Nghiên cứu về cách sinh viên ngành sư phạm tại trường đại học ngoại ngữ huế sử dụng mạng trong học tập để trở thành giáo viên tương lai

HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY OF ENGLISH THAI THI HONG HANH A STUDY ON HOW PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS OF HUFL USE THE INTERNET IN LEARNING TO BECOME TEACHERS GRAD

HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

THAI THI HONG HANH

A STUDY ON HOW PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS OF HUFL USE THE

INTERNET IN LEARNING TO BECOME

TEACHERS

GRADUATION RESEARCH PAPER

SUPERVISOR: DR PHAN QUYNH NHU

Hue, Academic year: 2016 - 2020

STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP

The work contained in this graduation research paper has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any universities I certify that my graduation research paper contains no material previously published or written by other people except the reference in this thesis

Thua Thien Hue, 15th June 2020

Candidate’s statement

Thai Thi Hong Hanh

ABSTRACT

This graduation research paper investigates the internet usage of pre-service English teachers (PETs) in their learning to become teachers in Hue University of Foreign Languages (HUFL) It specifically explores what PETs think about employing the internet (TI) and how they utilize it while being trained to become teachers Adopting the mixed research design, this study recruited 120 3rd- and 4th-year students majored in English language teaching as participants and collected data through questionnaire and interview The findings showed that PETs have positive attitudes towards the employment of TI in their learning and have utilized

TI for their training in terms of teacher knowledge (TK), teachers’ skills (TS), and teacher professional identity (TPI) to some extent Nevertheless, the participants reported struggling with accessing TI due to such major obstacles as a lack of training on navigating on TI, clear goals, and efficient learning strategies The findings suggested an urgent need for specific guidelines and training for PETs on how to use TI effectively for their learning By analyzing the current practice of internet usage among Vietnamese PETs, this study contributes more empirical evidence to the literature of teacher education in general and of using TI and technology in teacher training in particular

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation for Hue University – University of Foreign languages and the English department of providing me a favorable opportunity to conduct my graduation paper

Additionally, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude towards

my enthusiastic supervisor, Dr Phan Quynh Nhu, who wholeheartedly supported

me throughout this research Despite how clumsy I was and her hectic work, she always willingly gave me meticulous recommendations and corrected each of my terrible mistakes Besides, her initial orientation was especially helpful, guiding me

to identify my topic and methodology for this paper

I am also grateful for 120 3rd and 4th-year pre-service English teachers, who actively participated in my online questionnaire and interview Without their enormous contribution, my research could not be completed

Last but not least, I cannot express enough thanks to my family and friends for their considerable encouragement and support, which helped me believe in myself and overcome the struggles I faced during my thesis

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Research significance 2

1.3 Research objectives and research questions 3

1.4 Outline of the research paper 3

CHAPER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Introduction 4

2.2 Theoretical background 4

2.2.1 Definitions of several basic concepts 4

2.2.1.1 Definition of pre-service English teachers (PETs) 5

2.2.1.2 Definition of teacher knowledge (TK) 5

2.2.1.3 Definition of teacher’s skills (TS) 6

2.2.1.4 Definition of teacher professional identity (TPI) 8

2.2.2 Previous studies 10

2.2.2.1 Pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward using the internet to learn to become teachers 10

2.2.2.2 How pre-service teachers use the internet to gain teacher knowledge 11

2.2.2.3 How pre-service teachers use the internet to improve teacher’s skills 13

2.2.2.4 How pre-service teachers use the internet to develop their professional identities 16

2.2.2.5 Challenges pre-service teachers might encounter when using the internet in their learning 17

2.3 Summary 18

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 20

3 1 Research design 20

3.2 Data collection tools 21

3.2.1 Questionnaire 21

3.2.2 Interviews 22

3.3 Participants 23

3.4 Data collection procedure 23

3.4.1 Pilot study 23

3.4.2 The administration of the questionnaire 23

3.4.3 The administration of the interviews 23

3.5 Data analysis 24

3.6 Conclusion 24

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 Introduction 25

4.2 Findings and discussion 25

4.2.1 Pre-service English teachers’ attitudes toward the internet usage for their learning 25

4.2.2 How pre-service English teachers have used the internet to learn to become teachers 28

4.2.2.1 The internet usage on gaining teacher knowledge among pre-service-English teachers 31

4.2.2.2 The internet usage on gaining teachers’ skills by pre-service English teachers 39

4.2.2.3 The internet usage on developing teacher professional identity among pre-service English teachers 45

4.2.3 Challenges that pre-service English teachers have faced while using the internet for learning 50

4.3 Conclusion 53

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 55

5.1 Summary of the findings 55

5.2 Implications of the study 56

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 57

REFERENCES 59

APPENDICES 71

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 PETs’ attitude toward using the internet in learning 27

Table 2 Mean scores and percentages of common online sources 28

Table 3 TI’s influence on gaining teacher knowledge 31

Table 4 The perceived impacts of TI on developing teachers’ skills 39

Table 5 TI’s influence on developing teacher professional identity 45

Table 6 Internal factor affecting TI usage among PETs 50

Table 7 External factors affecting TI usage among PETs 51

Table 8 Mean scores of internal and external factors 52

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1The frequency of TI usage for studying major 25

Figure 2 Time spent on TI for studying major per day 26

Figure 3 Self-evaluate the ability to access TI for learning 26

Figure 4.1 Internet sources used for teacher knowledge 33

Figure 4.2 Internet sources used for teacher knowledge 34

Figure 4.2 Internet sources used for teacher knowledge 35

Figure 4 Mean score of TI’s influence on developing TK, TS and TPI………… 48

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, TI is the fastest-growing communication technology (Dlodlo & Sithole, 2001), which has been embedded in different fields including education TI revolution has brought drastic changes, having revolutionized the ways students learn owing to opportunities to be active learners (Anderson & Reed, 1998) According to Griffiths (2001), since the early 1980s, information technology has been steadily growing in importance in education, rising from a minority option to a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum Thus, the use of TI in education has attracted researchers’ attention on a global scale

