Computer-Assisted Language Learning (call) research Contents Introduction

Chapter .II. The investigation of English Teacher’s news an Computer Assisted language learning

2.1. Attitudes of student‘s toward computer-assisted language learning

The first number of The New Educational Review in 2011 is the twenty-third issue of our journal since the start of its foundation in . In this issue there are mainly papers from: Poland, the Czech Republic, Iran, Malaysia, the Slovak Republic, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, and the USA because our journal is open for presentation of scientifi c papers from all over the world. In the present issue the Editors’ Board have proposed the following subject sessions: Social Pedagogy, Technology of Education, General Didactics, Pedeutology, Management of Education, and Special Pedagogy. The subject session “Social Pedagogy” starts with an article by Beata Kosová and Porubský Štefan in which the authors analyse the bases, contexts, processes, obstacles and prospects of the Slovak school system after 1989. Th ey show the individual phases of the transformation process, their characteristic features and inconsistencies. In her work, Diana Damean focuses on exploring the factors that facilitate parent involvement in their child’s education and school life in Romania. The results of the research carried out by Inetta Nowosad in the form of a diagnosis of extracurricular activities in schools in Poland reveal that schools have very limited potential in this respect. Jan Lašek and his co-workers mapped the ethical attitudes of children at the age of to, evoked by L. Kohlberg’s dilemma (Joe’s dilemma). The research sample consisted of children from five states of the European Union: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Germany and Great Britain. The analysis of links between civic and intercultural education with repercussions in the theory of identity and historical strategies of inter-group relations can be found in the article by Jelena Petrucijová. According to the statement of Jan Sebastian Novotný, in promoting school resilience it is primarily necessary to identify individual mechanisms that help resilient students reach achievement and then promote and develop them. They include mainly certain personal characteristics and influences from surroundings (supportive teacher, school programs and extracurricular activities, help and support from family, etc.). Joanna Król describes the socio-pedagogical dimension of a negative phenomenon in education, called “tyranny of the moment”, which is a result of the progress in civilization and carries different risks, e.g. the feeling of anxiety or frustration. In the subject session “Technology of Education” we present eight articles. Ming-Li Tung and his co-workers show the results of the search of three words: “ultrasound”, “education” and “nanometer” in website engines between 2007 and 2009. They found that there were large differences in the numbers of hits: most countries steadily increase the educational resources. The problem of learners’ perceived information overload in online learning via computer-mediated communication is described by Chun-Ying Chen and his co-workers. Their findings suggest that varied learner characteristics made some students more susceptible than others to information overload. Milica Gierasimovic and her co-workers characterise the results of the research carried out at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade for the purpose of enrolment policy. The results show that neural network algorithms present a powerful tool for predicting graduates’ professional choices. A critical thinking course in nursing education in Turkey and its positive implications in such a type of education is described by Hülya Kaya and Hatice Şen. The problem of perceived computer self-efficacy of secondary education teachers is explored by Ersun Iscioglu. Kateřina Kostolánová and her two co-workers present a draft adaptive education model and the results of the first part of the solution – defi nition of learning styles, pilot testing on students and an outline of further research in the area of teachers’ teaching styles. The aim of the study presented by Murat Peker and Erhan Ertekin is to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers’ anxiety levels in relation to teaching of mathematics and their mathematics anxiety levels, as well as to determine gender differences in these two anxieties. Suleyman Yaman compares the psychometric properties of the tests with different numbers of choices used in science and technology education courses. Th e subject session “General Didactics” starts with an article by Şenol Erdoğmuş and Eylem Koç, in which the authors show how to improve the quality of the classroom by capturing the students’ feelings/emotions. Liliana Ciascai and Lavinia Haiduc present the results of their investigation conducted on a sample of teachers regarding pupils’ difficulties and the causes of failure in studying natural sciences, teachers’ role for pupils’ success in studying science, and the effectiveness of teaching these disciplines. In the first place, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşegül Daloğlu for her competent guidance, instructive criticism and encouragements throughout this research. I am also grateful to the Examining Committee Members, Assist. Prof. Dr. Nurdan Gürbüz and Assist. Prof. Dr. Dilara Demirbulak for their valuable suggestions and contributions. I owe a great dept of gratitude to my family, particularly to my father Sunday Tunçok who continuously reassured me that my efforts would eventually deliver positive results. I would not have been able to complete this study without the understanding, encouragement