UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR USE FOR TEACHING ENGLISH FOR GENERAL AND SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Abstract

The present small-scale study investigated Lithuanian university and college teachers’ attitudes towards Web 2.0 technologies and their use in the process of teaching English for general and specific purposes (ESP). It also analysed the teachers’ ability to use these technologies as perceived by the teachers themselves and aimed to establish which technologies they use in the process of teaching English, including ESP. A sample of 39 university and college teachers of English from five higher education institutions in Lithuania participated in the present study. The data were collected from their responses to the questionnaire and analysed using descriptive and correlational statistics. The results revealed that most teachers have a positive attitude towards Web 2.0 technologies in general as well as towards their use for teaching English for general and specific purposes. The findings also showed that the majority of the study participants view themselves as proficient or moderate users of digital environments available at their institutions, however, their ability to use educational technologies, such as RSS, the software of social bookmarking and image sharing, as well as blogs and vlogs, for teaching English is limited. Key words : Web 2.0 technologies, teachers’ attitudes, General English, English for Specific Purposes, higher education