AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF JORDANIAN EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR USE OF THE INTERNET

This questionnaire study investigates 210 Jordanian English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ perceptions of their use of the Internet for both general purposes (e.g., e-mail, chat, aimless browsing, games, and music) and EFL learnin g purposes (e.g., practicing various language skills, vocabulary, and structure through instructional software). The findings revealed that 47% of the sample reported using browsers to v iew documents, while slightly smaller percentages reported using the Internet for persona l purposes, mailing lists and discussion groups, and e-mail. Furthermore, the majority of th e respondents reported never or rarely using the Internet for any EFL learning purposes, except for about 58% and 52% who reported using it for developing speaking skills through chat and loc ating authentic texts, respectively. The findings further revealed a weak correlation betwee n the students’ use of the Internet for general and EFL learning purposes. Class level, but not ge nder, was found to significantly affect the students’ use of the Internet. Introduction and background In recent years, there has been evident support for the use of technologies, such as the computer and Internet, in teaching and learning in general a nd in teaching languages in particular (cf., among many others, White, 1999; Fernandez, 2001; Ay res, 2002; Nesselhauf and Tschichold, 2002; Egbert, Paulus, and Nakamichi, 2002; Robert, 2002; Fenfang, 2003; Linder, 2004; Almekhlafi, 2006). Raimes (1983) claims that langua e teaching is a paradigm which sees language as communication; emphasizes real language se; promotes a student-centered classroom; encourages real language acquisition ins tead of just learning a set of grammatical rules; develops humanistic, interpersonal approache s; and takes into account the nature of the learner, the learning process, and the learning env ironment. The Internet has the potential to play an important role in each of these areas, for, acco rding to Berge and Collins (1995), unlike that designed especially for textbooks, the language use d on the Internet is predominantly authentic, not to mention that the Internet potentially foster the shift from the traditional teacher-centered classroom to the much desired student-centered clas sroom. However, although instructional technology has been xpected to play a significant role in revolutionizing the way teachers teach, learners le arn, and schools deliver education, a gap was found between the claims made for information and c ommunications technologies (ICTs) and their actual impact on education (Saettler, 1999; M umtaz, 2000; Cuban, 2001; Warschauer, 2001). Nevertheless, some researchers (cf., for exa mple, Kent and McNergney, 1999; McFarlane, Harrison, Somekh, Scrimshaw, Harrison, and Lewin, 2 000; Resnick, 2002) believe that fairly new technologies (e.g., the Internet and WAP phones ) are different from older ones (e.g., blackboards, books, and television) in that they ha ve become more powerful, faster, and more user-friendly, not to mention the fact that the Int er et allows students and teachers to access a large amount of potentially useful information when ever and wherever the Internet is available. Despite the numerous potential advantages of using the Internet in language teaching, there has been a sense of failure to put it to prop er use, which has been attributed to factors the most important of which are the conditions of schoo ls, time constraints, shortage of software, lack of knowledge and experience in the use of inst ructional technology, lack of access to computers, insufficient funding, and lack of traini ng (for a detailed account, see the publications of the British Educational Communications and Tech nology Agency BECTA, 2004-2007). There is a shortage in Internet use in the Jordania n cl ssroom, which may account for anecdotal accounts of dissatisfaction among both te ach rs and students. Over the last few years, Jordan has implemented measures to improve the qual ity of education, one of which is an ambitious project that seeks to provide a computer for each student and to establish a network that connects all schools and universities to facil it te teaching and research. Implemented with the active support and participation of the private sector, the project also provides computer training for teachers. At the tertiary level, all Jordanian universities r equire that students study two to four computer courses in all undergraduate programs. At Yarmouk University, from which the present sample was drawn, students are required to study tw o computer courses offered by the Department of Computer Sciences (viz., CS100 and CS 101) to fulfill the university and college requirements for graduation. These courses aim at en bling the students to use the computer for personal purposes since the descriptions of both co urses do not include any reference to using the computer for academic purposes. Objectives and significance of the study This study aims at investigating Jordanian EFL stud ents’ perceptions of their Internet use for both general (e.g., e-mail, chat, aimless browsing, game s, and music) and EFL learning (e.g., practicing various language skills, vocabulary, and structure through instructional software) purposes and the potential effect of gender and cla ss level on these perceptions. