TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE INTEGRATION OF INTERNET-ASSISTED LANGUAGE TEACHING(IALT) INTO EFL INSTRUCTION

Although internet-assisted language teaching (IALT) has been recognised by the rapid progress of internet, there is a lack of published studies concerning the perceptions and perspectives of English Foreign Language (EFL) teachers on the integration of the internet into language learning and teaching. This study compares the differences between EFL university instructors’ perceptions and state and private school EFL teachers’ perceptions, towards the integration of internet-assisted language teaching (IALT) into EFL instruction. 82 participants took part in the survey and responded to the questions about their perceptions towards integrating internet-assisted language learning into EFL instruction, what types of internet resources they use to enhance language learning, and what kind of barriers prevent the use of the internet in EFL classes. A mixed-method approach, quantitative and qualitative, was administered in this study. The quantitative part of the research is a questionnaire with two sections, and the qualitative part is an open-ended questionnaire. Both quantitative and qualitative results demonstrate that although both instructors and teachers showed positive attitude towards IALT, the internet activities they used in the classroom were limited, and there were some barriers against internet use in the language classroom, such as limited time, limited computer facilities and certain technical problems.

in EFL instruction, and to reveal their perceptions of internet activities in their teaching process if used, and whether or not they perceive barriers to internet use in language classrooms in both institutional contexts. The study tries to provide insight for other scholars and officials regarding the perceptions of teachers and instructors in both institutions unfolding internet use in language learning. Additionally, aiming to reveal barriers against the internet use in the classroom context, this current study will guide further research, as there remains scarce resources regarding internet-assisted language teaching in the Turkish context.

Introduction
With the improvement of the Internet, internet-assisted language learning (IALT) has been progressively more integrated into educational settings to engage learners in meaningful learning, by a growing number of researchers (Chen, 2008(Chen, : 1015. Among studies related to teachers' perceptions about internetassisted language learning in EFL instruction, a study conducted by Lau and Sim (2008) showed that teachers have mainly positive attitudes towards information and communication technologies in education. Chen (2008) also demonstrated that attitude was one of the factors influencing internet use.
Although most of the studies have emphasised the impact of computer-assisted and internet-assisted language teaching and EFL students' attitudes towards these teaching methods (Afshari, Ghavifekr, Siraj and Jing, 2013;Kılıçkaya and Seferoğlu, 2013;Mohktari, 2013;Rahimi and Yadollahi, 2011;Schofield and Davidson, 2003;Timuçin, 2006;Zaini and Mazdayasna, 2014), there is a lack of research on the perceptions and perspectives of EFL instructors' and EFL teachers' on the integration of internet in language learning and teaching (Alkahtani, 2011;Amirsheibani and Iraji, 2014;Başöz and Çubukçu, 2014;Pinner, 2012;Rafiee and Purfallah, 2014). Therefore, the main objectives of this paper are to find out whether there was a difference between EFL instructors' perceptions and state and private schools EFL teachers' perceptions towards the integration of internet-assisted language teaching (IALT) Printed ISSN: 2336-2375 Teacher barriers are: time; knowledge and skills; training; previous negative experience; fear and anxiety; and attitudes (Cuban, Kirkpatrick and Peck, 2001;Fabry and Higgs, 1997;Migliorino and Maiden, 2004;Pelgrum, 2001;Russel and Bradley, 1997). Therefore, EFL teachers' perceptions, beliefs and attitudes towards internet-assisted language teaching (IALT) are critical elements for integrating IALT successfully into their teaching system. Zhao and Tella (2002: 2) state that "the ability to teach with technology is quite different from the ability to use it, because technology must be integrated with a sound pedagogical framework". Additionally, a study conducted by Zhao and Campbell (cited in Hartley, Treagust and Ogunniyi, 2008: 601) revealed that the more often the teachers used technology in their classrooms, the more positive attitudes and perceptions towards technology. Thus, negative experiences and a lack of technological knowledge can decrease teachers' sense of confidence, and can cause uncertainty and even fear when it comes to IALT. Additionally, Sokoloff and Thornton claimed that the use of computers as a teaching material necessitates a combination of knowledge, skills and experiences for selecting suitable teaching strategies (Molefe, Lemmer and Smith, 2005). As a result, teachers may not become willing to take part in internet-assisted language teaching facilities, and may not apply them in their teaching (Chen, 2008(Chen, : 1017.
Related literature demonstrates that EFL teachers and instructors generally have positive attitudes towards the use of computers and the internet in language teaching. In Pinner's study (2012), which investigated teachers' attitudes and motivations towards using computer-assisted language learning (CALL), the results showed that there was a general eagerness amongst teachers to use computers in their classes more. Another study conducted by Alkahtani (2011) examined female faculty members' beliefs and attitudes towards CALL integration in an EFL context. The results revealed that they had positive beliefs and attitudes towards the use of computers in language teaching. Rafiee and Purfallah (2014), moreover, conducted a study on the perceptions of junior high school teachers towards using computers in language learning. Most of the teachers harboured positive perceptions about the use of computers, but considered themselves not competent enough to cope with some basic computer functions.
Another study conducted by Arkın (2003) focused on EFL teachers' perceptions of the use of computer technology resources in language instruction. The findings revealed that teachers who had computer technology training held a more positive attitude towards the use of computers in vocabulary instruction.
Additionally, Shin and Son's (2007) study, which examined 101 Korean secondary school EFL teachers' perceptions and perspectives on the use of the internet for teaching purposes, concluded that the key factors influencing the use of the internet in the classrooms were teachers' personal interest, teachers' abilities to integrate internet resources into class activities, and computer activities and technical support at schools.
Another study conducted by Chen (2008) in Northern Taiwan showed EFL teachers' attitude to be among factors that were effective to internet use. Moreover, a study by Çelik (2013) revealed that Turkish EFL instructors had positive perceptions of IALT, but that they had difficulty in finding suitable teaching materials, and integrating the internet into their teaching. Aydın's (2013) research also demonstrated that Turkish EFL teachers have positive attitudes towards computer use and integration, but they need technical and instructional support.
In light of the fact that most of the studies have examined students', teachers or instructors' perceptions and attitudes towards using computers and internet in language teaching in one institution, there is still need for a study comparing the differences between higher education institutions and state/ private schools in terms of computer and internet integration, internet activities used by teachers and barriers against IALT in order to get a sense of which institutional teaching environment is in greater need of such methods. As a consequence, the current study intends to compare the difference between EFL university instructors' perceptions and secondary and high school EFL teachers' perceptions towards the integration of internet-assisted language teaching (IALT) in EFL instruction. The study tries to answer the research questions below:

