Comunicación, cultura y conflicto

Each interview was listened to more than once, and transcribed as soon as it was finished. All the interviews were then coded and clustered into units of relevant meaning in relation to the research questions. The teachers interviewed had various amounts of teaching experience; Teachers A and C have been teaching English for five years, Teacher B for 11 years and Teacher D for 20 years. The interview data indicated that all teachers believed that using ICT in teaching English is very important. Teacher C said: „I believe that using ICT in teaching is not an option, it is an obligation.‟ The teachers also believed that ICT is beneficial for teaching and learning. Teacher B emphasised: „I would say that ICT is very good in improving language teaching and learning.‟ Saving time, making teaching fun and more entertaining for students, increasing students‟ motivation, providing varieties of teaching strategies, increasing students‟ interest in learning grammar, vocabulary and all other skills and creating autonomous learners were the advantages of ICT use most mentioned by the teachers. Teacher D explained: „drawing the attention of learners to visit some websites to learn grammar, vocabulary or any other skill can help in creating autonomous learners.‟ Teacher A described students‟ reactions to the use of ICT: „Students are so enthusiastic about using ICT in the classroom.‟ Teacher B also assured that technology increases students‟ motivation to learn. She said: „When it comes to technology, students become very motivated and involved… I think it plays a big role in increasing students‟ motivation and the learning accordingly.‟ This finding illustrates the fact that the teachers‟ perceptions of the use of ICT ere positive, and that they seemed enthusiastic about the use of ICT.

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In terms of ICT use, PowerPoint was commonly used among the four teachers, all of whom agreed used it regularly in the classroom to present new concepts, revise lessons and provide extra exercises. Teacher A explained how she prepared her lessons: „I plan for my lesson by looking for websites related to the teaching topic; it would take two to three days, then I make a PowerPoint presentation.‟ In addition, Teacher B believed that PowerPoint was beneficial for learning and increasing students‟ attention. She said: „I use PowerPoint a lot and find it very useful, especially when adding sounds, figures and pictures, as I think it plays a major role in students‟ motivation and learning at the same time.‟ Teacher D said: „I often use PowerPoint to teach grammar rules and new vocabulary.‟ Teacher C believed that PowerPoint is useful for revising lessons, as it reinforces students‟ understanding, saying: „I use PowerPoint as lesson revision because I believe it helps in emphasizing the points of the lessons.‟ The teachers also encouraged students to present on PowerPoint as part of their speaking assessments. Teacher B stated: „I ask students to prepare PowerPoint presentations for speaking assessments.‟ As an experienced teacher, Teacher B was more creative in using ICT, and appeared to be more student-centred, mentioning that: „I would prepare something on my computer… say a small exercise, and save it on my memory stick; then I have it projected in the classroom on the board.‟ She engages students in the learning process, and added: „I have students work with me; I get the students to the front, so they can work themselves on the computer.‟ She suggested that this strategy makes students more motivated in learning as they become part of the learning process. This teacher talked about the advantages of engaging the students in the learning process. She said: „It is always nice to call students to the front, so the students get some control… it gives them some learning ownership and somehow they like it.‟ Teacher D gave an example of her use of ICT: „I log into a useful website and prepare worksheets for my students.‟ She believed that providing extra worksheets that relate to the teaching topics encourages students to work more and enhances their learning.

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When the interviewees were asked about the constraints that face them in their use of ICT, a lack of Internet access in most classrooms was reported to be the most common obstacle. Technical support was reported to be a major obstacle to the use of ICT by one teacher. Teacher C reported: „I spent a whole semester complaining that the computer wasn‟t working in my classroom, and no one fixed it until the finals.‟ Lack of access to a computer was an obstacle according to Teacher A, who was unhappy, saying that: „The worst condition I would say is when the computer is not working.‟ These results show that lack of access and technical support were top of the list of barriers that would hinder the use of ICT in the case study university. Training in the use of ICT was provided according to all four teachers. They reported that they had been trained on how to create their own webpage and update it in order to keep in contact with learners. Teacher C said: „the university finance us to attend conferences about ICT.‟ Teacher B believed that the university encouraged the use of ICT by providing a lot of professional development workshops that include using technology and increasing the standard of the university among other universities. She proudly said: „I think the standard is really excellent… I think they are getting the advantage of other countries‟ experience.‟