and patience of my mother Gülgün Tunçok, who has been there for me from the very beginning of this study. A special word of thanks goes to my closest friend Pınar Aşan for making me feel never alone even in my hardest times. I am thankful to my directors at Turkish American Association, Dilek Dengizek Ersanal, Günsel Sungur, and Hülya Tuzlu for letting me conduct my research and also to my colleagues for their steadfast support. In the area of using CALL programs in education, web-based learning is one of the fastest-growing areas. The new educational models have shifted from teacher-centered to learner-centered classrooms by way of welldesigned and flexible environments, and CALL can create this independent learning environment for foreign language learners where students can acquire and practice a new language . According to Crystal, using multimedia technology in teaching English as a foreign language can help the learners increase their independence and solve some of the difficulties experienced in a traditional classroom. In other words, the computer provides an opportunity for learners being less dependent and gives them more freedom to experience learning on their own in a natural or semi-natural settings . Therefore, CALL provides highly interactive and communicative support for learning and teaching English skills. Through the wide-spread influence of technology on education, issues related to different aspects of computers and human interface have also gained attention over the past decades . There is an increasing interest in discovering the relationship between language ability and computer use for educational purposes. Therefore, it is believed that a great deal of attention should be devoted to psychological impacts such as attitude, opinion, motivation, anxiety, etc. Many researchers believe that integrating information and communication technology in education supports pupils in their own constructive thinking and engages them in cognitive operations. Pemberton, Borrego and Cohen conducted a study on using interactive computer technology to enhance learning and found that the use of ICT creates a powerful learning environment and intrinsically motivate students to learn and participate in classroom activities. In line with this idea, Wright stated that academic learning accompanied by computer technology offers students much more confidence and interest in the process. of exploring and learning knowledge. It would seem that computer technology is an important tool to support new ways of teaching and learning. It can be used to develop students’ skills for cooperation, communication, problem solving and lifelong learning (Voogt, 2008). Nowadays, computers have been recognized as a valuable instrument in teaching modern foreign languages in universities. Lee (2000) stated that using computer in second language instruction can improve practices for students through experiential learning, motivate students to learn more, enhance student achievement, increase authentic materials for study, encourage greater interaction between teachers and students and students and peers, emphasize individual needs, escape from a single source of information and, enlarge global understanding. It is clear that the field of English as a Second Language can be enhanced through the use of computer technology. Teo (2006) found that students’ attitudes towards computer have an influential role on their acceptance to use the computer as a learning tool and their future behaviours towards the computer such as using it for further study and vocational purposes. Similarly, Zhang (2011) stated that students’ attitudes towards the computerassisted language learning (CALL) can be considered as a key predictor in terms of successful application of computer to language learning. Moreover, Ajzen and Fishbein (1977) stated that ‘‘attitudes toward targets will predict multiple-act criteria, provided that the attitudinal and behavioural entities involve the same target elements’’. It would seem that awareness of students’ attitudes toward computers can be ‘‘a critical criterion in the evaluation of computer courses and in the development of computer-based curricula’’. Therefore, computer attitudes should be considered as key constructs in predicting technology acceptance for future use. Several models were developed to help in predicting technology acceptance. Among these models, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is the most popular. It is testable and has received substantial empirical support for being robust and parsimonious in predicting technology acceptance and adoption in various contexts and using a variety of technologies (Teo, 2009) (Fig.1). This study used this model to understand students’ attitudes and the factors that influence these attitudes. The successful integration of computers in education is largely affected by students’ attitudes and their willingness to embrace the technology (Pektas & Erkip, 2006). Studying students’ attitudes can help us to answer some questions relating to acceptance and usage of technology in teaching and learning. Many researchers believed that computer technology is the ideal tool to enhance students’ learning in English. Beatty (2003) defined computer-assisted language learning (CALL) as “any process in which a learner uses a computer and, as a result, improves his or her language” (p.7). Warschauer (1996) stated that computers help students to learn English in three ways: computer as tutor (offers tutoring to students), computer as stimulus (improves synthetic and analytic thinking of students), and computer as tool (e.g. grammar checking, word processing, collaborative writing, and Internet). It is clear that the computer should be