On the topic of language education, TI is not only a meaningful source to integrate language and culture, providing opportunities for students to learn about the target culture but also increases students' interest and motivation for dynamically learning the second language (Lee, 1997) According to Lee (2000), by offering vital resources of up-to-date cultural information and authentic materials in the target language, TI had attracted the attention of foreign language teachers, especially concerning how best to integrate this resource into their curricula and courses Indeed, in the conference “Training on educating the ideals of the revolution, ethics and lifestyle ideals for students", the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET) issued the Dispatch 4949/ BGDĐT – VP (MOET, 2017) providing a clear guideline on the requirement that all students in national pedagogical universities, colleges, schools, and academies should be trained on how

to use TI for academic purposes and scientific research With this prerequisite, national PTs, especially PETs, are encouraged to be equipped and self-equip information technology skills while being trained to become teachers

Nevertheless, the use of TI in higher education has not always been positive (Ngoc, 2018) For instance, while the level of TI usage among students of the Education University, Hue University, was far below expectations (Ngoc, 2018), less than 50% of PTs in a government-funded university in Malaysia possessed a high level of TI skills despite having completed an introductory Information Technology (Wong, Kamariah, Ramlah, Rohani, & Tang, 2003) Additionally, although TI tools are a potential resource for PETs who want to independently improve their academic writing, they are undervalued by Australian universities (Conroy, 2010) Besides, many PTs are unable to either make effective use of powerful online learning resources or select appropriate ones to follow (Allsopp, McHattonand & Cranston-Gingras, 2009) Thus, despite providing a variety of beneficial learning sources, TI does not appear to be taken advantage of by PTs around the world, which raises the need for further study about the advancement of

TI versus TI usage in different settings

1.2 Research significance

For a long time, TI has been arguably one of the most significant learning tools on a global scale (Anderson & Reed, 1998) However, the level of TI usage of global PTs seem to be below expectation (Ngoc, 2018; Wong, Kamariah, Ramlah, Rohani, & Tang, 2003; Conroy, 2010; Allsopp, McHattonand &Cranston-Gingras, 2009) Meanwhile, when it comes to HUFL, TI usage for learning among PETs is quite a new subject, which needs to be studied thoroughly Thus, this study was conducted with the following hope

First, through the literature review, while the study provides understandings of

TI usage by global PTs, different aspects related to TI usage for gaining teacher knowledge, teacher’s skills, and teacher professional identity, required to become teachers, which has been studied and recorded for decades by a large number of well-known and experienced researchers in the education field will be presented Studying the knowledge about TI usage for learning thoroughly might help PETs get more confident in employing TI in their career preparation

Second, perceptions of PETs from HUFL will be collected and analyzed, which sheds light on the current usage and existing problems that HUFL PETs might have while employing TI for their learning to become teachers Then, the university authorities and professors will be aware that whether PETs have utilized

TI effectively in learning or not Consequently, practical strategies might be implemented to enhance PETs’ ability to employ TI efficiently in their learning Last but not least, for all the knowledge this study could offer, it will promote more successful learning programs integrated with TI to train PETs from HUFL meet the need of the industry 4.0 and respond to the national call for the application

of TI to all aspects of life in the near future

1.3 Research objectives and research questions

The goal of this research is to generate foundational knowledge on TI usage among PETs while being trained to become teachers in HUFL In the scope of this study, it attempts to address three questions of vital importance:

1 What are HUFL pre-service English teachers’ attitudes toward using the internet in learning to become teachers?

2 In what ways does the internet help HUFL pre-service English teachers to become teachers?

3 What challenges have the HUFL pre-service English teachers faced while using the internet in their learning process?

1.4 Outline of the research paper

Five chapters will be presented in this paper Chapter 1 is the Introduction consisting of the rationale, research significance, and research questions Chapter 2 reviews the background of the study Methodology, including a justification of the research adopted and a detailed description of participants, data collection tools, procedure, and data analysis, is presented in Chapter 3 The data collected are presented and discussed in chapter 4 Chapter 5 summarizes the key findings of the study and projects implication recommended Limitations of the current study and suggestions for further study are also unveiled in this chapter

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the literature about TI usage in learning to become teachers among PTs is reviewed, which is presented in section 2.2 Section 2.2.1 presents basic definitions of pre-service English teachers (PETs), teacher knowledge (TK), teacher’s skills (TS), and teacher professional identity (TPI) Section 2.2.2 reviews previous studies on PTs’ attitudes toward using TI and how they use it in gaining

TK, TS, and TPI Then, several challenges they often face while accessing TI will

be presented The final section summarizes the chapter and emphasizes the research gap in the literature that the current research aims at filling in

2.2.1 Definitions of several basic concepts

2.2.1.1 Definition of pre-service English teachers (PETs)

Nowadays, while the term “PTs” has been mentioned broadly and differently among educators, there is a consensus among them Blankenship (2020) stated that PTs were those enrolled in a teacher preparation program, who must complete degree requirements, including course work and field experience before being awarded a teaching license Similarly, PTs are students enrolled in a teacher preparation program and working toward teacher certification (Goulette & Swanson, 2019) or those are trained from higher education institutions to become teachers (Zacharis, 2020) Thus, in general, PETs can be understood as students enrolled in an ELT program, studying to become practicing English teachers

2.2.1.2 Definition of teacher knowledge (TK)

Although “TK” has been mentioned globally by numerous researchers, there is

a consensus among them According to Carter (1990) and Calderhead (1996), this

is the total knowledge that might come from any aspects of a teacher’s life and practical experience, such as daily practice and formal schooling in the past, called initial teacher education or continued professional training, underlying their actions Thus, the knowledge derived from teacher education and daily events may be absorbed and integrated into practical knowledge, which is different among teachers Particularly, there are various terms indicating different relevant aspects of

TK The most common uses are “personal knowledge” (Conelly & Clandinin, 1985) showing that this knowledge is unique; “the wisdom of practice” (Thiessen, 2000) referring to the product of the teacher's practical experience; “action-oriented knowledge”, indicating that this knowledge is for immediate use in teaching practice (Carter, 1990) However, since these definitions of TK highlight the significance of the hand-on experience and personal voice in developing their knowledge while the study looks at the training process in which PETs equipped both theoretical and practical knowledge of their subjects (HUFL – Hue university, 2016), this paper adopts the definition of TK by Shulman (1986) as a framework of this study, highlighting seven dimensions bellow

