Title: Investigating Teacher’s Use of Computers in Teaching English: A Case Study
http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/j_article30.htm
Journal: Teaching English with Technology; A Journal for Teachers of English, volume 8, issue 1 (Feb. 2008)
Authors: Saadiyah Darus & Ho Wai Luin from the Faculty of Social Science & Humanities University Kebangsaan Malaysia

Article review
Saadiyah Darus and Ho Wai Luin wrote this research with purpose of finding out the answer to these three questions. The first one is to collect information regarding the teacher’s attitudes towards teaching English using computers. The next one is to find out what are some of the challenges faced by them in using computers to teach English and what are their suggestions to overcome these challenges. To answer these questions, the two researchers have asked the help of 18 respondents who are all public secondary school teachers in Selangor. The only criteria that qualify them to help with the research are that all of them must have at least 5 years of teaching English subject. This research, uses questionnaires as their method of research and they were given a week to complete the questionnaires before they were collected. From the research, it is found that, many of the teachers did not have the adequate skills needed to use computer to teach. Many of them are felt that they were incompetent and uncomfortable using the computer in the classroom due to lack of ICT knowledge. They also stated that the reason for these attitudes is because there were no guidelines provided for them. Moving on to the next question, the teachers admit that they were having a lot of challenges in handling the computer ranging from limited software in the school to the lack of knowledgeable personnel or technician on-site for computer maintenance as well as provision of technical support to teachers. The respondents have suggested that each school provide a resource room that is easily accessible by teachers and is monitored by personnel on-site that is ready to help the teachers handle computers and all the hard wares. They also suggested that a more suitable and practical computer courses are provided. As further work, a nationwide study involving more schools and teachers should be carried out to see whether Vision 2020 has achieved its objective whereby all primary and secondary schools in Malaysia will be Smart Schools by 2010.

This research greatly interest me because, the world today revolves around computers. People use computers everyday for all sorts of things. From entertainment, browsing information, buying stuff, to doing business, then why should education be left behind? I seriously believe that teachers in Malaysia should pick up the pace and start training themselves to use computer more efficiently so that they can utilize it in their teachings. Thus, this research is seriously important if we are to know why the teachers are not good in using computer and what the reasons to this, so that we can find solutions for this problem. I personally think that they could’ve done better with the research. Apart from questionnaires, to get a more accurate answer, the researchers should do observations on the respondents so they can witness it themselves the challenges that those teachers faced every day. In general context, i think that the teachers in foreign country in develop country such as USA, Japan and such did not have any problem using computer as they are well trained. Since the research is in a Malaysian context, there is not much to say that haven’t been said except that the Education ministry of Malaysia should provide computer classes every week for the purpose of training those teachers.