Perceptions of Pre-service English Teachers Towards Computer Assisted Language Learning Course

Abstract

Recently, classrooms have been equipped with highly developed technological tools; however, the training of teachers, who have the main role in teaching process, on Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is ignored dramatically. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the pre-service English language teachers’ perspectives towards CALL course after taking a 14-week CALL course. The participants of the study were 69 pre-service teachers of English studying at Abant Izzet Baysal University, Department of Foreign Language Education. The ages of the participants ranged from 21 to 28. The data of the study is composed of blog posts written by the participants at the beginning and at the end of the semester and these blog posts were analyzed by means of content analysis method. As a result, it was found that the participants were anxious before the course; however, this anxiety changed at the end of the course and they felt more confident about CALL tools. Moreover, the participants believed that this course should have been offered at an earlier grade of the undergraduate program. Finally, it is recommended that CALL course should be integrated into the teacher training programs if future teachers are expected to teach 21st century students.