ICT applications

This part of the chapter is concerned with ICT applications employed by the EFL teachers in their classroom teaching. It is apparent from the questionnaire data that the EFL

teachers in this study often used both general types of ICT applications such as ‘Power Point’ and ‘Word-processor’, as well as certain language-specific ICT applications such as ‘Electronic dictionaries’ and ‘Digitized audio/video’. Yet, the use of other language- specific applications, such as ‘Tutorials and drills’, ‘Word-recognition software’ and ‘Web-based activities’ by these teachers was not as high. This suggests that the level of use of these applications might vary.

Of interest is that a big number of teachers indicated they had never used such applications as ‘Audio/Video conferencing’ and ‘Voice chat’ (applications for communicating). This is somewhat surprising given that the availability of these

technologies could constitute them as generic type applications. One possible reason for this disparity is that the EFL teachers taught face-to-face so they had no pressing need to

151 use ‘Voice chat’ and ‘Audio/Video conferencing’. Another possibility relates to the teachers’ tendency to associate technologies only in relation to their own use as teachers. As such, it is likely that even if they encouraged students to use the applications, they would not register this as their own use.

In the interviews, the teachers also reported using multiple ICT applications in their classroom teaching, including both common applications such as ‘Power Point

presentation’, ‘Email’ and some language specific applications such as ‘Audio/video and ‘Pronunciation software’. Also, it seems that when using generic applications, they adapted them to suit their EFL classes, indicating their purposeful selection, adaptation and use. This suggests that these teachers had a relatively comprehensive knowledge about ICT applications, including the generic ones. However, they might be selective in using certain ICT applications for their classroom teaching.

When it comes to the purpose of using ICT, the questionnaire findings show that teachers used them mainly for teaching and communicating purposes. The interview findings shed some further light, suggesting that tools were selected to enable content delivery, information display or communicating with students. Thus, it would seem that these teachers were selecting tools to aid their instruction and to “make their current jobs quicker and easier” (Jordan, 2011, p. 16), and that their use of ICT was just “layering ICT” (Carr, 2013, p. 149) onto their current teaching practices. This is nothing new. The literature has shown that a ‘tool view’ is commonly held (Jordan, 2011; Keengwe & Kang, 2013; Kim, 2008; Li & Ni, 2011; Park & Son, 2009).

In the interviews, participants gave various reasons for using ICT. Some of these such as their perception that there were particular benefits and that they thought their students needed to, are well reported in the literature (Albirini, 2006; Celik, 2013; Dinh, 2009; Dang, 2014; Kim, 2008; Li & Ni, 2011; Mollaei & Riasati, 2013; Park & Son, 2009;

152 Saglam & Sert, 2012). However, some participants also indicated that they used ICT as they were mandated by the university to do so. This suggests that some teachers felt somewhat coerced, rather than using ICT for pedagogical reasons. Thus, the findings indicate that the teachers’ implementation of ICT in classroom teaching could be both optional and compulsory. This is discussed in further detail in part four of this chapter. However, a number of participants implied in the interviews that the teachers used ICT more than the students, and that teachers had some control over the use of ICT in their classroom practice. Such comments as that by Valerie that “ICT gives us a choice – it is

up to the teachers to use ICT” clearly illustrate this trend. It seems that the EFL teachers

had control of what to teach and whether or not to employ ICT to teach in order to achieve their instructional goals. There seems to be little room for the students to interact with their teachers and with their peers via the use of ICT in their learning process. An understanding of the Vietnamese teaching system and tradition could assist in understanding this. In terms of the teaching system, the national education system “prescribes almost all of school operation practice” (T. T. Dang, 2010, p. 5) including academic activities, so the EFL teachers had to follow a fixed syllabus and thus had little space to implement ICT in their practice. Also, being affected by the Confucian heritage (see Introduction Chapter), Vietnamese teachers are traditionally considered knowledge providers and so they are the centre of the learning process (T. T. Dang, 2010). This applies to Vietnamese EFL teachers as well. Recently, a communicative language teaching method that put students in the centre of the learning process has been used in many educational institutions, but the effectiveness of this approach is not “consistently reported to be effective” (T. T. Dang, 2010, p. 5). As a result, the EFL teachers tended to stick to their traditional teaching methods, and used ICT in classroom instruction in a

153 manner that went hand-in-hand with the traditional approach, which is a more teacher- centred approach.

Another reason might be that the political and economic conditions in the 1980s and 1990s led to the assumption of the central role played by teachers in a classroom (T. X. Dang, 2014). Before 1986 when Vietnam implemented its doi moi policies, and before 1993 when the US lifted its economic sanctions against Vietnam (see Chapter One), there seemed to be a shortage of learning resources in Vietnam. This resulted in student

reliance on their teachers in terms of learning resources and teachers became main

resource providers (T. X. Dang, 2014). Because of this, teachers are considered the centre of the teaching process. As previously mentioned, because ICT implementation is

relatively new in Vietnam, possibly Vietnamese teachers, including the EFL teachers in this study, continued with a more teacher-centric view when attempting to use ICT in their classrooms. As a result, the teachers used ICT more than students, as a tool to support for their teaching.

It can also be seen that ICT was not fully integrated in their classroom teaching at Hanoi University, and this finding is not that surprising given that this is also the case in Western countries (Cuban, 2001; Groff & Mouza, 2008). This indicates that a certain gap between ICT-related policies and teachers’ practice could exist in any country, regardless of its economic position.

This part of the chapter has discussed the integrated findings from a questionnaire and interviews with the EFL teachers at Hanoi University in relation to the ICT applications they employed in their classroom teaching. Discussion now turns to research question two, the impact of factors on the EFL teachers’ use of ICT.

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