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Prospective EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Using CALL in the Classroom

The second most commonly mentioned way of using technology in language classes was to show
some videos related to the topic from different websites. They found it very authentic to use some videos
related to the target culture. Since the percentage of this category was distinguishably high, it was given
under a different title.
The third category was about the use of hardware in language classes. The participants expect to
find some equipment in their future classes and they stated that they could only use technology in their
classes if the required equipment is available.
The use of presentations and slideshows was also mentioned very frequently; 19,8% of the partici-
pants perceive technology as slide shows and PowerPoint presentations. The same amount of participants
claimed that they could use the Internet as the source of information. They could find some information,
or they could search for materials on the Internet.
The final two categories were appropriate for the rationale computer assisted language learning. Web
2.0 tools and communication were among the most important keywords in the field of CALL; however,
they were not mentioned in the data. The participants who responded as Web 2.0 tools were the ones who
used blogs or an online classroom for their courses at the department. This was also a good indicator of
the fact that the students were affected by their instructors at the university.

DISCUSSION

When PTs’ confidence levels were asked the mean value of the overall confidence level was moderate
(M=3.18). The discrepancy between the overall confidence level and their opinions about the using the
technology in the classroom (M=4.67) was obvious. Although they did not feel confident enough to
use the computer, the results of the scale suggest that they are aware of the importance of incorporating
technology into their future classes.
At the end of the data analysis of the qualitative data, the most commonly observed category in the
definition of technology is easiness. However, the participants were not aware of the potential uses of
technology in language classes. The use of online platforms requires a teacher to spend many hours on
the Internet while designing an activity and evaluating their students.
Moreover, the most frequently observed response about the future use of technology in language
classes is about finding out ready materials on the Internet. However, in a CALL course, pre-service
teachers could be trained how to create their own materials using podcasts, wikis, blogs, online classes
and discussion boards. Since they did not have any idea about designing new materials, they preferred
to download ready materials on the internet.
In addition to these, although Warschauer (1996) defined the last phase of CALL as integrative CALL
and he mentioned the importance of communication, the percentage of the participants who were plan-
ning to use technology for communication was very low.
Since the participants of this study were not familiar with Web 2.0 tools, they had never uttered a
word related to Web 2.0 tools. They were cited in some responses; however, the reason for this is the fact
that some of their instructors used blogs or online classes for their courses. This can a good indicator of
the fact that the students took their instructors as the role model for their future practices.

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