Thái độ của giáo viên đối với việc sử dụng máy tính trong giảng dạy ngoại ngữ tại trường CĐSP Hà Nam Nguyễn Thị Chung Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS ngành: Lý luận và pp giảng dạy tiếng Anh; Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: Ph.D. Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa Năm bảo vệ: 2012 Abstract: Teacher’s attitude is considered as the key to successful integration of computers in English language teaching. It can either be a hindering factor or a facilitator for the use of computer. Since there has been a shift toward application of Information Technology in the teaching and learning environment, a great number of researches have been carried out to investigate the effectiveness of using computers for language teaching and learning. However, the investigation into teachers’ attitudes toward the uses of computers seems to be limited. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ attitudes toward the uses of computers as well as factors affecting their uses of computers in English language teaching at Ha Nam Teachers’ Training College and then compare teachers’ attitudes with their classroom practice to find out correlation between them. In order to achieve these aims, survey questionnaires and classroom observations were employed. The results revealed that almost all the teachers had positive and favorable attitudes toward the uses of the computers in their language teaching. On the other hand, there are still difficulties that prevented teachers’ uses of computers namely lack of time for preparation; lack of technical supports; lack of computer skills or training; lack of teachers’ positive attitudes; lack of confidence and lack of computer facilities. The findings of this study also suggests that in order to integrate computers in English Language Teaching (ELT) successfully, the quality of classroom facilities and technology equipments should be improved together with support and maintenance of computer facilities at school. Furthermore, the better computer training courses are needed. Keywords: Giáo viên; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Máy tính; Tiếng Anh Content PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale It can not be denied that computer technology has changed the face of education in many parts of the world as well as in Vietnam in recent years. More and more uses of its unique features are found every day and it is not surprising that the field of education is also being strongly affected by this tool. As a result, English teaching and learning have been much easier and more effective under the assistance of computers. Using computers as English teaching tools is considered one of the most effective ways. Remarkably, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has planned for a significant increase in ICT in education to take place in coming years and teachers are being encouraged to incorporate ICT technology into their lessons. However, the investigations into teachers’ attitudes toward the uses of computers in language teaching seem to be limited in Vietnam. Additionally, one factor in the successful implementation of computers in the classroom is users’ acceptance, which in turn might be greatly influenced by users’ attitudes. After five years of teaching English at Ha Nam Teachers’ Training College, the researcher found that most of the teachers have integrated the computer technology into their teaching curricula, however, their applications of computers may vary depending on their attitudes and more importantly, the question whether teachers’ actual attitudes toward the uses of computers in their classrooms have not been answered yet. Stimulated by the above reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct the study on teachers’ attitudes toward the uses of computers in English language teaching at HNTTC. Hopefully, the findings of this study will contribute to the pedagogic methodology. 2. Aims of the study The study is aimed at identifying the teachers’ attitudes toward the computer uses in English language teaching at HNTTC and exploring some main factors affecting the teachers’ uses of computers in their teaching. Then teachers’ attitudes from the questionnaires and their classroom practice are compared to find out whether there is correlation between them. 3. Research questions 1) What are the English teachers’ attitudes toward the uses of computers in language teaching at Ha Nam Teachers’ Training College? 2) What are the factors affecting the teachers’ uses of computers in language teaching? 3) Do teachers’ attitudes correlate with their classroom practices? 4. Scope of the study The study focuses itself on the investigation of teachers’ attitudes towards the uses of computers in English language teaching in order to understand the teachers’ views on teaching with computers as well as some main factors affecting teachers’ computer use. The participants are all of teachers of English of Faculty of Foreign Languages and Informatics at HNTTC. 5. Method of the study The study is carried out in form of a survey model. In order to achieve the above objectives, two methods will be employed to collect the data including questionnaires and observation. Questionnaires are used to investigate teachers’ attitudes towards the computer use in their classroom and the data were analyzed quantitatively by percentage of statistics. At the meantime, observation is to discover teachers’ actual behaviors, and then compare with teachers’ attitudes collected from the questionnaire. 6. Significance of the study The study is significant in the following ways: - The first significance of the study is for the author herself to enhance the skills of conducting the study in educational contexts and for the other ESL teachers at HNTTC. - The study is aimed at investigating teachers’ attitudes towards the uses of computers in ELT, which has not been carried out before in the context of HNTTC. Consequently, results of the study will display the present situation of using computers in the teaching and contribute appropriate ways to help teachers use computers in ELT more effectively. - This study can also lay grounds for further research on using new technology in teaching language and renovate the teaching language methods. 