1. TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TO AND
MOTIVATIONS FOR USING CALL IN AND
AROUND THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
What motivates the teachers’ use of CALL both in and around the language classroom? What are the main
criticisms and doubts that teachers have? What are the institutional and social pressures upon teachers to
use CALL and other multimedia in their classrooms? Are CALL applications perceived as more motivating to
students of the ‘digital native’ generation? What type of ‘motivational’ activities are being used?
Based on surveys sent to a distribution list of teachers interested in CALL, interviews conducted with teachers
at a private language school in the UK and short informal observations about how CALL was being
incorporated into class, this paper aims to get an understanding of how teachers perceive CALL as a
motivational factor. In particular the focus is on the young ‘digital native’ students verses the often less
technologically adept ‘digital immigrant’ teachers (Prensky, 2001) and the possible shift to a more learner
centred class this facilitates.

2. Context
• CALL has a growing
role in Language
Teaching and research
(Levy & Stockwell, 2006)
• Teachers are central to
successful CALL
application and If the Internet is an information
practice (Hubbard, 2008) superhighway, then teachers just might
be the road-kill on the asphalt of the
So, what are teachers’ information superhighway.
attitudes to CALL? (Kirschner & Selinger, 2003: 5)

3. Research Questions
• What are teachers’ attitudes to CALL
applications in general?
• Why do they use them in class?
• Is there any institutional pressure to use them? CPD for
example.
• Is there any social pressure?
• Is there any pressure from students?
• To what extent do teachers feel CALL
applications contribute to student motivation?
Why?

4. Methodology
• Qualitative research to gain an insight into the
multifaceted nature of CALL and motivation
– Semi-structured interviews
– Open questions in survey
• Qualitative research to examine if results are
generalisable outside of context.
– Descriptive data

5. Data Collection
• Interviews collected from 4 teachers in a private adult
English language school in London
– 2 male and 2 female
– All aged between 30 – 45
– Teaching experience 3-12 years
• Questionnaires sent to several distribution lists:
– TESL-L
– TESLCA-L
– IATEFL LTSIG
– King’s College ELT and Applied Linguistics MA students
– Personal list compiled of teachers known through work

6. Results
Respondents :
179
Gender
male
female

7. Respondents’ L1
Portuguese
Other
2%
15%
Korean
Greek
2%
2% Arabic
2%
Chinese
3%
Spanish
4%
English
70%

8. Survey Participants’ Digital Literacy
Have you taken any
courses in educational
uses of technology?
Yes
No
Crosstabs

9. Age (50+) Crosstab Digital Literacy
12
10
8
6
50 -54
55 – 60
4 over 60
2
0
I am very confident about I am confident in everyday I use computers but I am My knowledge of I am not at all confident
my ability with most uses of computers not really an expert computers is pretty basic with computers
aspects of computer use but I can do some things
okay

10. Gender Crosstab Digital Literacy
50.0
45.0
40.0
35.0
30.0
25.0
% Male
20.0 % Female
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
I am very confident about I am confident in everyday I use computers but I am My knowledge of I am not at all confident
my ability with most uses of computers not really an expert computers is pretty basic with computers
aspects of computer use but I can do some things
okay

11. Survey participants – digital literacy
data set
Choose the statement that best describes your own level of computer literacy: Please select one for both personal and teaching contexts
I am very My
confident I am I use knowledge of
I am not at all
about my confident in computers computers is
confident Response
Answer Options ability with everyday but I am not pretty basic
with Count
most aspects uses of really an but I can do
computers
of computer computers expert some things
use okay
For personal use 84 73 17 3 0 177
In a teaching context 61 67 36 8 2 174
Other (please specify) 3
answered question 177
skipped question 2

12. Definition of CALL
• Working definition: CALL is used to refer to the
way teachers use computers both in and
around their classrooms (Following Levy, 1997)
• For the interviews and analysis, focus was on
data about the use of CALL in class and as a
self-access resource.

13. Survey participants’ CALL usage

14. Survey participants’ CALL usage – data
set
How would you characterise the main purpose of your CALL usage?
Response Response
Answer Options
Percent Count
Using computers as a teaching tool in class 33.7% 55
Using computers as a resource for preparing
45.4% 74
lessons
Using computers to refer to students for self-study 8.6% 14
Don’t know 3.1% 5
Other (please specify) 9.2% 15
answered question 163
skipped question 16

15. CALL usage – comments

16. Survey participants – CALL Motivating
for students
Crosstabs

17. Older participants – CALL motivating

18. Low Digital Literacy – CALL motivating

19. CALL motivating – data set
Do you think using computer based language learning applications in class is more
motivating for students than classes which do not utilise technology?
Response Response
Answer Options
Percent Count
Definitely 47.2% 75
Yes, a little 29.6% 47
Neither 13.2% 21
No 6.3% 10
Definitely not 0.6% 1
Don’t know 3.1% 5
Why / why not? 50
answered question 159
skipped question 20

20. CALL motivating for students -
comments
“ Hands Ss. more self-directed learning control &
promotes independent learning within in a
”
supportive environment.
“ It connects to young learner's experiences with
”
IT in everyday life - very relevant for them.