integrated into teaching and learning process. Computer technologies can enhance interpersonal and communication skills and can provide opportunities for cooperative learning. Hence, using computers not only increase instructional effectiveness and efficiency, but also promote positive social interactions and enhance students’ motivation for learning (Afshari et al., 2007). According to Teo (2006), attitudes toward technology play a crucial role in the adoption of instructional technology and students’ learning in the classroom. Attitude is also considered as one of the affective variables in the success of implementing technology in the second or foreign language learning process. In line with this idea, Ayres (2002) conducted a study on students’ attitudes toward CALL and reported that 80% of the students believed that CALL is relevant to their needs, 77% of the students agreed that CALL gives useful information, and 66% of the students thought that more CALL should be used in their learning. attitude is one of important factors which promote or inhibit the successful implementation of any initiative. Hence, it is important to examine students’ attitudes toward computer at different stages of development. In addition, several attitude theories and models have confirmed the relationship between attitude and behaviour. In 1980, Ajzen and Fishbein introduced The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and stated that behavioural intent of a person determine his performance of a particular behaviour and this behavioural intent is identified by two things, attitude and the subjective norms within which a person operates, i.e. the cultural norms of the organization. Marcinkiewicz and Regstad (1996) conducted a study on the influence of subjective norm on computer use and found that subjective norm is most predictive of computer use, alongside self-competence, perceived relevance and innovativeness. Moreover, Pan, Sivo and Brophy (2003) and Teo and his colleagues (2008) reported that there is a positive relationship between subjective norm and attitudes.

2.2.The effect of computer assisted language(call) on EFL that school student’s writing

It is for some decades that computers have found their ways in educational settings and millions of dollars are spending on their acquisition and maintenance. The combination of text, audio and video “make multimedia an excellent format for learning materials and have led to the birth of an industry in computer-assisted language learning (CALL)” (Ayres, 2002, p. 256). CALL is a language learning and teaching approach in which the computer is used as a tool for presentation, assisting students, and evaluating material, and has an interactional element. As cited in Davies (2002), Levy (1997) emphasized that CALL is more extensively defined as the search for computer applications in language teaching and learning. CALL accepts the research finding of second language acquisition, sociology, linguistics, psychology, cognitive sciences, culture examinations, and natural language processing to second language pedagogy and relates them to investigation into information processing, artificial intelligence, and telecommunication(CALICO,2001).Thus, the progress of language teaching and learning processes is achieved. From past to now, CALL developed in parallel with the facilities provided by computer technology. Many studies worldwide have been conducted to investigate the effect of CALL on learning languages. Computer-based instruction has been challenging traditional teaching and learning processes Jones (2001) expresses the importance of computer technologies in foreign language learning and teaching has been established by many people. Language teachers and administrators realize the aptness toward CALL; also, students demand computers through the facilities provided for language learning. CALL has been taking advantage of advanced technological facilities to create the highest interactive learning environments for activities that develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. In the developed world, all language centres agree that it is not possible to make progress without high technology and computers. From the beginning till today, the effectiveness of various CALL materials has been depended on pedagogical designs and the way teachers’ use these materials. When computers are appropriately used, they will improve the learning process in a different way (Warschauer and Healey, 1998). In parallel to advances in technology, computer and instructional technologies are becoming an indispensable part of the learning and teaching processes. The role assigned to instructional technologies in foreign language instruction has also changed with these advances. It seems that the role of computer in education and pedagogical practices will become more and more significant and inevitable in the twenty first century. English language pedagogy benefits from using computers at every level of instruction. Computer-assisted writing instruction, proposes an alternative method to the traditional ones. This approach may overcome some shortcomings of traditional methods of writing to some extent by providing feedback about students’ mistake /errors, along with some explanations and suggestions. The feedback is a mechanical, grammatical and other formal language elements inaccuracies, which are assumed to affect one’s writing. It is noticeable that Coder (1967) introduces distinction between errors and mistakes. He describes mistake the result of performance factors such as fatigue, memory limitations, emotional strain, etc. The learner can readily correct mistakes as soon as his/her attention is drawn to them. But errors are systematic, consistent deviances