7. Organization of the study The thesis is composed of three main parts: introduction, development and conclusion. Part I is the introduction in which the rationale, aims, research questions, scope and significance of the thesis as well as methods and some definitions of key terms of study are presented. Part II is the development. It consists of three chapters: literature review, methodology, data analysis and discussions. Part III is Conclusion part. In this part, concluding remarks, implications, limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study are presented. PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. 1.Attitude 1.1.1. Definition of attitude 1.1.2. Dimensions of attitudes 1.1.2.1. Beliefs 1.1.2.2. Feelings 1.1.2.3. Behaviors 1.1.3. The relationship between beliefs and behaviors of teachers 1.1.4. The relationship between feeling and behaviors of teachers 1.2. English Language Teaching 1.3. Computers in English Language Teaching 1.4. The roles and effectiveness of computers in English Language Teaching 1.5. Teachers’ attitudes toward computers in teaching 1.6. Factors affecting teachers’ uses of computers CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1. Context of the study The survey is conducted at Ha Nam Teachers’ Training College which is located in Phu Ly city, a small city in the south of Hanoi capital, Ha Nam province, this college is a training unit in the national education system. Students are trained to become teachers, administrators, and professional staff of secondary schools, primary schools, and kindergartens with great passion for education career, good political ethics, wide knowledge and skills in their major. Besides, students are also trained to have the capacity to access knowledge and advance teaching methods to meet the development requirements of education in the whole province. Furthermore, the college provides office workers specializing in English for joint-venture companies in the industrial zones in the city, trains interpreters and translators to work in the Middle-East countries in Asia within the city’s project. At Faculty of Foreign Languages and Informatics, there are 15 teachers of English, and five teachers of Informatics. All teachers of English take responsibilities of teaching English for the major groups and all other groups (non- major) where English is a compulsory course. Of 15 teachers of English aged between 25 and 54 at the Faculty, there are 6 M.A degree holders, four of them are studying for an M.A degree and the rest hold a B.A degree in English language teaching. All of them are very friendly and enthusiasm. At HNTTC, English is considered an extremely important subject to all students regardless the majors they are learning. From 2006 Ha Nam Teachers’ Training College opened the classes for students majoring in English. Up to now, there have been six classes majored in English. Now there existed three English major classes and about thirty other majored classes such as Physical Education, Maths, Biology, Accounting…. Almost all students come from rural areas of Ha Nam such as Kim Bang, Ly Nhan, Thanh Liem, Binh Luc, and they still have very limited access to Internet to find resources for studying. Computers facilities HNTTC is fully networked, giving wireless Internet connections in every classroom. Students, however, have to bring their own computer to the classroom if they want to surf the webs. There are over seventy classrooms:  Two fixed classrooms for teaching English majored students are fully equipped with a computer, a projector, a loudspeaker and a DVD player for each; however, keeping these computers in good quality is not very frequent.  Fifteen classrooms are equipped with projectors to facilitate the use of visual teaching methods in some subjects for other students if necessary  Four computer rooms are for students to practice informatics.  The rest is not IT’s equipment. In fact, most of the English teachers have their own laptops except two teachers (one over 40 and other over 50 years old) and they often take laptops with them anytime they go to work (both inside and outside classrooms). Consequently, they are very easy to access computers anywhere for their personal purposes. There are four faculties, each is provided with two printers connected to computers: one for dean and one for room staff. In addition, the school has licensed software for Microsoft Office on all computers. This college is in a unique position where there has been a significant investment in ICT. More importantly, the college leaders always make ends meet for teaching equipment to facilitate the teaching. In 2008, a computer-training course was organized for all teachers and staffs within six weeks. In general, most of people took part in except some due to their personal problems. 2.2. Participants Fifteen teachers of English participated in this study, and all of them are female teachers. They are from different parts of Ha Nam Province, mainly in Phu Ly city. Most of them are married and have children; only three teachers are still single. Among these teachers, only one teacher is more than 50 years old; two teachers are more than 40; two are above 30 and the rest of them are all from 25 to 30 years old. Teachers who are more than 40 years old extensively used traditional methods of teaching (blackboard and chalk) rather than with computer technology. Among these, there are two teachers majored in Russian and one majored in French so that to join teaching English officially, they had to study English to get English certificate because French and Russian were omitted in the curriculum. From the application of the new methods, they are very enthusiastic and flexible to update Information Technology and integrate them in their teaching. Most of them used different technologies to some extent in different situations either inside or outside the classroom. They also used computers as a means of communications such as emails and a tool for preparing lessons, designing tests, reports…. However, these teachers do not have their own Websites; they often post the requirements for students by delivery of papers but rarely on the website of the school. 