In the present study, both the issues addressed and the methodology adopted for the quantitative and qualitative research left a lot to be desired, due to the following limitations. Suggestions to fill up the gap are also provided as follows.
First, since the present study is intended as a large-scale survey, whether the sampling can be representative of the actual pool of elementary English teachers in Taiwan virtually determines the significance of the study. However, the researcher’s failure in finding the official statistic data as a reference can offer researchers for future studies an insight into a better sampling strategy. Furthermore, the design of the
questionnaire in future studies also deserves more careful consideration about the questions as well as the question items. For example, some interviewees raised their doubt about whether they should check the item “English classroom” if the English classroom they had in school was not equipped with IT technology. Others couldn’t make a decision on the items about their frequency of IT use, since they thought there should be other options between “in each class” and “at least once a week,” such as
“nearly each class” or “every other class.” In addition, items designed as answers responding to respondents’ highest education in the third part of the questionnaire lack predictive power because some of the items seemed to be overlapping in some way and so should be refined so as to generate more meaningful results.
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Secondly, in the study, grouping of location of school remained a tough decision to make. In the questionnaire, the respondents were required to identify the location of their school as in metropolitan cities, northern, central, southern, or eastern Taiwan, and off-island areas. Next, due to the convenience of data analysis, the researcher decided to regroup the location of school into metropolitan city, township or city, and remote areas while analyzing the data. However, after doing the interview, the researcher found it difficult to decide how to group some of the respondents’ schools located in the remote areas, though belonging to a large metropolitan city. Therefore, a more sophisticated system or criteria for the grouping of locations of schools would be highly
recommended.
Finally, despite the increasing popularity of tablet computers or other mobile devices among modern people, relatively few participants made mentions of their experiences of using them. Actually, according to one of the interviewees, tablet computers were ideal for teachers to carry out individualized teaching and for students to do remedial self-learning. Consequently, further exploration into the field of mobile devices should be included in future research on the issue of IT integration into subject instruction.
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Appendix A
Technology Integration Questionnaire
Dear participants,
This questionnaire has three sections and consists of 4 pages. Please mark ALL your answers on the accompanying Answer Sheet on the last page. Please check the most appropriate response when answering the close-ended question and record your personal comments to the open-ended questions in the space provided in the last section of the answer sheet. After you have completed your responses, please kindly return both the questionnaire and your answer sheet to the researcher by mail. Thank you for your participation.
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Section I
Your Views on IT Integration into Curriculum
Instruction:
Using the scale provided below, please rate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding Technology Integration into Curriculum:
1. I believe use of IT integration into English classes is unlikely to create problems in time management in class.
2. I believe use of IT integration into English classes does not increase teachers’ workload.
3. I believe use of IT integration into English classes may help me better monitor students’learning.
4. I believe use of IT integration into English classes may promote interaction between the teacher and students.
5.I believe use of IT integration into English classes can promote teaching efficiency.
6. I believe use of IT integration into English classes may require more time from me for preparation before class.
7. I believe use of IT integration into English classes may increase students’ learning interest and motivation.
8. I believe use of IT integration into English classes may promote students’ learning effectiveness.
9. I believe use of IT integration into English classes may promote interaction among the students.
10. I believe use of IT integration into English classes can meet the students’ learning needs.
11. I believe use of IT integration into English classes haspositive influence on teaching effectiveness.
12. I believe use of IT integration into English classes does notaffect students’ attentiveness.
13. I believe use of IT integration into English classes can help cultivate students’ leaning autonomy.
14. I believe use of IT integration into English classes may help promote diversity of my teaching.
15. I believe use of IT resources in English classes can be fit into the curriculum.
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Section II
How You Use IT in Your English Class Instruction:
Please answer the following questions according to your present teaching
situation. You are free to check more than one item while answering all the questions except Question 4.
1. Please check any of the following IT technology available in your school.
□ English Classroom (Classroom exclusively for English courses)
□ Computer Classroom / Technology Classroom
□ Audio-Visual Classroom (Special classroom with multimedia facilities)
□ Ordinary Classroom with overhead projector and on-line computer
□ Online Resources (English learning website/ digital learning platform/online forum)
□ Interactive White Board
□ Digital Information Lectern
□ Multimedia Learning Software
□ Others:________________________________________
2. Please check any of the following IT resources you use in English classes.
□ English Classroom (Classroom exclusively for English courses)
□ Computer Classroom / Technology Classroom
□ Audio-Visual Classroom (Special classroom with multimedia facilities)
□ Ordinary Classroom with overhead projector and on-line computer
□ Online Resources (English learning website/ digital learning platform/online forum)
□ Interactive White Board
□ Digital Information Lectern
□ Multimedia Learning Software
□ Others:________________________________________
3. How often do you use IT resources in English classes?
□ In each class
□ At least once a week
□ About once a month
□ Seldom, probably once a semester
□ Never
4. Check any of the following reasons behind your decision not to use IT resources in English classes?
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□ Not being provided with IT facilities
□ Lack of knowledge in IT technology and ability to operate IT facilities
□ Not being provided with training courses in IT use
□ None of them because I use it very often.
