Barriers Teachers Face in using Information and Communication Technology in EFL Classroom at Duhok University

Abstract

The growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) has considerably altered teaching and learning processes in higher education. Although ICT has the potential to improve the educational system to a great extent, English departments in ‎the university of Duhok seem to be incapable to achieve these benefits because of specific ‎obstacles. This paper investigates the barriers faced by the teachers at English ‎departments in the University of Duhok in integrating ICT tools in teaching the EFL in ‎classrooms. This study aims at determining the reasons teachers do not use ICT in ‎classrooms. A total of thirty-four English teachers from The College of Basic Education ‎and The College of Languages were involved. A closed-ended questionnaire was ‎distributed and interviews were conducted. The results revealed that the teachers are ‎willing to use ICT in their lessons, but they face many barriers. The main barriers are lack ‎of access to ICT resources, lack of access to the internet inside the classroom, lack of ‎training, insufficient technical support. Moreover, lack of institutional encouragement is ‎another discouraging factor for the teacher to use ICT. In addition, this paper also offers ‎a number of recommendations to reduce these barriers and maximize the beneficial use of ‎ICT in education.‎

Keywords

• ICT, ICT integration into EFL classes, barriers, EFL teachers Duhok University