2.3. Instruments for data collection The questionnaires A five-point Likert-scale questionnaires were employed as the basic instrument and developed by the researcher to identify the teachers’ attitudes toward the uses of computers in English language teaching. The development of questionnaires was guided by extensive review of literature (Albirini, 2006; Ertmer, 2002; Jones, 2004; Kong Siew, 1997; Payette, 1987; Inch, 1987; Vakalis, 1990; Kersaint, Horton, Stohl, and Garofalo, 2003). To gain data for the research, the questionnaires were administered to 15 teachers of English in Department of Languages and Information Technology at HNTTC. Before the actual data collection period, the questionnaires were first piloted to five teachers to check its validity and reality. The piloted questionnaires then were re-edited. In order to ensure the success of obtaining data, an advance notice was made to all teachers via group e- mail to invite participation. After having the permission, the researcher made an appointment with the teachers. The researcher explained why the information was being collected and how it would be used. Then, the teachers were asked to spend their time reading the questionnaires and to tick the statements in the questionnaires that came closest to expressing their feelings, beliefs and behaviors concerning the uses of computers in their classroom on a 5-point scale. The teacher questionnaires comprised three main sections as follows: (1) Section 1 aims at teachers’ background. (2) Section 2 elicits general attitudes of teachers toward the uses of computers in language teaching. (3) Section 3 aims at finding out the factors affecting teachers’ uses of computers in the classroom. Observation Classroom observation is important in this study because it helps document teachers’ behaviors toward the uses of computers in their classroom practice and enhances rater reliability. It was conducted within a month; the researcher observed ten lessons by seven teachers at HNTTC to get a quick view on teachers’ uses of computers and document teachers’ actual performance in their teaching. Then, the result of the observation would be compared with the result of the questionnaires in order to state whether what teachers say was consistent with what they did in their classroom. Seven of the teachers aged from 25 – 30 years old were selected. Each of category, in the observation was presented on 5– point scale used as the rating to document teachers’ actual behaviors in ESL classrooms, with five fixed alternatives to choose from “never”, “rarely”, “sometimes”, “usually”, “always” (Appendix B) The observation checklists were developed by the researcher for identifying teachers’ uses of computers in classroom, the elements in the checklist were given assessment. The checklist includes five criteria:  Types of computer used  How activities are presented  How slides are presented  How soft wares are presented  Some problems in using computers in the classroom 2.4. Procedure of data analysis After all the data were gathered, they were transformed and classified according to the two research questions. From the data analysis, a large amount of statistics obtained from the questionnaire was transformed into tables and charts, which reassured the clear-cut format and facilitate the analytical task as well as help readers understand more easily. Regarding classroom observation, the researcher made a thorough analysis on the observation checklist. The results then were compared with those of the questionnaires. CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1. Data Analysis 3.2. Discussions of the findings 3.2.1. Research Question 1 The first research question of the study is “What are the English teachers’ attitudes toward the uses of computers in language teaching at Ha Nam Teachers’ Training College?” The results of the study from the statistics above show that most of the teachers have positive attitudes towards using the computers to teach English through three dimensions of attitudes (feelings, beliefs and behaviors). This result is accordance with the finding from a study of Albirini (2004). He conducted a study to investigate the attitudes of EFL teachers toward ICT which was taken into account the three components of attitudes: affective, cognitive and behavioral, and the results from both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that teachers had positive attitudes toward technology use in education. The first, concerning teachers’ feelings toward the uses of computers in ELT, most of the teachers preferred using computers in their classrooms; they were more self-confident with the assistance of computers in their teaching. Furthermore, they still want to learn more about computers to aid them in ELT. This means that most of the teachers wanted to use computer technology for teaching purposes but they did not have enough knowledge about how to use them in teaching. Therefore, teachers’ training needs for computer uses are necessary because of useful computers in teaching. As for the value of using computers during the lessons, the teachers mentioned that computers were very enjoyable and stimulating. Therefore, they were more enthusiastic and had positive attitudes towards this application. However, a few teachers still existed nervous or uncomfortable when using computers. Much of the anxiety and uncomforting surrounding the uses of computers can relate to some factors such as lack of confidence, lack of computer training….which will be referred in detail later. In short, most of the teachers at HNTTC had positive feelings toward the role of computers in their teaching, and they liked using computers in their classroom. The second is teachers’ beliefs toward the uses of computers. The majority of teachers expressed that the computers would help the English lessons become more interesting, exciting and effective and thus motivate the students. In general, most of the teachers used computers to prepare the lessons. They believed that computers were useful and effective tools to improve educational environment. Obviously, these made them have positive attitudes toward the uses of computers. Regarding the behavioral dimension of attitude, the results of questionnaires indicated that almost all teachers often used computers; designed PowerPoint lessons, Microsoft (MS) lesson plans; searched materials such as pictures, video, useful knowledge…from the Internet to make their lessons more interesting. The relationship among dimensions of attitude in this study showed the consistency that if teachers had a positive feeling and thought positively toward the uses of computers then their actions and behaviors toward computers would be positive, and conversely with a few teachers who had negative thinking and feelings toward the uses of computers. 