Teachers' Perception of the Use of ICT in Foreign Language Teaching at a Higher Education Institution

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyse and present the attitude of language teachers of a private higher education institution towards the use of ICT in the process of teaching foreign languages. Furthermore, the aim of the paper is to find out if teachers believe they have the skills and abilities necessary for the implementation of ICT tools. For this purpose, the authors have designed a questionnaire in order to examine if foreign language teachers feel motivated and prepared to implement new technologies as an integral part of their lectures. The results show a positive attitude of foreign language teachers regarding the incorporation of ICT tools in their classes, though they do not state that ICT tools are mandatory and/or essential in the language classroom. The research results also indicate that teachers use both traditional and ICT methods, which they find to be a perfect combination. These research results are very similar to the results of the previous research conducted by the same authors, but from students´ perspective, regarding the usage of ICT tools in foreign language classroom.

Teachers’ Perceptions of ICT in Post-pandemic Foreign Language Teaching at the Tertiary Level in Serbia

“…As a result, the teacher assumes the responsibility of meeting the students' requirements [6] so as to favor language learning. Based on quite the amount of conducted empirical research so far in Serbia, [2] [14], students do mostly welcome the usage of ICT before and during the pandemic at different university contexts, confirming the previous idea of teachers having the different role than before, i.e. to recognize the students' needs.…”

“…Furthermore, in order to improve the quality of teaching, digital skills are an important prerequisite [13], primarily referring to the possibilities that using a certain digital tool has and the objective that it brings along [2] [5], even the possibility to combine the aspects from traditional and modern teaching approach, i.e., the "synchronous and asynchronous" [9]. Therefore, teachers' own attitudes, perceptions, and opinions are correlated with the degree to which the digital tools will be applied in the classroom [14].…”

Using AI Chatbots in Academia - the Opinions of University Students

“…According to one previous study, 'although they state that they feel comfortable using ICT tools in their classroom and perceive new technology as a tool that contributes to better language acquisition of students, teachers also often or always apply the traditional methodology in the teaching practice, which shows that they consider benefits of innovative methodologies assisted with new technology, but do not discard the proven traditional formulas for effective teaching and learning.' [8] That being said, Daniel Lametti of Slate Magazine points out that 'chatGPT might fail at tests of reasoning, but it's great at generating human-like text to different lengths and in various styles,' [9], openly acknowledging the benefits of taking advantage of this new tool, in which a project requiring hours of research and writing could be whittled down to mere minutes, by simply inputting the required length, topic, and tone of the desired project. The Economist cites a March 2023 study, warning that "teachers, especially those of languages, literature and history, are next on the list," (in terms of occupations likely to be made redundant due to A.I.)…”