A Study On EFL Teachers' Affordances Transfer Of ICT Resources At University Level

Information communications technology(ICT)resources have made a great impact on the reform of foreign language(FL)teaching in China.They provide an authentic language input for foreign language learners in non-native contexts,improve language communicative competence and promote students' learning autonomy and problem-solving ability.To this end,the state and higher education institutions have made tremendous efforts to promote technology integrated teaching mode in foreign language education courses in terms of policies and investments.Nonetheless,English as Foreign Language(EFL)teachers in China are not using the available technologies in language learning as envisioned by the government or the institutions.For example,many refuse either to use the extant equipment or to integrate technologies appropriately into their classrooms.This suggests that there exist other factors limiting the effect of the costly investment in ICT resources made by the government.As there is a paucity of empirical research on the causes of the current low acceptance of ICT resources by EFL teachers in China,this study aims to remedy this situation through the identification of factors influencing in-service EFL teachers'perceived affordances of ICT resources,intention to adopt ICT resources and utilized affordances of them for language learning purposes at university level in China.The main research questions are:what is the current situation of teachers' perception and use of ICT resources?What are the main factors affecting the transfer?How do these factors affect the process?Based on the above research questions,this research adopts a mixed-research design which is mainly based on quantification and supplemented by qualitative analysis.Questionnaires and in-depth interviews are employed to analyze the factors and influence mechanism.Firstly,based on literature review and relevant theories,this dissertation chooses teachers' transfer behavior as the research focus,the "perception-intention-use "as the rationale,takes Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology(UTAUT)as the basic research framework,and proposes a research model.In line with the features of the ICT resources for language learning,some variables in the original UTAUT theory were adjusted and the structural models were constructed from four aspects:Perceived Affordances(PA),Self-Efficacy(SE),social influence(SI)and facilitating conditions(FC),including 13 relational hypotheses and 1 structural hypothesis.Subsequently,the researchers collected data from some university foreign language teachers in seven provinces and cities in China by means of questionnaires and collected 629 valid sample data.After testing the validity and reliability of the questionnaire,the AMOS software was used to analyze the sample data by the method of structural equation modeling.After hypothesis testing and model modification,combined with the interview data,the conclusion of this paper was finally formed.The main findings of this study include:1.Search Engine is the main way for EFL teachers to obtain ICT resources;teachers believe that ICT resources can help students to increase their learning interest,complement the teaching materials,enhance the interaction between teachers and students and improve students' language skills;The ICT resources are mainly used in the teaching activities.The main purpose is to assist the teaching in the classroom.Narrative and demonstrative resources are the main types used by teachers.2.Based on the cognitive differences of the influencing factors,teachers can be divided into three categories:positive practitioners,explorers and negative ones,of which the explorers have the highest proportion.3.Overall,the research model constructed in this paper has a good fit,which explained 61.8%of the variance in behavioral intentions(BI)and 35.4%of the variance in the utilized affordance(UA).4.Perceived pedagogical affordances(PPA),SI and SE are significant determinants of BI.Perceived social affordances(PSA)and SE indirectly influence BI through PPA.PPA has the strongest effects on BIs,while the perceived technological affordances(PTA)does not have any significant impact on BIs.5.BI and FC are significant determinants of UA while PPA,PSA,SE and SI have an indirect impact on UA through BI.6.PSA directly affects PPA while PTA was not found to directly affect PTA;FC is the major determinant of PTA.From a theoretical perspective,this study enriches the current UTAUT model by focusing on a domain-specific construct(i.e.,Computer Assisted Language Learning,CALL).From a practical perspective,the study has direct implications for CALL stake-holders(i.e.,EFL teachers,teacher educators,school leaders,and educational policy makers)aiming to promote ICT-integrated foreign language teaching in China.Finally,the innovative points and limitations of this study are elaborated,and further directions for research in this area are put forward.