Teachers’ attitudes towards information communication technology use in EFL teaching at primary schools in Vietnam – A pilot study

Abstract

One of the main goals set by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for the 2022-2025 period is to extensively revamp Vietnam’s educational system in a way that teaching and learning in a digital environment plays a fundamental role in daily classroom activities. The present study aims to pilot the instrument developed by Christensen and Knezek (2009) to measure teachers’ attitudes towards computers and to examine EFL teachers’ attitudes toward ICT use at primary schools in Vietnam. To achieve the aims of the research, 202 EFL teachers were randomly recruited to complete the 73-item questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to examine the reliability of the instrument. In addition, several further analyses were conducted to explore teachers’ attitudes towards ICT use in EFL teaching. The findings suggest that the instrument is adequate, reliable, and valid, and that EFL teachers revealed strong interest, low anxiety, low avoidance, and high awareness of the usefulness of ICT use in teaching as well as its role in young learners’ language development. The results showed that teaching experience and job status impact EFL teachers’ attitudes towards ICT use while age and school locations do not. Future research is encouraged to clarify teachers’ neutral attitudes towards online interaction as well as their ignorance regarding the negative impacts of ICT use.