Internet-assisted technologies for English language teaching in Turkish universities

Abstract

Although the enormous potential of the Internet has gained attention in Internet-assisted language teaching (IALT), a solid background of research is still lacking about/investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' use of Internet assistive technologies. This study set out to determine Turkish university level EFL instructors' perceptions and perspectives on the use of the Internet for pedagogical purposes. A total of 486 instructors from 11 universities located in Turkey participated in a survey and responded to the questions about what type of resources they utilize on the Internet, how they perceive and use Internet-assisted language instruction, and how they assess themselves in terms of language learning technology. The findings reveal that although EFL instructors utilize the Internet densely and with a positive perception in their teaching, the quality of that utilization varies and needs to be improved via professional development programs for Internet-assisted language instruction. Suggestions were made for further research.