• General pedagogical knowledge: general knowledge gained from practice, related to general principles and approaches of classroom organization

• Subject knowledge: the structure of knowledge to be taught, including theories and principles concepts of a particular discipline

• Pedagogical content knowledge: conceptualized teachers’ expert knowledge

on how to teach the subject matter to make particular science topics accessible to all

• Knowledge of educational aims: objectives and values, including the

philosophical and historical basis of teaching and learning in science

Hence, all components of TK mentioned by Shulman (1986) will be the conceptual framework, which will be integrated with different types of knowledge needed, presented in the learning outcomes of the ELT program (HUFL – Hue university, 2016) to design the study, data collection tools, and data analysis

2.2.1.3 Definition of teacher’s skills (TS)

In addition to knowledge, teachers are required to hone various skills, which have been brought up by myriads of scholars Gonobolin (1979), for example, argued that a teacher had to possess ten essential skills, including skills of understanding learners, conveying knowledge, attracting learners, being persuasive, organizing, being intellectual, forecasting results, being creative, orienting quickly and mastering teaching capacity Arguing that some of these skills were no longer attractive to contemporary teachers and there was a shortage of necessary skills for recent teaching activities, Petrovxki (1982), while shared Gonobolin’s view, concluded that there were six in-demand skills, such as capabilities to teach, design,

convey, organize, communicate and be cognitive Years later, Saphier, Gower, and Haley-Speca (1997) synthesized former researcher’s ideas and then divided these skills in another way, which included three types of skills They were

“comprehensiveness”, an awareness of all the areas of performance involved in running a successful classroom; “repertoire”, the variety of strategies teachers have

at their disposal to deal with different teaching situations; and “matching”, helping teachers choose an appropriate strategy from their repertoire While their view covered the formers’ ideas more presently, “comprehensiveness” and “repertoire” skills can be seen as TK when compared with Shulman’s framework, which seemed

to be difficult for teachers to distinguish between TK and TS clearly

In particular, various skills required for a teacher are noticeably stated in national education paper In Asia, for example, according to Permendiknas (2009) (Decree of Minister of National Education of Indonesia), there are hard skills, including “professional competence” (knowledge and comprehension) and

“pedagogical competence” (intellectual skills), and soft skills, such as social competence (managerial skills and attitude) and personal competence (personality and practical skills) Also, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2006) presented teachers need not only hard skills of applying approaches, methodologies, and techniques in subjects learning in the classroom; understanding the evaluation system of subjects learning and its implementation in the classroom; mastering the skills to assess students’ comprehension level and potentials in learning; and conducting research in subjects learning but also soft skills involving non-academic skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, life-long learning and information management, entrepreneurship, ethics, moral and professional, and leadership skill Meanwhile, Gewertz (2007) emphasized the vital role of soft skills in his study that teachers must be able to work comfortably with people from other cultures, solve problems creatively, write and speak well, think in

a multidisciplinary way and evaluate information critically However, since the study looks at the training process in which PETs equipped essential skills (HUFL – Hue university, 2016) and referring to the scope of this study, skills adopted in this

study based on those mentioned in the learning outcomes of the ELT program (HUFL – Hue University, 2016), including the skills of communication, solving problems, corporation, self-study, and independence, leadership, to promptly meet the needs of educational development The definitions were given on Shakir’s (2009) study as follows

• Communication: Teachers are expected to be fluent and communicate

effectively in both first language and English language They should be able to

convey their thoughts with clarity and confidence both in written and oral forms

• Critical thinking: Teachers should be able to think critically, creatively,

innovatively, and analytically when applying knowledge In particular, they should have the ability to identify and analyze complex issues as well as making justifiable evaluations, such as issues related to theories, rules, and principles of the subjects, learning environment, approaches, methodologies, materials and techniques of

teaching to develop or design lesson plans and tests

• Teamwork: This skill involves the capability to work and cooperate with people from various social and cultural backgrounds to achieve a common goal

• Lifelong learning and independence: Teachers should be able to do

self-regulate learning independently They should have the skills to search for relevant information from various sources and then able to manage them efficiently They

should also be receptive to novelty and develop an inquiring mind

• Leadership: This skill entails the ability to lead in various activities, especially in classrooms

Accordingly, the five aforementioned skills will be used as the framework to design this study, data collection tools, and data analysis

2.2.1.4 Definition of teacher professional identity (TPI)

The concept of TPI has attracted widespread attention of educators and emerged as an important area of educational research, which appears with different meanings and definitions (Beijaard, Meijer & Verloop, 2004) Hermans (1996) and

Krzywacki and Hannula (2010) conceived TPI as “both unitary and multiple, both

continuous and discontinuous, and both individual and social” This means that

individual and social dimensions are crucial to forming TPI By contrast, Karaolis and Philippou (2019) argued that TPT only came from the part of the individual, through the processes of interpretation, self-reflection, and agency, not socially determined Besides, several scholars have found that TPI is related to images of self since one’s conception of himself or herself as a person is interwoven with how

he or she acts as a professional (Knowles, 1992; Nias, 1989) Therefore, as Akkerman and Meijer (2011) mentioned, there is no completely communal idea of TPI to understand how TPI evolves Nevertheless, despite being variably defined, TPI includes such components as self-efficacy, self-esteem, professional commitment, job satisfaction, task orientation, work motivation, and future perspective (Day, 2002; Kelchtermans, 2009) Considering the scale of this study, the 6 dimensions are adopted as the framework to guide the present study A brief description of these concepts follows

• Self-esteem: general descriptive assessment of the teacher’s performance concerning his work and the evaluation based on expectations compared with the expectations of others (Kelchtermans, 1993) A highly important source for self-esteem is the feedback from significant “others”, filtered and interpreted by the individuals (Karaolis & Philippou 2019)