representative of the learner’s linguistic system and evidence of his/her proficiency level. Such teaching and learning practices containing features such as self-discovery, invention and multiple drafting with feedback between drafts and a variety of feedback options from peers, small group, and/or teacher or through other formative evaluation can bring about a more process oriented approach in writing as illustrated by Grabe and Kaplan(1996). Using computer in writing classes allows learners to receive feedback both from the teacher and computer. Computer provides the correct form of the erroneous word and structures that students have produced. Consequently, it seems writing is more error-free and cohesive sentences and texts can be produced by using computers .The learners will also become aware of the mistakes/errors they have made just as they type the sentences. With regard to the use of computers in language teaching and learning, teachers and researchers have been testing and developing ways to implement computers in their teaching context since the 1960s New technology offers the writers an excellent package of tools with which to prepare, organize and present documents. Computers can help writers in editing and setting layout and checking word such as spell checking and thesaurus. They can provide specialist tools such as grammar and reliability checkers (Seely, 1998). Sharples (1999)asserts “ the computer as a tool for writing is just beginning to move out of its period of imitation”. It has a keyboard that was invented in the nineteenth century and a display that mimics paper in a manual typewriter. Because word-processing program allows a wide rang of formatting possibilities and make editing and revising much easier, they are of obvious use in teaching writing. Word-processors give writers the freedom to experiment with a text without making a mess. It means that one can make either major or minor changes in the text without retyping or rewriting the entire text (Brookes and Grundy, 2000). Barrass (1995) argues that word-processing can help one's writing in all four stages of composition: thinking, planning, writing, and revising. He believes that they are used before and after writing as well as when one write. Before writing it allows the writer to prepare a topic outline, on the screen, and then add material under relevant heading and s/he can rearrange them if necessary as s/he decides how to organize his or her work. To determine the school where the research would be carried out, the most appropriate intensive foreign language high school for computer assisted instruction was selected using the stratified random sampling method. According to Young (1997), there may often be factors which divided up the population into sub-populations and we may expect the measurement if interest to vary among the different sub-populations. This has to be accounted for when we select a sample from the population in order that we obtain a sample that is representative of the population. Participants in this study were 47 male and female EFL students in high school but 7 students were not found to be qualified for the study due to either low writing proficiency based on the results of the scores of their writing compositions or because they failed to attend CALL classes regularly. So, altogether just 40 participants remained for the final considerations. The age of the participants ranged from 17 to 19 with an average of 18. These students were randomly chosen from this high school grade one. The Participants were at intermediate level of proficiency as determined by language tests conducted by their teachers who cooperated in the data collection. All students at the time of the experiment were taking the “Advanced writing” classes on two different groups. “Advanced Writing” is the writing course in the curriculum which is offered with one and half an hour credit per week and only those students who successfully pass the pre-writing courses are permitted to take it. Although the students had already passed pre-writing English, they were supposed to be intermediate learners of English. As the study was conducted in a model school, technology infrastructure and access was granted for all students. The school had a computer lab with a multimedia capability, a videoconferencing unit, a technology coordinator, and a computer engineer. This school pays special attention to technology into the curriculum. Computer is taught to all students as a subject. Students study computer application and learn different computer skills regularly. They spent at least two class periods weekly at the computer lab using numerous software application and productivity tools such as interactive multimedia CD-ROM s. Second, the majority of students in this study, as reported by the teachers, own their computers at home. Therefore, subjects experience with computers is sufficient enough to enable them to use CALL successfully. Participants' selection was random regardless of the classes. The final number of participants yielded 20 students in the experimental group and 20 students in the control group; a total of four classes. All subjects had the same learning situations such as the size of classroom, same text of English, same amount of exposure, and same availability of teaching aids. Two instructors were involved in the study with similar educational background holding master’s degrees in English, and having more than five years of teaching experience. Both instructors were English teachers, were proficient in English as measured by tests and interviews were conducted by the educational zone as part of the requirements to work in high school. Each instructor had one control group and one experimental group.

