable. They could not imagine a world without technology and, as a
prospective teacher; they mentioned that it was impossible for them to be a teacher without technology.
Another point mentioned very frequently was the accessibility. In today’s world, they could easily access
whatever they want regardless of their physical conditions. They could find information very easily and
this was only possible with the advancements in technology. Fourthly, the participants mentioned that
technology was very helpful in all tasks they were responsible for. Not only in educational settings but
also in their daily tasks, technology was very helpful. The final feature of technology is communica-
tion, which should have been at the top in this list. As it is the age of communication, it should have
been mentioned more frequently; however, it the least mentioned category in this list. To sum up, the
participants of this study defined technology with the aforementioned features.
The second question was about how they could use technology in their future language classes. The
responses were analyzed and grouped under seven headings. The responses were presented in Table 4.
When the responses were analyzed and categorized, it was seen that the most frequently mentioned
use of technology was about the materials. However, in these responses, the participants did not utter any
word about designing or preparing the material, but they were planning to find and download materials
from the Internet. They could download pictures illustrating the target culture; or they could find some
worksheets shared on different websites. The participants preferred using the ready materials rather than
producing their own materials.

Table 4. Ways of using technology in foreign language classes

The Use Technology f %
Material (Pictures, audial materials, worksheets, listening materials) 60 56.6
Video 45 42.5
Hardware (Computer, Interactive White Board, Printer, Speakers, Overhead Projector) 36 34.0
Presentation 21 19.8
Source of Information 21 19.8
Web 2.0. (Blogs, Edmodo) 12 11.3
Communication 7 6.6

203