• Self-efficacy: the teachers’ beliefs of their ability to successfully cope with tasks, obligations and challenges related to their professional role (Bandura, 1977)

• Professional commitment: “a psychological bond or identification of an

individual with an object that takes on a special meaning and importance”

(Firestone & Pennell, 1993) There are various objects of teacher commitment, such

as schools, students, and the teaching profession (Ebmeier, 2003)

• Job satisfaction: an emotional response to a teacher’s work and his teaching role (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2010) Several factors of teachers’ job satisfaction such

as relationships with children, the mental challenge of teaching, autonomy, and independence, opportunities for testing new ideas, participation in decision making

and reform efforts, social relations with colleagues, and opportunities for professional development (Latham, 1998)

• Work motivation: the forces pushing a person to spend time, energy, and

resources to initiate behaviors related to his work (Latham & Pinder (2005) and to influence teachers’ decisions to stay or to abandon their career (Kelchtermans & Vandenberghe, 1994)

• Future perspective: how a teacher foresaw himself in the coming years and how he felt about it, affected the self-understanding of the individual (Kelchtermans, 2009)

As a result, 6 dimensions of TPI including self-efficacy, self-esteem, professional commitment, job satisfaction, work motivation, and future perspective, mentioned by Day, 2002 and Kelchtermans (2009) will be used as the framework of this study to design data collection tools and data analysis

A large number of online sources used in this process have been investigated Indeed, PTs would be willing to use Web 2.0, such as wikis, blogs, and social networking, for supporting the courses in teaching programs (Baltaci-Goktalay & Ozdilek, 2010) Similarly, most PTs have an enthusiastically firm intention to use

TI for pedagogical purposes thanks to its utilitarian functions that while blogs showed to be effective to build individual or group e-portfolios, Google Pages was

an excellent tool for group assignments, compared to Wikis, a very effective site for cooperative learning activities (Coutinho, 2008) Additionally, TI sites such as Wikipedia and YouTube perform a positive part in providing PTs with reliable

information to achieve their educational purposes (Redekopp & Kalanda, 2015) Besides, Dieker, Kennedy, Smith, Vasquez II, Rock, and Thomas (2014) stated that Skype was free internet-based telephony allowing PTs to use mobile devices to receive feedback and expert coaching from university professors Likewise, Cakir and Atmaca (2015) found that the PETs were favorable towards Facebook use as an educational tool in ELT classes Hence, not only are there a whole host of websites used by PTs to supplement their academic pursuit, PTs have both positive attitudes and a high acceptance level of using these certain websites

Nevertheless, according to Külekçı (2009), while the attitudes of PTs towards the use of TI are positive and high, a large number of PTs use online resources extensively outside the classroom merely for their personal use and minimally for teaching skills training In a study conducted by Lei (2009), for example, investigating PTs’ attitudes, beliefs, and technology experience and expertise, the results indicated that while there was a high percentage (80%) of time spent on social communication, about 10% of that time spent on learning activities

Consequently, thanks to its substantial benefits with numerous supporting websites, TI usage for academic purposes by PTs remains positive (Külekçı, 2009) However, since it appears to be less attractive to some PTs, there is

education-a necessity to investigeducation-ate the current education-attitudes of PETs in Vietneducation-am, which heducation-as not been studied before

2.2.2.2 How pre-service teachers use the internet to gain teacher knowledge

Based on six domains of TK suggested by Shulman (1986) for PTs to learn to become teachers (see section 2.2.1.2), TI was foundto benefit TK accumulation to some extent by various scholars

First, previous studies show that TI seems to relatively strengthen general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge among PTs For example, PTs, in studied investigating how to develop their knowledge through online forums and networks, were found to enhance their pedagogical knowledge through self-assessment and corroborated via online discussions (Dockerty, 2009;

Reich, Levinson & Johnston, 2011) This means that their discussion drew together diverse voices from PTs in different programs, practicing teachers, and other education professionals, whose experience and guidance might help participants find out what their strengths and weakness were, enhancing their teaching methods Additionally, social media enables the integration of online information from a variety of sources generated, disseminated, and used by PTs for their educational process, including learning objectives, teaching strategies, classroom activities, and assessment methods (Mâţă, 2014) Thus, they would all be benefitted from the interaction since they could engage a diverse group of online conversationalists in reflective discussions about practice, pedagogy, and philosophy Additionally, in studies conducted by Atav, Akkoyunlu, and Sağlam (2006) and Lau (2018), it was found that when using TI for learning, the majority of the PTs frequently access online information for their courses tasks, enhancing their knowledge of general pedagogies and pedagogical contents Furthermore, the educational affordances of Web 2.0 technologies, such as connectivity and social rapport, collaborative information discovery and sharing, content creation, knowledge, and information aggregation, and content modification, fostered content generation, knowledge creation, and knowledge recreation (McLoughlin & Lee, 2007) Thus, a large number of studies have indicated the crucial role of TI in helping PTs accumulate their general pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge

In addition, the subject knowledge might be gained thanks to TI According

to Yücel (2011), it was useful and essential as TI provided a myriad of teaching tools for Language Teaching such as authentic study samples, rich materials, exercises on skills, and contemporary videos reflecting target culture In fact, the

role of cultural context is emphasized as “one of the most essential pedagogical

principles of language teaching” Singhal (1997) Thus, TI is a good source for

giving examples of the culture of the target languages, which can help PTs enforce subject knowledge effectively

In terms of knowledge of students, although a smaller number of researchers have discussed TI usage, it might partly support this learning process For instance,

in a study conducted by Thieman (2008), several PTs created class webpages and blogs to record their students’ work and communicate with them by email Additionally, in Dockerty’s (2009) study, one participant – a PT, also claimed that the online discussion broadened her understanding and enabled her to empathize with the children, however, Dockerty (2009) did not discuss deeper in this field Meanwhile, studies on the relationship between TI use and knowledge of the educational environment, aims, and curriculum do not seem to be discussed widely First, there has been relatively little research into higher education curricula and how students come to engage with these forms of knowledge According to Ashwin (2009) and Tight (2012), research had tended not to examine the relations between knowledge and curriculum in higher education Additionally, although TI is used excessively for educational purposes (Dogruer, Eyyam & Menevis, 2011) or diverse aspects of life (Shade, Porter & Sanchez, 2006) and the learning process depends largely on the context and environment in which the learning is taking place (Hutchinson, 2003), the use of TI on clearly understanding the educational aims and educational environment among PTs has not been broadly mentioned yet