2.3.Pre-service EFL teachers attitudes towards computer assisted Language learning (call)

There are similar programs all over the world like SMART Education Plan in South Korea, Smart Classroom Project in Australia, Future Schools in Singapoure and The National Education Technology Plan in the United States (Keskin, Sarsar & Gallagher, 2014). However, the implementations in the field of CALL have mostly remained at the hardware level (Pelgrum & Anderson, 2001) expecting that the classrooms equipped with technological tools will improve the quality of learning and teaching. However, without training both in-service and pre-service teachers and observing their classroom practices, it is not possible to detect the effectiveness of any innovation. The pre-service teachers are expected to use CALL tools in their technologically equipped classrooms in their future career. However, they do not receive any CALL course during the preservice teacher education period (Rakıcıoğlu-Söylemez & Akayoğlu, 2015). Only a limited number of universities offer elective courses aiming at training pre-service teachers on the use of technology in language classes. In the centralized ELT curriculum designed by Council of Higher Education, there is a course entitled as Instructional Technologies and Material Design in Turkish educational system; however, the course was determined as basic principles of teaching, the use of technological devices in the classroom, like overhead projector or smartboards. The use Web 2.0 tools which allow interaction among the students or the use the Internet for designing materials were completely ignored. The reason for this fact might be that the course description was written in 2006, when Web 2.0 tools were not very popular. Moreover, the content of the course is not specifically designed for language teachers but for all branches of education. From this point of view, that course is far away from meeting the needs of pre-service teachers. It can be concluded that the investments on technological devices would be worthless without efficient training of pre-service teachers. This study might be helpful to give insights about how a CALL course could change pre-service teachers’ perceptions towards CALL tools. The possible acceptance of technology integration in language classes would be considered as an indicator of their technology use in their future teaching career. Pre-service teachers graduate from teacher training programs without knowing how to use CALL tools in language classrooms and they have difficulties in integrating technology into their classrooms. Egbert, Paulus and Nakamichi (2002) studied with 20 English as a second language and foreign language teachers in a graduate-level CALL course at a large midwestern university in the United States. They focused on how language teachers applied practical experiences from CALL course in their teaching environment and found out that “technology coursework can change teachers' attitudes toward and confidence with technology and can also provide them with skills that they did not previously have” (p. 113). Volman (2005) carried out a study with 13 experts and stakeholders in educational technology and asked to discuss upon some predetermined themes varying from the expected competencies of the teachers to the new roles of the teachers in teaching profession. After the discussions were transcribed and analyzed, the changing role of teachers was also mentioned and summarized as the role of teachers, however, will become more complex rather than simpler. Teachers must know what programs are available that are suitable for their students’ individual needs and keep abreast of this. They are the ‘arrangers’ of students’ learning processes: they bring together the educational tools and set them up in a particular way. In addition, they fulfil the role of instructor, trainer, coach, advisor, consultant and assessor. Today, social media is a major part of our lives and a very large amount of people are spending many hours on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube worldwide (Eren, 2012). The rise of Web 2.0 tools, which are described as the webbased services providing users visual, textual and interactive information, has made social media very popular all over the world (O’Reilly, 2005) and has caused researchers to examine the possibility of social media use in teaching and learning processes (TÕlfarlÕo÷lu, 2011). It is claimed that social media has an enormous role for a high quality education corresponding to the social settings of learning and fostering critical thinking in students (Mason, 2006). There are even researchers suggesting that it has potential to change educational system completely, encouraging students for superior learning instead of being inactive participants of a classroom (Ziegler, 2007). Although social media is not directly intended for educational purposes, it has drawn attention from EFL teachers since it serves as an educational tool within the framework of foreign language learning. From a social constructivist perspective, foreign language learning is regarded not only as an individual but also a collaborative process and basic