IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION, FAMILIARITY AND USE OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS IN TEFL

Following social-constructivist approaches in education, there has been a growing interest in employing Web 2.0 technologies in language classes. While the effectiveness of these digital teaching crafts has been corroborated in many studies (see Crook et al., 2008, for a survey), there is always doubt if they have reached a normalized state in L2 classes (Bax, 2003). This study, therefore, attempts to investigate the attitude of a group of language teachers towards the effectiveness of these emerging technologies in L2 classes. There were 53 participants in the study affiliated with universities, Ministry of Education, and language schools in Dezful. A questionnaire based on Son (2011) was designed in which Likert-scaled items were used to assess the factors of familiarity, perception, and use of online technologies in the classroom. The results suggested that most of the respondents exhibited low degrees of familiarity and use towards the technologies under investigation despite considering computerized tools as effective in the teaching-learning process. Besides, further explanations in semi-structured interview sessions indicated that most of the participants expected policy makers to incorporate supplementary Information Technology (IT) courses and facilities into teacher education and in-service programs as well as educational settings.