Technology Acceptance among English Pre-service Teachers: A Path Analysis Approach

Abstract

Incorporating technology in English language teaching practices has the potential to generate more lively and captivating learning experiences for learners. The challenge lies in adequately equipping pre-service English language teachers with the skills to seamlessly incorporate technology in their teaching methods and improve students' academic performance, despite their favorable perception of its usefulness. The study aimed to shed light on the factors that contribute to pre-service teachers' acceptance of technology and to determine the applicability of the Technology Acceptance Model in the context of English language Teaching (ELT). For this study, the framework developed by Teo (2009) was utilized. The participants were 286 English pre-service teachers. The study identified 21 pairs of factors that positively and significantly affect technology acceptance, with Perceived Usefulness having the highest correlation coefficient and Facilitating Conditions having the lowest.   The path analysis of the technology acceptance model revealed that while the model was a good fit for this study, there were two non-significant paths. Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness were found to directly affect technology acceptance, while Technological Complexity and Facilitating Conditions had indirect effects through Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness. The results of this study showed that interventions to improve technology acceptance amongst pre-service teachers should take into account direct and indirect factors.