mental processes in foreign language learning are supposed to be facilitated through social media (Mondahl & Razmerita, 2014). According to Sekiguchi (2012), developing active language learning environment is the key element for supporting EFL learners and social media can be integrated into the EFL curriculum purposefully and appropriately in order to promote communities of learning in which EFL learners can participate on a regular basis. Moreover, social media can provide learners with richer mental images, thereby facilitating language learning as it can present material in more than one modality (Smith et al., 2003). As social media platforms have ended the limitations of the physical world by offering unlimited communicative opportunities in the virtual world, they have become increasingly used to supplement language learning (Fewell, 2014). Today's language learners are responsive to utilizing such social media platforms as Social Networking Sites (e.g. Facebook), blogs/microblogs (e.g. Twitter), collaborative projects (e.g. Wiki), content communities (e.g. YouTube), and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life) (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). In the EFL context, much research has been conducted on the learners’ attitudes towards the educational use of social media. To begin with, the study of Razak and his associates (Razak et. al., 2013) revealed that the EFL learners perceive Facebook as an interactive learning environment which improves their writing skills, promotes learner-learner and learner-instructor interaction and develops a sense of belonging. Suthiwartnarueput & Wasanasomsithi (2012) found that EFL learners have positive attitudes towards employing Facebook to improve their grammar and writing skills. Having investigated EFL learners’ opinions about the use of Facebook in a university language course, Yang (2013) found that the students have positive perceptions about Facebook as an interactive learning platform. According to the results of another study (Kabilan, Ahmad, & Abidin, 2010), tertiary level students think that Facebook can be used as an online environment to assist the language learning process. In a recent study, Kanasin (2014) reported that the students have positive attitudes towards employing Facebook in their writing classes as the utilization of Facebook can increase their motivation. The study of Eren (2012) demonstrated that learners have a very positive attitude towards the application of Facebook to language teaching although conventional classroom based language learning still remains a backbone for language teaching. AydÕn (2014) reported that EFL writers have positive perceptions about the utilization of Facebook as a portfolio tool although they believe that the process is tedious, time-consuming and demanding. østifçi (2014) claimed that most of the students have positive opinions on employing Facebook for educational purposes. Atmaca (2013) also indicated that student teachers believe that integrating Facebook into educational settings is useful. Blogs and microblogs have caught attention from foreign language teachers because they form an effective means of creating journals without calling for any ICT skills from learners (Wu, 2006). Wu & Wu (2011) mentioned that tertiary level students’ opinions about the utilization of blogs in EFL learning are positive. In another study (Noytim, 2010), it was discovered that the learners perceive blogs as instruments for the improvement of their English with regard to writing, reading, vocabulary, and recording their learning experience. Similarly, Al-Fadda & Al-Yahya (2010) noted that graduate students have positive attitudes towards the utilization of blogs in pre-class preparation and post-class reflections. The study of østifçi (2011) revealed that EFL learners find the idea of blogs as distant learning tools that are motivating, enjoyable and encouraging. Most recently, Twitter, as a popular microblog, has acquired the attention of educational practitioners and researchers (Borau et al., 2009). Sekiguchi (2012), for instance, pointed out that the learning community on Twitter helps EFL learners to maintain their motivation and regular learning routines. The results of another study (Fewell, 2014) demonstrated that the use of Twitter is believed to promote language learning and social cohesion. Little research has been performed on the attitudes of EFL learners towards wikis. Chao and Lo (2011) reported on EFL learners’ positive opinions about the wiki-based collaborative writing environment. The study carried out by Ducate et al. (2011) also showed that students consider wikis as valid and enjoyable learning tools. YouTube has been integrated into EFL classrooms in a wide range of implementations (Brook, 2011). In a recent study conducted by Silviyanti (2014), it was suggested that YouTube can be used as a material in listening class because it provides many benefits for students. Kuo (2009) noted that the utilization of YouTube videos offers a real native speaker setting and that YouTube offers opportunities to access audio-visual materials that may enhance EFL learners' listening comprehension skills.