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the following research questions are addressed: 1. What are Jordanian EFL students’ perceptions of the ir level of general Internet use? 2. What are Jordanian EFL students’ perceptions of the ir level of Internet use for EFL learning purposes? 3. What is the potential relationship between the stud ents’ use of the Internet for general and EFL purposes? 4. Are there significant differences in the students’ u e of the Internet which can be attributed to the variables of gender and class lev el? It is worth noting that the division between genera l and EFL learning purposes used in this research is neither clear-cut nor totally disc ernible. The Internet provides opportunities for those who want to learn a foreign language in gener al and English in particular with a variety of input which exceeds the resources available in the traditional classroom. However, there is a substantial overlap between the various uses of the Internet, for the World Wide Web allows language learners access to a huge amount of authen tic target-language input which enables them to engage in authentic listening, reading and writi ng tasks and exchanges with both native speakers and other learners of the language. For i nstance, a person who is writing an email to a pen-pal or a friend abroad is engaged not only in a communicative act but also in an authentic writing task (Janda, 1995). Even though more evidence seems to support the use of n w technologies in the foreign language classroom, many claims still need to be ba cked up by hard empirical evidence. Little research has been published about students’ percept ions of language learning in a technologyrich environment in third world countries of which Jordan is one. Most of the previous research has been done in the United States, Australia and E urope, which outlines the grave need for local research, for with the numerous computer-rela ted educational reforms in the Jordanian educational context, a study of this nature is doub ly important. The findings of this study are expected to provide valuable information to supplement the literature about Internet use in the Third Worl d, epresented here by Jordan. This study may also provide a potential point of reference in quan tit tive literature and establish grounds for further research in the Jordanian ICT context. Previous research A good body of research has been done on the effect s of using the Internet in the foreign language classroom. Anecdotal evidence from teache rs worldwide seems to indicate that the Web can be a stimulating asset to the foreign langu ge classroom. Teachers have reported using the Web for gathering information (Schofield, 2003) , for accessing authentic language materials (Kelly, Kelly, Offner, and Vorland, 2002), for stim ulating communicative exercises (LeLoup and Ponterio, 2000), and as a medium of student publish ing (Davidson and Schofield, 2002). Studies on the effectiveness of using the Internet in the foreign language classroom (for example, Frizzler, 1995; González-Bueno, 1998; Yu, Ju, and Yu, 2002) revealed improvement brought about by the students’ exposure to authenti c language. For example, Yu et al. (2002) provided empirical evidence for the usefulness of e -mail as an aid to promote students’ cognitive growth pertaining to computer knowledge and skills. Much empirical research has revealed gender differe nces in experience with and attitudes towards computer use (Bimber, 2000; End, Kraan, Col e, Campbell, Birchmeier, Klausner, and Sherman, 2000; Sherman, End, Kraan, Cole, Campbell, Birchmeier, and Klausner, 2000; Dorup, 2004). Dorup (2004), for example, has found that mo st Danish undergraduate medical students have home computers, albeit more so for male than f emale students, and use email and the Internet regularly. Male students were also found t o have more favorable attitudes towards academic computer use of computers than their femal e counterparts, which is consistent with earlier reports (cf., for example, Kay, 1992; Willi ams, Ogletree, Woodburn, and Raffeld, 1993; Shashaani, 1997; Schumacher and Morahan-Martin, 200 1) that females are more likely to have negative attitudes towards computer and Internet us than their male counterparts. Williams et al (1993:515) claim that research data repeatedly indicate that males show m re favorable attitudes toward computers, perceive that computers will be a career asset, and demonstrate greater interest, participation and competence in computing tasks than females. Previous research has invariably suggested that the In ernet has