Abstract
This research examines the merits and demerits of CALL implementation in Jordanian primary education as perceived by 200 primary-stage EFL teachers. A questionnaire was constructed and used to collect the data. The findings reveal that the most frequently perceived merits are immediate feedback, motivating students learning, initiating more interaction, excitement and enjoyment, and language skills integration. On the other hand, the most frequently perceived demerits of CALL implementation were found to be insufficient number of computers, technical problems, student view of the computer as an entertainment tool, weak student computer skills, and cost. The study concludes with a number of pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundFor the past few decades, technology has been prevalent in every aspect of modern life
The computer, having a marked pedagogical potential to affect the way teaching and learning are viewed, has been utilized in teaching language around the world. This has led to the prominence of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in language instruction in general and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in particular despite a de facto consensus that the computer is a teaching tool rather www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/fce
The prominence of the computer, one of the latest of these innovations, makes it essential for all stakeholders to acquire basic computer skills, not to mention that, for instructional computer use to be effective for teaching, access to hardware and software is of the essence
Summary
Introduction and BackgroundFor the past few decades, technology has been prevalent in every aspect of modern life. Even though instructional technology has been expected to revolutionize the way teachers teach, learners learn, and schools deliver education, research (e.g., Cuban, 2001; Mumtaz, 2000; Warschauer, 2001) documents a divide between the claims made for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their actual effect on education. This divide has been attributed to material conditions like the insufficient computers and software and non-material conditions like insufficient ICT knowledge, skills, and experience and teacher time (Pelgrum, 2001). Thousands of computers were brought into public schools, bringing the average ratio of student to computer from 43:1 in 2001 (Bataineh & Baniabdelrahman, 2006) to a range of 10:1 to 30:1 in 70 percent of Jordanian public schools and Internet connectivity for over 85 percent of all public schools (UNESCO, 2011)
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