The Impact of Teachers’ Age, Gender and Experience on the Use of Information and Communication Technology in EFL Teaching

Abstract

The integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into language teaching and learning depends on many factors. Some of these factors are associated with teachers. Teachers play a crucial role in the integration of ICT. This study investigates the impact of teacher's age, experience, and gender on the integration of ICT into language teaching. This study utilized a mixed-method approach of investigation, which applies both qualitative and quantitative methods. The instruments used for data collection were a survey and an interview. The survey was administered to 46 in-service EFL teachers working at Najran University, Saudi Arabia. Ten out of these participants were interviewed. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in using ICT between the two groups of teachers according to their age and experience. However, the results indicate that there is a difference between male and female teachers in using ICT in language teaching. Female teachers reported less use of ICT in their instruction than male teachers. Some suggestions are offered to improve the situation of ICT integration into language learning in EFL contexts.

Investigation into the Utilization of ICT Facilities for Teaching Purposes among University Lecturers: Influence of Gender, Age, Qualification and Years of Teaching Experience

“…It is also a general believe that women are lagging behind when it comes to the use of ICT (Hallberg, Kulecho, Kulecho & Okoth, 2011). For example, male lecturers were found to use ICT facilities most as compared to their female counterparts (Mahdi & Al-Dera, 2013). Similarly, Tezci (2009) found significant influence of gender on the level of utilization of ICT facilities by teachers.…”

“…For instance, studies have shown that older teachers are less confident with using computers as compared to their younger counterpart (Teo, Lee & Chai, 2008). While, some other studies have shown that age is not a determining factor in use of ICT in teaching (Mahdi & Al-Dera, 2013;Tezci, 2009).…”

“…This has been attributed to the enthusiasm and openness of the youths towards technology (Onansanya et al, 2010;Tezci, 2009). On the other hand, some studies have not found years of experience as a determining factor for the utilization of ICT facilities in teaching (Mahdi & Al-Dera, 2013;Niederhauser & Stoddart, 2001).…”

Relación entre la edad del profesorado de música andaluz y el desarrollo de la Escuela TIC 2.0

“…Es destacable que, a pesar del amplio despliegue y repercusión social de este programa, no hayamos encontrado investigaciones al respecto. Pocos son también los estudios (Almerich, Suárez, Orellana, Belloch, Bo & Gastaldo, 2005;Cox, Preston & Cox, 1999;Kubiatko, 2013;Morris & Venkatesh, 2000;Saleh & Sa´ad, 2013;Torres, Robles & Molina, 2011) acerca de la influencia que tiene la edad sobre las decisiones para la adopción de la tecnología. En dichas investigaciones, focalizadas en estudios de caso diversos, se apunta la misma idea, es decir, la importancia que tiene la edad en la integración de las TIC en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, así como que el uso y actitudes del profesorado hacia éstas será distinto en función de la edad.…”

“…Centrándonos en la edad, son varios los estudios que amparan la idea de que este factor incide directamente sobre el uso de las TIC (Kubiatko, 2013;Morris & Venkatesh, 2000;Torres et al, 2011). Otros estudios, aunque revelan un posible impacto del factor edad, lo consideran inferior al que puedan tener otros aspectos como es el género (Almerich et al, 2005;Saleh & Sa´ad, 2013).…”