To sum up, TI plays a vital role to help PTs broaden TK Nonetheless, while various studies proved the use of TI in supporting PTs gaining knowledge, research

on PETs has not conducted yet, needing to be further investigated

2.2.2.3 How pre-service teachers use the internet to improve teacher’s skills

Several studies have shown that TI has played an effective part in supporting PTs improving TS while being trained in universities or colleges of education First, communication skills were believed to be supported by TI Coutinho (2008) and Ajjan and Harsthone (2008) argued that PTs could improve their communication skills using blogs and online social networking, which might facilitate interaction and communication competencies in learning environments, and be as a space for the discussion of polemic topics for a whole class Therefore,

PTs might practice on TI to have effective communication skills to interact with both their colleagues and students in the future, which then partly improves teamwork skills In particular, Bronack, Kilbane, Herbert, and McNergney (1999) stated that websites created a professional community and encourage team-work activities Specifically, 81 PTs in their study agreed that TI encouraged collaboration, enhancing their experience in learning In other words, TI can benefit the skill of working with other PTs while learning their major

Furthermore, Web 2.0 tools can improve critical thinking skills by allowing discussions, communication, interaction, reflective thinking, and critical commenting when reading and commenting on teachers’ or peers’ posts (Sarsar & Harmon, 2018; Barnet, 2006; Parkes & Kajder, 2010) These tools helped promote discussion, which helps PTs design lessons promoting active learning and critical thinking across the curriculum Also, handling problems while searching helps PTs improve their problem-solving skills to find the right solution Thus, since the use

of TI in education requires writing critiques, thoughts, or reflections on given topics

or problems, it contributes to the development of PTs’ critical thinking and reflection skills, which are necessary for problem-solving skills

However, TI usage in helping PTs critically analyze and apply methods, approaches, and principles to design lesson plans and tests might be not commonly emphasized Particularly, PTs seem to see online sources as a reference resource for their lesson plans, which
provides
a
platform for
teachers
to
effortlessly find and share lesson
plans (He
&
Hartley, 2010, Uppal, 2011) Correspondingly, Demirkan (2019) found that by using TI, PTs can not only make the lessons fun but also create colorful, original, and effective content Thus, TI usage can act as a reference source for PTs’ lesson plans more than encouraging them to critically analyze and apply methods, approaches, and principles to design lesson plans by themselves Additionally, although previous studies did not show specifically how PTs used TI to design assessment tests, some of them indicated that it provided an effective tool replacing traditional paper tests Many assessment systems are

designed, which not only provide online tests and online construction of items but also enable teachers to check answer sheets rapidly and record scores over TI (Bonham, Beichner, Titus & Martin, 2000) However, there were just several studies conducted in this aspect with pre-service science teachers, who frequently collect pre-test and post-test materials from TI (Alayyar, Fisser & Voogt, 2012) Besides, Wang, Wang, Wang, Huang and Chen (2004) believed that TI benefited the classroom assessment, especially for analyzing individual student misconceptions and instructional strategy, and understanding the strengths and

weaknesses of test items, choices for a multiple-choice item, and a test

Besides, leadership skills, including classroom management, are the most significant cause of concern for PTs (Bromfield, 2006) While most teacher preparation courses consist of classroom management subjects (Baker, 2005), there

is little comprehensive research highlighting the management strategies that PTs could apply by employing TI

Last but not least, according to Batchelor and Lautenbach (2015), the use of online courses promoted the learning and excitement of PTs in the development of lifelong learning habits which help to sustain their future professional growth In other words, TI allows PTs to not only reflect on their practice but to also identify knowledge gaps in their professional development Thus, actively cultivating the idea that PTs are partly responsible for their own professional development promotes the notion of lifelong learning Through the experience of participating in online learning environment, PTs can greatly benefit from being exposed to various forms of instruction and assessment other than the traditionally pervasive methods

in classrooms, which strengthens their independent and lifelong learning habits Consequently, given that several studies have shown how PTs have used TI in developing skills needed to become teachers, studies on PETs’ TI use have not been widely discussed yet In fact, leadership skills also do not seem to be mentioned in previous studies, requiring further research

2.2.2.4 How pre-service teachers use the internet to develop their professional identities

Several studies conducted have shown the usage of TI in developing TPI concerning three out of seven aforementioned factors, which are self-esteem, self-

efficacy, and job satisfaction

First, TI bestows PTs’ self-esteem via online interaction since they can receive a descriptive assessment of the teacher’s performance from others Blogs are used as a pedagogical support resource stimulating interaction, sharing, and learning among pre-service language teachers (Mompean, 2010; Wang & Hsu,

2008, Salli & Osam, 2018) In other words, online interaction helps PTs establish the basics of their self-esteem owing to constructive feedback and support from their instructors or their fellow students, which helps PTs figure out their mistakes and practice to become more competent Similarly, according to Dockerty (2019), online interactions are useful in building the confidence and competence of PTs with limitless time and space, helping students to reflect their knowledge and pedagogical awareness, which then enhances their self-image

Second, the teacher’s job satisfaction is also intensified in terms of social relationships owing to TI Indeed, McLoughlin and Lee (2007) stated that TI can greatly foster social relationships thanks to online connectivity and social rapport, strengthening relationships with children and colleagues Meanwhile, social media could benefit social relations with colleagues and opportunities for professional development, contributing to job satisfaction among PTs (Latham, 1998) Similarly, Lemon (2016) integrated the use of Twitter into an accredited teacher education core course and found that TI could support the professional development

of PTs as this tool helped PTs bolster peer support, reflective practice, and professional networking

