Exploring Attitudes of Teachers and Students to the Integration of Technology in EFL Classrooms

Abstract

Much available research stresses the role positive teachers' and students' attitudes play in the success of technology integration. A large body of research has been conducted in the region to investigate the attitudes of teachers and students to the integration of technology in the EFL classroom. However, most researchers are university teachers who are not familiar with the environment they are studying. Most researchers concluded that the majority of students and teachers hold positive attitudes to using computers in the classroom. Many of them reported the gap between what teachers say and what they actually. This study may be one of those few studies, if any, conducted by a high school teacher to study teachers' and students' attitudes to technology integration. In this research questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observation forms were used for data collection. Subjects for the study included 14 teachers of different cultural backgrounds, and 429 Emirati students in a technologybased high school for boys in Al-Ain, UAE. The findings confirmed that most students, and teachers hold positive attitudes to the use of technology as a learning tool. Classroom observations also showed a clear alignment between teachers' attitudes and their use of computers in teaching. The findings also indicated that there is much to be done, and that technology integration is an on-going process. The researcher identified challenges that teachers and students faced, and brought them to the attention of administrators, and decision makers to play their roles in providing help and support.