TY - JOUR

T1 - Iranian Teachers’ Perceptions of Technology Integration in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

AU - Abbaszadeh, Zahra

AU - Hathaway, Tanya

PY - 2024/7/25

Y1 - 2024/7/25

N2 - The integration of technology in higher education, particularly in the teaching of English as a foreign language (TEFL), has been significantly impacted by globalisation. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend, with a shift towards online and mobile-assisted language learning. This study, which employed a small-scale qualitative research approach using volunteer sampling and face-to-face interviews, explores Iranian TEFL teachers’ perceptions of technology integration during the pandemic. The research uncovers the impact of online and mobile-assisted language learning on both students’ learning and teachers’ professional knowledge and effectiveness. Six themes emerged from the analysis of the 14 semi-structured interviews conducted with in-service TEFL teachers: online teaching quality, challenges of online teaching, influence of teacher characteristics, quality of applied technological knowledge, affordance of technology integration, and online teaching components. The findings suggest that individual variability exists in teachers’ integration of technology in practice, the quality of online language teaching, and language teachers’ technological knowledge. This indicates a need for targeted mentoring and coaching to improve technology-mediated practice. Additionally, the study reveals that variability in individual teacher capacity is not related to the length of teaching experience, highlighting the need for ongoing professional development for teachers throughout their careers.Key Words: TEFL, in-service teachers, online learning, mobile-assisted language teaching, teachers’ technological knowledge.

AB - The integration of technology in higher education, particularly in the teaching of English as a foreign language (TEFL), has been significantly impacted by globalisation. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend, with a shift towards online and mobile-assisted language learning. This study, which employed a small-scale qualitative research approach using volunteer sampling and face-to-face interviews, explores Iranian TEFL teachers’ perceptions of technology integration during the pandemic. The research uncovers the impact of online and mobile-assisted language learning on both students’ learning and teachers’ professional knowledge and effectiveness. Six themes emerged from the analysis of the 14 semi-structured interviews conducted with in-service TEFL teachers: online teaching quality, challenges of online teaching, influence of teacher characteristics, quality of applied technological knowledge, affordance of technology integration, and online teaching components. The findings suggest that individual variability exists in teachers’ integration of technology in practice, the quality of online language teaching, and language teachers’ technological knowledge. This indicates a need for targeted mentoring and coaching to improve technology-mediated practice. Additionally, the study reveals that variability in individual teacher capacity is not related to the length of teaching experience, highlighting the need for ongoing professional development for teachers throughout their careers.Key Words: TEFL, in-service teachers, online learning, mobile-assisted language teaching, teachers’ technological knowledge.

KW - TEFL

KW - in-service teachers

KW - online learning

KW - mobile-assisted language teaching

KW - teachers’ technological knowledge

U2 - 10.5281/zenodo.12817817

DO - 10.5281/zenodo.12817817

M3 - Article

VL - 1

SP - 114

EP - 138

JO - Journal of Language and Culture in Education

JF - Journal of Language and Culture in Education

SN - 2945-2864

IS - 1

M1 - 8

ER -