Additionally, TI has a close relationship with a teacher’s self – efficacy Woodcock, Sisco, and Eady (2015) stated that TI could increase teacher self-efficacy and competence among PTs in primary teacher education owing to a

psychologically safe environment Specifically, by going to different sites and participating anonymously, they felt more confident to ask questions for understanding, and, thus, were more comfortable sharing their ideas in a judgment-free environment In addition, there is a significant positive relationship between PTs’ self-efficacy and their TI self-efficacy (Gürol & Aktı, 2010) Thus, generally high levels of TI self-efficacy might be related to high levels of PTs’ self-efficacy

According to Sinclair, Dowson, and McInerney (2006), it is important to attract PTs with appropriate motives Indeed, students with these motives seem to

“engage deeply in their pre-service preparation and their subsequent professional lives” (Sinclair, Dowson & McInerney, 2006) This means that having good motivation, they can become more interested, participate more actively, and more likely to remain in the profession However, while there are several factors, such as job security, income, and long holiday affecting PTs’ motivation for choosing the teaching profession (Huberman & Grounauer, 1993), the use of TI in boosting their work motivation is not investigated yet

To sum up, while TI, especially social media, is believed to be an effective tool to support PTs to develop their TPI (Carpenter, Kimmons, Short, Clements & Staples, 2019), its effect on PETs seems not to be thoroughly investigated

2.2.2.5 Challenges pre-service teachers might encounter when using the

internet in their learning

Despite the abundance helpfulness of TI, a few studies have shown that PTs might face different adversities when using TI for their career preparation

First, recent studies have shown that they can have difficulties distinguishing between real and fake information Uppal (2011) stated PTs might have
difficulty finding
free, well‐written
lesson
plans
that
they
could
practically use as presented
on
TI Mandy, a PET in Ortega’s (2013) study, also viewed online sources as “a misleading site where anyone could post without regulatory mechanisms in place” In another word, this will be time-consuming for PTs to find

appropriate resources and materials when learning to become teachers by themselves Correspondingly, according to the pre-service information technology teachers in Kurt and Firat’s (2012) study, the information from TI was polluted since TI was an open environment that everybody could use Thus, information pollution on TI negatively influences TI use due to factors such as wasting time, giving up searching for the necessary information, hesitating about the correctness

of the information, and experiencing a decrease in motivation

Furthermore, according to a study by Luan, Fung, Nawawi, and Hong (2005) and Lei’s (2009), although student’s attitudes toward TI use were positive, there are relatively higher scores suggesting a lack of the experience or expertise in using Web 2.0 such as wikis, blogs, and podcasts Thus, this can be assumed that many PTs lack skills in navigating through TI and needing assistance

Besides, several researchers have claimed that it is challenging, requiring various virtues to effectively use TI among PTs, such as being self-disciplined and having average or higher verbal and quantitative skills, and easy access to the necessary equipment (Hiltz, 1990) Particularly, in studies conducted by Simsek, Alperand and Balta (2007) and Ngoc (2018), PTs could not learn online due to several reasons such as lacking concentration, self-discipline, and self-directed This means that users are required desire, self-motivation, and self-discipline to use

TI by themselves

Thus, since PTs around the world have faced a myriad of difficulties when using TI for their major learning, the study is designed to investigate whether PETs also experience challenges in this process Then, effective strategies and solutions might be proposed to solve the problem

2.3 Summary

In summary, TI has played a significantly important role in the process of learning to become teachers Numerous previous researchers have investigated relationships between the use of TI and TK, TS, and TPI among PTs However, so far, TI usage among PETs is considerably less frequent than those in other majors

(Firat & Serpil, 2017) Particularly, in Vietnam, the number of studies investigating PETs’ TI usage for learning their majors is still limited Since there is such a gap in the field of ELT in Vietnam, more studies investigating this subject are needed Hence, in this paper, the researcher will study PET’s use of TI for learning to become teachers and seek solutions dealing with challenges of TI usage to encourage PETs in their future career paths

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter gives an outline of the research methodology utilized in the study, describing the research approach and research methods adopted to obtain the objectives of this study and the reasons for this adoption It provides information of those who were recruited as participants and how they were sampled The instrument used for data collection is also depicted and the procedures followed to carry out this study are included Then, the chapter also discusses the methods used

to analyze the data

3 1 Research design

In order to investigate how PTs use TI to learn to become teachers, this study adopted the mixed-method research design, which includes quantitative and qualitative methods, to collect and analyze the data

Regarding quantitative approach, McMillan and Schumacher (1993) argued that the results from this approach can answer the research questions by supplying credible and reasonable information, helping researchers summarize what they wish

to observe owing to numeric and textual data However, this method may not effective to investigate contextual detail and the research might be objective from the subject matter (Langkos, 2014) This means that another method is required to diminish these drawbacks

On the other hand, qualitative method was applied to obtain a detailed and complete description of how PETs have used TI to become teachers This method is necessary since one of its characteristics is to “explore a problem and develop a detailed understanding of a central phenomenon” (Creswell, 2012) Thus, the researcher tends to be more subjective in the subject matter, which served most suitably the purpose of the present study Hence, while answers can be collected from questionnaires, in-depth interviews are used to elicit more information of

whether and how PETs effectively use TI while being trained to become teachers Nevertheless, according to Langkos (2014), qualitative data is more difficult to generalize and the outcomes are not reliable enough since answers from a small group of participants cannot reflect the opinion of a wider population

Given that each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, a method design provides important tools to overcome the limitations of both qualitative and quantitative method (Kelle, 2006; McKim, 2017) Consequently, the combination of these methods was expected to supply reliable and valid data for investigating and collecting information about how PETs in HUFL have used TI in their learning

mixed-3.2 Data collection tools

In this study, the quantitative method was used through the questionnaire and the qualitative method was applied through the interview to generalize and obtain further understanding of how PETs have used TI in their learning

The online questionnaire in this study comprised of 16 questions, which are originally written in English and then translated into Vietnamese to prevent participants from misunderstanding items The online survey platform used was

created by Google form (https://www.google.com/forms/about/), designed based on the framework of Shulman (1986), Day (2002) and Kelchtermans (2009) and the learning outcomes of the ELT program (HUFL – Hue University, 2016) Based on three research questions, the questionnaire was divided into four main parts and their focuses are described below

