English language teachers and students in Serbia how much do they know and how much would they

y like to know about teaching with technology?

When trying to discuss the implementation of technology into language classrooms in Serbia, we first have to address the present situation and how much teachers actually know about language and technology, how much they are willing to learn, and how much of the knowledge they are willing to incorporate into their classes. The results which will be presented here are based on a survey conducted among English language teachers in primary and secondary schools of the municipalities of Uzice and Cajetina. The survey was conducted during a brief presentation of possible uses of technology in language classrooms which was held and moderated by myself and located at the Regional Teacher Development Centre (RCU) in Uzice. The following image illustrates some of the atmosphere and topics mentioned in the presentation and the discussion. The first question was how often teachers use technology in their language classrooms, and the answers are summarized in the following chart:

Frequency of technology use in language classrooms

As the above results show, only 10% of teachers regularly use technology in English language teaching, while 90% of them answered the question with occasionally or never. Since the statistics show a very low level of incorporation of modern tools in teaching, at least in the area of the two municipalities in question, the following question tries to find specific reasons for such results. The chart illustrates the answers I got from the teachers who answered the previous question with occasionally or never:

Reasons for low level of technology use in language classrooms

The image we get from the previous chart is that most teachers list material, organizational and bureaucratic reasons for not using technology in English language teaching. The most prominent of all answers was lack of equipment, caused by general insufficient financial investments in education. However, the second most prominent answer has to do with teacher motivation some of them are not willing to invest additional time into preparing lessons which incorporate technological tools, which should be a concern if there is ever to be a comprehensive and organized action of technology implementation in English language teaching in Serbia. The last two reasons are more of a bureaucratic nature the imposed curriculum is predefined and lacks space for activities which would include more modern teaching methods.

English language students The other important perspective which has to be taken into account is the academic education of prospective teachers and how much it incorporates teaching about possible uses of technology in language classrooms and language in general, especially through courses related to teaching methodology and applied linguistics. On top of that, student motivation to learn about such subjects has to be considered as well, in order to get a view of how technology is, should or shouldnt be a part of academic teacher education and training of experienced teachers. The results which will be presented on the following pages are obtained from an on-line survey conducted among students from the English Language Department at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, and students from the corresponding department at the Faculty of Philosophy in Nis. The number of students who participated in the survey was 40.

One of the questions they were asked was how often they used modern technology, such as computers and Internet access. The answer was quite uniform:

Percentage of computer and Internet use among English language students

The answer convincingly shows that 85% of students use technology on very regular basis. Such high percentage can be argued since the survey itself was Internet-based, but the fact that a dominant majority of students uses computers and Internet access every day is not debatable, hence the conclusion that there is a good starting point for further education in language teaching with technology. Having reached the previous conclusion, it is now time to assess the level of knowledge about teaching language with technology which students have managed to gain during the course of their studies. It is worth mentioning that 78% of surveyed students were either past their fourth year of studies or M.A. students, which is relevant since they had gone through all of the courses in the programme of studies at the English language departments of both universities, and they are fully competent to assess the scope of knowledge related to technology and teaching that they had gained.

Rating of knowledge about technology and teaching

So, there is an evident lack of quality and scope of knowledge acquired at the academic level. On the other hand, student motivation had to be tested as well, in order to get an idea of how willing they actually are to find out more on the subject:

Student motivation for learning about teaching and technology

Again, we have a convincing answer given by 70% of students who agreed that they are very motivated to learn more about using technology in language classrooms.

Final remarks
This research has led to several conclusions, most important of which are: English language teachers rarely use technology in their classrooms due to limitations imposed by lack of equipment and strict curricula. English language teachers are averagely familiar with most technology tools used in English language teaching nowadays. English language students are very regular users of computers and the Internet. They have gained little knowledge about the possibilities of using technology in their classrooms, but most of them are really motivated to learn more. They are, on average, better acquainted with technology than teachers, and one of the possible explanations is generation gap younger people are generally more comfortable with technology, while teachers, most of which are between the ages of 30 and 55 do not use it as frequently.