“Blended” in the Online Classroom! Technology Acceptance of EFL Students

Abstract

In the digital era, blended learning (BL) has become a new normal in language education. Students who fail to learn remotely may have difficulty achieving academic success (Neumeier, 2015). English instructors now attempt to integrate traditional face-to-face class meetings with a technology-enhanced environment that encourages student engagement. Previous studies have shown that BL brings learning benefits to higher education, especially as an effective way to amplify learning opportunities and support university students’ flexible learning (Li, Yang, Chu, Zainuddin & Zhang, 2020). For college EFL students in the BL context, their language skills have improved, both perceptively (e.g., Yang & Kuo, 2021) and productively (e.g., Kirkgoz, 2011; Liu, 2013). Studies have shown an additional growing interest in the tie between BL and learning attitudes (e.g., Gulnaz, Althomali & Alzeer, 2020. With an aim to further explore student perception of online learning, the present study extends previous but comparatively little research on how BL enhances EFL learners’ technology acceptance. In the study, Taiwanese under-graduate students enrolled in a Freshman English course were engaged in a weekly BL rotation of face-to-face meetings and Internet-based lessons. A pretest and posttest design was applied to the questionnaire survey to examine the learners’ acceptance level. As suggested by Tran (2016), major criteria are established for the examination of learner attitude toward system characteristics, socio-cultural factors, and individual differences. The collected data were analyzed using ANOVA for statistically significant difference. Pedagogical implications are discussed for future establishment of a trendy but truly meaningful and engaging digital classroom.



Author Information
Wenli Chang, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

Paper Information
Conference: ECE2021
Stream: Foreign Languages Education & Applied Linguistics (including ESL/TESL/TEFL)

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Posted by James Alexander Gordon