21. CALL motivating for students -
“
comments
The main advantage is that students can work at their own
pace and at their own level. It's usually more motivating
than sitting behind a desk, though it should not replace the
classroom entirely. The computer can be used as a self-
”
access tool that students can access at home in their own
time.
“Because you can pretty much stand back and organise
themselves. And obviously PowerPoint, that’s something
they are going to have to do when they go to university. So
”
they should be using that all the time. … so it prepares
them a bit more and makes it a bit more relevant to them.
- Matt

22. CALL motivating for students -
comments
“ By themselves, no… *computers+ are not a
motivation, but they can be used as part of a
course to facilitate motivation. By providing a
more immediate focus and then for
encouraging the students to achieve that
”
result, I suppose.
- Daniel

23. CALL motivating for students -
comments
“
They do seem to focus more, in fact I’m sure
that if you compared two groups doing an
open cloze CAE for example. The ones on
computers would be more focused. It’s the
”
immediacy of the media, is what helps that.
- Daniel

24. Pressure
“No, I don’t feel the pressure from *the
students], no. But I think every teacher
wants to make their lessons interesting and
”
relevant. And you know, you want to keep
[students] motivated, happy and learning.
“
- Matt
I hope that there is institutional
pressure for us to get skilled up on
”
those and use them in class, that’d be
awesome. - Matt

25. Efficacy
“I mean, in terms of skills well I think that’s
development. Yeah, definitely. And I think it
adds depth to your knowledge, if you can
use… it’s more tools really, more tools at your
”
disposal.
- Matt

26. Why do teachers use CALL?
“ [CALL] opens up a lot of opportunities for the
students, you can show them different
websites where they can practice at
home, and I think it’s good because it allows
them access to a lot of different paths
where they can get instant access to real life
”
English
– Agnes

27. Why do teachers use CALL?
“ Computers are an everyday part of life and is rapidly becoming
”
necessity in today's world. By bringing it into the classroom we can
“
show students how to utilise these technologies in their learning.
I think the main advantage is flexibility and variety with CALL. I can
save anything we do in a word document if I use the laptop +
projector at my college. I have more choice in listening texts. I have
access to an online dictionary which I can then show on the board via
the laptop. If anything comes up in conversations, we can find out
more information on the Internet. Honestly, I think possibilities are
”
endless.

28. Why do teachers use CALL?
“ Students living away from English speaking
countries now have the chance to interact
authentically and meaningfully with
native/non-native speakers ONLY if
”
teachers realized of this advantage!!!

29. Why do teachers use CALL?
“Our students will use computers in most
aspects of their study/work life.
But the fact is that most of our students, or
indeed any language learners will use a
computer for the majority of their
”
communication in English. It's appropriate
that we teach in the same context.
- Kat

30. Why do teachers use CALL?
“ The reason is to give them access to a wider
”
range of material.
– Daniel
“ It’s good because it allows the student to take their own
”
initiative and try and find the answers to their questions.
It gives them a bit of independence.
- Agnes

31. Why do teachers use CALL?
“ Like I said before, it’s just to change things up
from the day to day, to make it more
relevant to the students, because that’s
something they are involved
with, technology all the time, and they’re
going to be involved with technology all the
”
time.
- Matt

32. Teachers’ Motivation
• Predominantly intrinsic motivation
– pressure not present or perceived as negative
• Student response to technology
– Students’ expectations featured less heavily than their
response to the medium
• A tool to access resources
–Variation & power of media access
– Authentic
– Autonomous
– Shift student centeredness

33. Discussion
• Teachers believe CALL is more motivating for students
• Teachers are intrinsically motivated to use CALL
– authenticity
– empowering student
– Variety
– Autonomy
• Efficacy is seen as important
• Support, training and facilities are vital
• Facilities especially are seen as vital by more skilled practitioners
Problems:
• Skewered sample
• Generalisable?
• More detailed study into individual factors

34. References
• Hubbard, P. (2008) ‘CALL and the future of language
teacher education’ CALICO Journal, 25(2): (pp. 175–
188)
• Levy, M. and Stockwell, G. (2006) Call Dimensions:
Options and Issues in Computer-Assisted Language
Learning. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
• Kirschner, P. & Selinger, M.(2003) ‘The state of affairs of
teacher education with respect to information and
communications technology’ Technology, Pedagogy
and Education, 12(1) (pp. 5 – 17)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14759390300200143
accessed 10/01/2010

35. Thank you
richard.pinner@engnet-education.com
Slides available at my blog:
www.engnet-education.com
and on www.slideshare.com