3.2.2. Research Question 2 The second research question is “What are the factors affecting the teachers’ uses of computers in language teaching?” Although the findings revealed that teachers held favorable attitudes toward the uses of computers, there were still factors in the context that prevented them from fully utilizing the computer in their teaching. Firstly, all of the teachers agreed that it took a lot of time when they taught English with the help of computers. Maybe, when they wanted to teach any lessons, any English skills, they had to spend a lot of time to find information, classify them and design PPT lessons which is not only the barrier to the teacher who has limited computer knowledge but also to those who have better computer skills. This was supported by John (2004) who said that teachers were sometimes unable to make full use of technology because they lacked the time needed to fully prepare and research materials for lessons. Apart from that, the lack of computer skills/ training discouraged the frequent uses of computers in an ESL classroom. Due to their lack of computer knowledge and skills, teachers needed more time to create teaching materials; as a result, they were not confident to utilize the technology in their teaching. They felt that they were incompetent and uncomfortable using the computer in the classroom as evidenced from some previous studies namely Ertmer (2002), Jones (2003) and Kong Siew (1997). Obviously, lack of confidence was one of the factors hindered teachers’ uses of computers in ESL classroom (Ertmer, 2002). Some of them may have a negative attitude towards the uses of computers in the classroom especially among teachers who had lower perceived abilities of handling the computer and who are old-aged, they rarely had computer experience in their life. Additionally, lack of computers also affected teachers’ attitudes toward the uses of computers in their teaching significantly. In studies conducted by Ertmer (2002) and Kong Siew (1997), they indicated that lack of computers inhibited teachers’ uses of computers in the classroom and this was teachers’ opinions at HNTTC. However, the researcher found that it was not consistent with the result of the observations. In spite of the fact that computers are available in the classrooms for English majored students, teachers who own laptop computers seemed to like using their personal computers instead of desktop computers. Perhaps, this is due to limited software in the school and lack of knowledgeable personnel or technician on-site for computer maintenance as well as provision of technical support to teachers. Therefore, technical supports from the school authorities played an important role to encourage teachers to utilize computers effectively (Ertmer, 2002). Another important reason is teachers’ attitudes which really made teachers unmotivated or motivated to use computers in the classroom although they knew about their advantages very well. It was regarded as the first factor deciding whether this integrating successful or not. Understanding of their attitudes towards the uses of computers in language teaching helps to gain insights into what they do in the classroom and why they do it. 3.2.3. Research Question 3 The third research question is “Do teachers’ attitudes correlate with their classroom practice?” It can be stated that teachers’ classroom practices were totally consistent with what they said in the questionnaires. It meant that there was significant correlation between teachers’ attitudes and their actual behaviors toward the uses of computers. Most of the teachers at HNTTC were keen on and more confident using computers in their teaching because they understood and appreciated the roles and effectiveness of integrating IT in teaching mostly were useful, interesting… In short, the positive feelings and beliefs of the teachers can motivate their computer use in their classroom which involved Kersaint, Horton, Stohl, and Garofalo (2003). They indicated that teachers who have positive attitudes toward technology feel more comfortable with using it and usually incorporate it into their teaching. This was partly supported by a study from Simonsson (2004) who studied the relationship between teachers’ beliefs of the use of technology and their actual integration of technology in their classes. The findings of this study showed that the utilization of technology was related to teachers’ beliefs. In fact, teacher’s beliefs strongly affected technology integration. [...]... operation skill in teaching outnumber those with little knowledge In addition, the findings of the study indicated some common difficulties that prevented them using computers in an ESL classroom effectively namely lack of time for preparation; lack of technical supports; lack of computer skills/ training; lack of teachers’ positive attitudes; lack of confidence, and lack of computers Furthermore, the data... is unbalanced; all of them are female that may also seriously weaken the accuracy of the data Further studies may include teachers with balance of sex from some colleges from other EFL contexts at Ha Nam Concerning the factors hinders teachers’ uses of computers; further research can also be recommended to examine other factors than those in this study References Albirini, A A (2004) An exploration . Thái độ của giáo viên đối với việc sử dụng máy tính trong giảng dạy ngoại ngữ tại trường CĐSP Hà Nam Nguyễn Thị Chung Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS ngành: Lý luận và pp giảng. Furthermore, the better computer training courses are needed. Keywords: Giáo viên; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Máy tính; Tiếng Anh Content PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale It can not. world as well as in Vietnam in recent years. More and more uses of its unique features are found every day and it is not surprising that the field of education is also being strongly affected by