Section 1 includes three closed questions (from question 1 to 3) aiming

to find out the participant’s current general TI uses for their major learning

Section 2 consists of 7 closed questions (from question 4 to 10), concerning the participant’s attitude toward TI use for their major learning

Section 3 has six items, including five closed questions (question 11, 12,

13, 15 & 16) and one open question (question 14) to investigate how participants have used online sources to learn to become teachers

Section 4 includes two closed questions (question 17 & 18) studying current difficulties participants might face when using TI to learning their major

3.2.2 Interviews

Besides the questionnaire, the interview was held to allow the researcher to obtain information and clarify the necessary one from flexibly asking participants about their TI use experience Truly, interviews, involving direct interaction between individuals, can provide a better understanding of certain themes in the questionnaire (McMillan & Schumacher, 1993) Thus, in this study, the semi-structured interview was carried out with a small group of PTs since it could probe

or ask follow-up research questions of the interview participants, in terms of background, attitudes, and ways TI accessed among participants for their learning and challenges they are dealing with, which fosters a deep discussion of how PETs use TI to study to become teachers However, McMillan and Schumacher also claimed that the nature of interviews is subjective, bias, time-consuming, and costly when transcribing, coding, and translating collected data Therefore, the study combines two data collection tools to make the research results more reliable and trustworthy

3.3 Participants

According to the curriculum of the ELT program (HUFL– Hue University, 2020), while freshman and sophomore students merely learn general studies, major-related courses, such as Teaching & Management Skill and Materials Development and Adaptation, start in the second semester of the third year Therefore, the participants consisted of HUFL 3rd year and 4th-year PETs in the year 2019-2020

120 students including 51 junior and 69 senior ones took part in this research

3.4 Data collection procedure

3.4.1 Pilot study

The pilot was carried out to verify whether the content and instruction in the questionnaire and interview were appropriate, clear, and understandable They were piloted respectively among 5 and 2 students respectively, currently studying at the English teacher Department of HUFL Then, the content of research instruments was revised and adjusted according to the suggestions from the pilot study group combined with the research advisor’s recommendations Finally, the final questionnaire and interview questions were distributed to the participants

3.4.2 The administration of the questionnaire

The Vietnamese online questionnaires were distributed directly to Facebook groups of 3rd and 4th-year PETs The participants were given instructions before finishing the questionnaires 120 responses were collected after 2 weeks

3.4.3 The administration of the interviews

After collecting data from the questionnaire, the interviews were conducted by researchers with five students ticking “Willing to participate in the interview” in the questionnaire While simple and understandable English interview questions were posed and recorded by the researcher, interviewees were informed to be able to answer in Vietnamese to express their opinions clearly Each interview lasted about

15 minutes Background information of interviewees is provided as follows

No Pseudonym Year No Pseudonym Year

or inconsistent points were found

3.6 Conclusion

To sum up, the methodology used in this research has been provided in this chapter The questionnaire and interview were employed to obtain data from participants for this study While SPSS was used to analyze questionnaire data, interview data were thoroughly and systematically recorded, which were then transcribed and generalized for the researcher to compare, contrast to find differences, similarities or ambiguous, inconsistent points The findings of this study will be presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction

The current chapter presents the findings of this study from questionnaire and interview data and analyzes and discusses the key findings of the literature in language teacher education and the use of TI in education The findings and discussions were divided into three sections The first section focuses on the attitudes of PETs in using TI for their learning The second one discusses how they use TI to learn to become teachers The last one reports challenges they usually face and solutions they might adopt to use TI more effectively for their learning

4.2 Findings and discussion

The official questionnaire was submitted to SPSS for data quantitative analysis The results showed that the Cronbach's Alpha was 0.927, higher than the acceptable range for Cronbach’s Alpha test of reliability, 0.7 (Cortina, 1993) Thus, the questionnaire is reliable enough to collect data for this paper

4.2.1 Pre-service English teachers’ attitudes toward the internet usage for their learning

Initially, participants were asked to show how often they use TI for their learning According to Figure 1, 60% of participants often use TI in their learning process which is 15% higher than those choosing “Always” Other PTs (5%) said they sometimes access TI for learning purposes Thus, the majority of participants

often use TI in their learning process

Figure 1The frequency of TI usage for studying major

5%

60%

35%

Never OccasionallySometimes Often

Always

Figure 2 presents the amount of time that PTs spend on TI for learning every day While 7% of PTs use TI less than one hour a day, more than half of them spend more than three hours on learning pursuits, accounting for a large amount of time

Figure 2 Time spent on TI for studying major per day

The data presented in Figure 3 shows that most of PETs argued they were not good at employing TI in learning, with 50% of “average” and 10% of “poor” While only 2% of PETs claimed they were “very good”, 28% and 10% are the percentages

of those who are relatively confident with their ability to search for their major learning (which are “pretty good” and “good” respectively) In order to understand how they self-evaluate their skills in this area, interviewees were asked for explanations According to Anna, Nancy, and Amy, their ability was average since despite being instructed on how to search keywords, they were not confident when choosing reliable sources by themselves By contrast, Hannah and Amy believed they were quite good at using TI for learning that they could recognize reliable sources and they had not found any serious problems so far

Figure 3 Self-evaluate the ability to access TI for learning

7%

35%

43%

From 1 hour to 2 hoursFrom 3 hours to 4 hoursMore than 5 hours

Then, the items from 4 to 9 were aimed at understanding PTs’ attitudes toward

TI usage for their learning The items were Likert scale questions with the choices range from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5) Table 1 shows that the mean scores range from high to a very high level The three highest mean scores relate to benefits of TI in gaining TK, TS, and boosting motivation in learning their major (M = 4.63; 4.38 and 4.38 respectively) Besides, most of the SD numbers were of high value (above 0.5) as a result of the fact that while there were a variety

of students arguing “strongly agree” with the positive ideas of benefits of TI in learning, there were a large number of those opting for “neutral” or “disagree”