□ Not being able to afford the time learning and using IT resources
□ Others: ________________________________________
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Section III Personal Information Instruction:
Please check in each square (□) according to the present situation and fill in each blank carefully.
1. I now teach in __________ elementary School in __________
City/County.
2. The school is located in
□ (1)Metropolitan Cities in Taiwan
(Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taichung City, Tainan City, and Kaohsiung City)
□ (2)Cities or Counties in Northern Taiwan.
(Keelung City, Taoyuan County, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City, Miaoli County)
□ (3)Cities or Counties in Central Taiwan.
(Chuanghua County, Nantou County, Yunlin County)
□ (4)Cities or Counties in Southern Taiwan.
(Chiayi City, Chiayi County, Pingtung County)
□ (5)Cities or Counties in Eastern Taiwan.
(Ilan county, Hualien County, Taitung County)
□ (6)Cities or Counties Off Taiwan Islands
(Lienchiang County, Kinmen County, Penghu County) 3. School Size:
□ (1)No more than 12 classes
□ (2)12-24 classes
□ (3)25-36 classes
□ (4)37-48 classes
□ (5)49-60 classes
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□ (6) More than 60 lasses 4. Gender:
□ (1) Male
□ (2) Female 5. Age:
□ (1)21-30 years old
□ (2)31-40 years old
□ (3)41-50 years old
□ (4)51-60 years old
□ (5)Over 60 years old
□ (6) Others:____________________
6. Years of Teaching
□ (1) No more than 5 years
□ (2) 6-10 years
□ (3) 11-15 years
□ (4) 16-20 years
□ (5) 21-25 years
□ (6) 26-30 years
□ (7) More than 35 years 7. Highest Education:
□ (1) BA of English Major in Teachers’ Training Institutions
□ (2) BA of English Minor in Teachers’ Training Institutions
□ (3) BA of Foreign Language Major
□ (4) Teachers’ In-Service 40-Credit Courses
□ (5) MA of English Major
□ (6) PH.D of English Major
□ (7) Others:____________________
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Appendix B
Outlines for the Interviews
Part 1 Teachers' Demographics
Q1: Would you please tell me your name?
Q2:Where do you teach?
Q3:How long have you been teaching English in an elementary school?
Q4:What subjects and which grade do you teach in the past and for the present?
Q5: Are you a homeroom teacher, subject teacher, or do you have an administration post at school?
Q6: Can you tell me your studying experiences as a student before you become a qualified full time teacher?
Pat 2 Teachers' Teaching procedures& Use of Teaching Resources Q1: Can you describe your usual teaching procedures in teaching a lesson?
Follow-up Questions:
1. How do you conduct each of the teaching activities in class?
2. How do you incorporate each kind of teaching resources into instruction?
3. Why do you arrange your English instruction like this?
4. What do you expect your students to learn in each activity specifically?
Q2: What teaching resources do you have in the classroom?
Follow-up Questions:
1. How do you incorporate each of the teaching resources into English teaching in class?
2. Why do you decide to use or not to use a specific kind of teaching resource in the English class?
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Part 3 Teachers' IT use in English Classes
Q1: Do you use any IT facility to facilitate your English instruction in class?
If yes,
Follow-up questions:
1. Do you decide to integrate IT into instruction?
2. What are the contributing factors behind your decision of IT use?
3. What information technology do you use in English instruction in class?
4. How is the technology used to facilitate or to improve the quality of teaching and learning?
5. What is your expected value of the technology and your perceived effectiveness of it on teaching and learning?
6. Do you have other concerns for IT integration into instruction?
7. What are your students’ reaction to IT integration into instruction?
If not,
Follow-up Questions:
1. What are the possible reasons for the lack of IT facilities in your school?
2. What is your comment on the lack of IT facilities in your school?
3. How you manage to reach the goal of English teaching without use of IT?
4. Instead of IT, what other teaching resources are available for use to assist teaching and learning in English classes?
5. Could you talk more about the students’ feedback about your teaching approach?
Q2: Is there any other information technology that you want to incorporate into your teaching in the future?
Follow-up Questions
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1. Why do you expect to incorporate the information technology into your teaching in the future?
2. How do you expect that information technology to be integrated into I instruction?
3. What is your expected effectiveness of that information technology?
Part 4 Conclusion
Step 1: Before we end the interview, please allow me to make a brief summary of our interview today.
Step 2: Is there anything you want to add, to clarify, or to explain further?
Step 3: Thank you for your participation in this interview. I really appreciate your generous help with this research project. Thank you so much!