The teachers believed that the use of ICT needs to be systemised and become part of the curriculum. Teacher D said: „If learners‟ use of ICT is part of the curriculum, I think it will make a great change in the process of learning English.‟ Teacher A commented: „ICT is my dream… students should not be deprived of this technology.‟ She believed that technology improved their learning, adding: „Students should be on their toes with this technology.‟

All the teachers concluded that using ICT in teaching English has become „a must‟ due to its advantages. They suggested that the use of ICT increases the chance of producing autonomous learners, making learning more interesting and improving all language skills. For example, there are many online resources, such as BBC skills, English club and online dictionaries which

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students can visit in order to increase their English learning, as indicated by Teacher B. The overall results of the qualitative data showed a positive attitude among all participants; although there was limited use of ICT on PowerPoint, memory sticks, iPods, mp3s and mobile phones. This could be a reason for the lack of Internet access that would allow EFL teachers to download work instantly in the classroom.

The reliability of the questionnaires used in this study was demonstrated in the pilot study. Cronbach‟s alpha was used to provide a coefficient of inter-item correlations (Cohen et al., 2011). Cronbach‟s alpha was calculated using SPSS 19. The results reveal that the questionnaire yields an alpha coefficient of 0.808, which indicates a reliable questionnaire (see Table 3-3). Table ‎3-3: Reliability of the pilot study

Reliability Statistics

Factors Number of items Cronbach's alpha

Attitudes towards ICT 21 0.698

Use of ICT 17 0.813

Scale 38 0.808

A few descriptive statistics were calculated, which included frequencies in particular. In the questionnaire, participating teachers were asked whether they have access to the Internet in their teaching rooms; the frequencies of the Yes/No responses are shown in Table 3-4. From the table, it can be seen that most of the respondent teachers (68.2%) did not have access to the Internet in their teaching rooms. This result supports the qualitative data results, as all four teachers interviewed claimed that access to the Internet was a main barrier to ICT use.

Table ‎3-4: Access to the Internet in the teaching room Q: I have access to the Internet in my teaching room

N= Percentage

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No 15 68.2

Total 22 100.0

50% of the respondent teachers strongly disagreed that there was not enough time to learn to use ICT, and the same proportion of teachers strongly agreed that they like to use ICT in their teaching. Interestingly, half of the teachers agreed that students learn more when using ICT in teaching, whereas only two of the teachers disagreed. These results indicated a positive attitude towards using ICT in teaching and its benefits to students‟ learning (see Tables 3-5).

Table ‎3-5: Time to learn to use ICT; like using ICT in teaching; students learn more when using ICT

Statements N= Strongly

Disagree Disagree Neither agree/ Nor disagree

Agree Strongly agree I do not have enough

time to learn to use ICT. 22 11 9 1 1

I like using ICT in my

teaching. 22 1 10 11

Students learn more

when using ICT. 22 2 2 11 7

From the frequencies and percentages, as shown in Tables 3-6, it can be seen that more than half of the teachers often used PowerPoint and encouraged students to use it while 6 teachers used PowerPoint and encouraged students to use it sometimes. These results illustrate the fact that more than half of the respondents used and encouraged students to use it, which indicates that PowerPoint is the most commonly used device by teachers.

Table ‎3-6: Using PowerPoint in lessons; Encouraging students to present tasks via PowerPoint.

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I use PowerPoint or other presentation software in my lessons.

22 4 6 12

I encourage students to present tasks via PowerPoint

22 1 3 6 12

The teachers provided feedback that allowed the researcher to develop a final draft of the questionnaire. The final version included changing the Likert-type question sequence to start from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree, as a result of feedback from the pilot study teachers, in order to avoid confusion.