Table 1 PETs’ attitude toward using the internet in learning

4 I like using TI while being trained to become teachers 3 5 4.27 786

5 The use of TI increases my class preparation 3 5 4.28 482

6 The use of TI increases my class participation 3 5 3.89 594

7 TI motivates me in learning my major 3 5 4.38 887

8 TI is useful for learning TK of an English teacher 3 5 4.63 579

9 TI is useful for developing TS of an English teacher 3 5 4.38 663

When interviewees were asked to explain why they often used TI while being trained to become a teacher, they all appreciated its beneficial functions In particular, Anna and Lyly said they loved using TI since it provided numerous reliable sources for them to improve knowledge and skills Hannah and Nancy shared the same opinion that they could search for any course materials on TI, which supported their learning significantly Additionally, Amy and Lyly shared the same perspective that they often accessed websites looking for English tutors recruitment, which was a good way to apply their knowledge and skills

Thus, the results from the questionnaire showed that PETs in the majority hold

TI use in high esteem Overall, the respondents have positive opinions about using

TI for their learning since TI can provide various advantages for their future instruction Particularly, PETs have been frequently spending a great amount of time accessing TI for learning on a daily basis This finding is inconsistent with results from Lei (2009), who found that while PTs were optimistic about TI usage, they only spent 10% of their online time on learning This indicates that over time, students have broadened their uses of TI and increasingly incorporated it into their daily lives for studying their major Furthermore, the questionnaire data present that the majority of recent PETs are unconfident with their TI knowledge and usage Most of them believe that their ability to search and use sources from TI is average This result is consistent with other researchers (Wong, Kamariah, Ramlah, Rohani

& Tang, 2003; Lei, 2009) While these scholars claimed that PTs in their studies lacked the experience or expertise in using some of the Web 2.0, in this study, exceeding 70% of PETs also think they are not good at using TI, which can be seen

as a negative trend in this digital age when they cannot take advantage of TI in their studying Additionally, HUFL PETs seem to be optimistic about using TI to learn to become teachers while they are novice internet users, which is different from what was found by Hong, Ridzuan and Kuek (2003) that those with good basic internet skills tend to have positive attitudes toward TI Nevertheless, since attitudes of PTs towards the use of TI are positive and high, especially when using for their instruction (Lee, 1997; Külekçı, 2009), TI can be seen as an indispensable tool in the process of becoming teachers

4.2.2 How pre-service English teachers have used the internet to learn to

become teachers

To comprehend how PETs use TI to learn to become teachers, common online sources frequently accessed among them should be investigated Items in Table 2 are Likert scale questions with the choices range from Never (1) to Always (5)

Table 2 Mean scores and percentages of common online sources

Online sources Mean SD Percentage (%)

Online magazine/ newspaper

(New York Times, BBC, …)

3.48 733 0 7.5 45 40 7.5

7 1.67

Online meeting (Zoom,

Table 2 shows that all PTs participating in the questionnaire have used TI for their learning Among different online sources, Google, YouTube, and Online dictionaries are the most popular channels accessed (M = 4.22; 4.14; 4.06 in that order), agreed by the majority of participants (from 77% to 85 %) In particular, in the interview, Anna, Nancy, and Amy stated the same that they loved accessing YouTube since not only was it free but it also provided numerous vital authentic materials for the language learning process Additionally, Hannah expressed a high appreciation for the role of Google and online dictionaries since she could search for free materials and look up new words easily, while paper sources were considerably expensive

Furthermore, many respondents either usually or always employ music websites and social networking sites for their study, accounting for 60% and 42.5% respectively Additionally, the mean scores of online magazine/ newspaper and movie websites are fairly high, at about 3.45, indicating that the two sources are also popular In particular, Anna claimed online newspaper and movie websites as her favorite sources to pick up natural collocation, phrasal verbs or phrases used by native speakers while reading, listening and watching them Online meetings, English learning websites, and Digital libraries or databases are of the same popular, frequently accessed by approximately 40% of participants

Besides, PETs seem to be less interested in using blogs, podcasts, Wikipedia, and online courses for their learning process, whose mean scores are merely below

3 Concerning these online sites, Lyly and Anna stated that they were not familiar with these sources and argued that YouTube owned all the features they offered Also, in the interview, Lyly told that she often went to game – designed websites, such as Kahoot! and Dashboard, to find inspiration for her lesson plans She argued that these sites made it easier for her to prepare interesting games for her students

As a result, there are thousands of websites for PTs to choose to access for learning purposes (Ajjan & Hartshorne, 2008; Dlodlo & Sithole, 2001) In terms of the popularity of online sources, while Google, Youtube, Social network sites, and

online dictionaries top the rank, blogs, podcasts, Wikipedia, and online courses gain little interest in recent years Movie and music websites are also PETs’ favorites providing authentic attractive and eye-catching sources for studying The results are nearly consistent with other researchers (Baltaci-Goktalay & Ozdilek, 2010, Coutinho, 2008; Redekopp & Kalanda, 2015; Cakir & Atmaca, 2015) While these scholars did claim that most PETs were favorable towards YouTube, Google, and social networking sites, others such as blogs and Wikipedia, which were strongly mentioned as popular platforms in their studies, were not attractive to recent PETs

4.2.2.1 The internet usage on gaining teacher knowledge among English teachers

pre-service-In the meantime, TI is utilized to learn TK among 3rd and 4th– year students in the HUFL ELT program The data collected based on 7 components of knowledge

as in Shulman’s (1986) framework and specific areas of knowledge as in the learning outcomes of the ELT program (HUFL – Hue university, 2016) to study how TI was employed in developing TK While Table 3 shows levels of how TI affects the process of gaining TK (scale from 1 to 5), Figure 4.1, Figure 4.2, and Figure 4.3 present various online sources applied in this process by PETs

Table 3 TI’s influence on gaining teacher knowledge

Teacher knowledge Mean SD

Educational environment (Culture, politics, society) 3.86 359

Culture and literature of English speaking countries 4.24 436

Third foreign language (Korean, Chinese, Japanese,…) 3.81 1.401

Methodologies, disciplines, theories and viewpoints of 3.29 1.146