Exploring Perceptions and Practices about Information and Communication Technologies in Business English Teaching in Pakistan

Yıl 2009, Cilt: 12 Sayı: 2, 31 - 42, 01.04.2009

Hussain Muhammad Athar Muhammad Zafar Iqbal

Öz

Anahtar Kelimeler

-

Exploring Perceptions and Practices about Information and Communication Technologies in Business English Teaching in Pakistan

Öz

Language Reforms and potential use of ICTs has been a focal area of the Higher
Education Commission of Pakistan. Efforts are being accelerated to incorporate fast expanding ICTs to bring
qualitative improvement in language instruction in higher education. This paper explores how university
teachers are benefitting from ICTs to make their English classes effective and what types of problems they
face in practicing ICTs during their lectures. An in-depth qualitative study was employed to understand why
language teachers tend to use ICTs in their instruction and how they are practicing it. A sample of twenty
teachers from five universities located in Islamabad, three from the public sector and two from the private
sector, was selected on a non-random (Snowball) sampling basis. An interview with 15 semi-structured
items was used as research instruments to collect data. The findings reveal that business English teaching is
facilitated and improved through the use of ICTs. The language teachers need special training regarding the
practices and implementation of ICTs. It is recommended that initiatives might be taken to equip university
language teachers with modern methodology incorporating ICTs as a focal area and efforts might be made to
remove barriers regarding the training of language teachers and proper usage of ICT. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

Business English Teaching, Higher Education Comission of Pakistan

Kaynakça

• Black, P. et. al. (1996). Changing the Subject: Innovations in science, mathematics and Technology Education. London:Routledge/OECD.
• Browne, C. & Gerrity, S. (2004). Setting up and maintaining a CALL laboratory. New perspectives on CALL for second language classrooms (pp. 171-198). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
• Brown, H.D. (2000). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to lang pedagogy. New York: Longman.
• Chen, H.J. (2003). Internet-assisted language learning and professional development. Seminar on multimedia English teaching, Chungtai institute of health sciences and technology, pp. 16-33.
• Chen, Yu-Li. (2008). Factors affecting the integration of information and communication technology in Language teaching. Asian EFL Journal. Professional teaching articles.
• Clark, K. (2000). Power Web searching techniques for teacher educators. ERIC document reproduction service no. ED 444497, retrieved from www.eric.com.
• Davies, G. (2003). Perspectives on offline and online training initiatives. Language learning online: Towards best practice (pp. 193-214). Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.
• Donna, S. (2000). Teach business English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
• Epper, R.M. (2001). The new economy meets the Ivory tower. Teaching faculty how to use technology: Best practices from leading institutions (pp. 1-18). Westport, CT: The American council on education, ORYX press.
• Ertmer, P.A. (1999). Addressing first and second order barriers to change: Strategies for technology integration. Educational Technology Research & Development, 47(4), 47-61.
• Finely, L & Hartman, D. (2004). Institutional change and resistance: Teacher preparatory faculty and technology integration. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 12(3), 319-337.
• Fotos, S. & Browne, C. (2004). The development of CALL and current options. In S. Fotos and C.M.Browne (Eds), New perspectives on CALL for second language classrooms (pp. 3-14). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
• Hassan, S. (2005). Reading and Writing skills for advanced students of business English in Pakistan. NUML, Islamabad. Unpublished PhD Thesis.
• Higher Education Commission (2006) Annual Report 2005-06, Islamabad.
• Maeers, M. & Cooper, D. (2002). A faculty of education as a community of learners: Growing to meet the demands of instruction and technology. Retrieved from www.eric.com.
• Merriam, S.B. (2002). Assessing and evaluating qualitative research: Examples for discussion and analysis. Qualitative Research in Practice (pp. 18-33). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Company.
• Okamoto, T. (2004). How a web based course facilitates acquisition of English for academic purposes. Language Learning & Technology, 8(2), 33-49. Retrieved from www.msu.edu.com.
• Safdar, M. (2008). Facilitating and Empowering teachers through information and communication technologies. Conference Proceedings. Islamabad: Szbist.
• Shrivastava, P. (1998). Learning Community. Retrieved from www.Environmentalintel.com/Soc.
• Solobodina, T. (2000). Faculty development in technology for teachers of English for specific purposes. Retrieved from www.eric.com on October, 2006.
• Susser, B. & Robb. T. N. (2004). Evaluation of ESL/EFL instructional websites.
• In S. Fotos & C. M. Browne (Eds.), New perspectives on CALL for second language classrooms (pp.279- 296). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
• Terwindt, S. (2000). Constructivistic learning. Faculty development (pp. 448-450). Retrieved from www. eric.com.
• Van Sachie, J. (1997). A World Wide Web survey on the use of information and communication technology in Education. European Journal of Teacher
• Education, 20:1, 85-92. Retrieved from www.informaworld.com on 25 June, 2009.
• Warschauer, M. (2000). The changing global economy and the future of English teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 34(3), 511-533.
• Whitehead, D. & Whitehead, G. (1993). English for Business. Oxford: M. Simple Books.