The elicitation of prospective efl teachers’ computer anxiety and attitudes

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between computer anxiety and computer attitude and examining the effects of background characteristics on prospective EFL teachers’ computer anxiety and computer attitude. Computer Anxiety Scale (CARS), designed by Heinssen, Glass & Knight (1987) and Computer Attitude Scale (CAS), developed by Loyd & Gressard (1985) and modified by Yuen & Ma (2001) were administered to 70 prospective EFL teachers. Descriptive results indicated that prospective EFL teachers had relatively moderate scores in CARS (M=3.20; SD=.35729) and the sub-scales of CAS, computer confidence (M=3.02; SD= .43951), computer liking (M=3.17; SD= .47379) and computer usefulness (M=3.35; SD= .67647). Although a significant correlation was found between computer anxiety and computer liking (r = .35, n=70, p< 0.01), no significant correlation was found between computer anxiety and computer confidence (r = .19, n=70, p0.01) and between computer anxiety and computer usefulness (r = .22, n=70, p0.01). In the study, age, year of study, computer ownership and degree of access to computers were not found to be significant correlates of computer anxiety and computer attitude. While gender and the CAS subscale ‘‘usefulness‛ (r = .28, n=70, p< 0.05) and CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) and CAS subscale ‘‘liking‛ (r = 23, n=70, p< 0.05) were found to be positively correlated, computer courses taken previously and the CAS subscale ‘‘liking‛ (r = -.24, n=70, p< 0.05) and computer experience and the CAS subscale ‘‘confidence‛ (r = -.30, n=70, p< 0.01) were found to be negatively correlated.

computer anxiety ,

computer attitude ,

prospective EFL teachers ,

foreign language teaching ,