Methodology
This study compared the difference between EFL instructors from several universities in different cities in Turkey and EFL teachers at state and private schools of Osmaniye (a town in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey) in terms of their perceptions towards integrating internet-assisted language learning into EFL instruction and investigating the internet resources used to enhance language learning and barriers preventing internet use in EFL classes. In this article, the convenience sampling technique was used. Participants were selected according to their availability and proximity to the researcher (Büyüköztürk et al., 2009: 91).

Participants
The research was conducted with 30 EFL instructors at different Turkish universities and 52 EFL teachers at different state and private schools of Osmaniye, a town in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey. Both online and paper surveys were administered to participants of the study. It should be noted that the sample group Printed ISSN: 2336-2375 was randomly chosen from different state universities in different parts of Turkey and state and private schools of Osmaniye, in order to compare the differences of perceptions towards internet-assisted language teaching. The reason the researcher did not include any participants from private universities was due to the different curriculum procedure between the state and private universities. The participants voluntarily agreed to take part in the study. Table 1 presents background knowledge on participants, including demographic variables such as gender, age and experience.
Of the participants, 17 (56.7%) of EFL instructors and 32 (61.5%) of EFL teachers participating the study were female.
While the teaching experience of participating EFL instructors and EFL teachers ranged from less than five to over 20 years, which shows that 15 (50%) of EFL instructors had less than five year experience, with 29 (55.7%) EFL teachers had teaching experience between five and 14 years.

Data Collection
In this study, the researcher used a questionnaire originated by Shin and Son (2007), due to the fact that it was understandable to the participants, and that it measured the focus of the study conducted by researchers. Nevertheless, the researcher eliminated some questions in Section 1 regarding the specific purposes. After eliminating some questions, the instrument was checked by the three proficient EFL instructors and piloted to a group of participants including 20 teachers and instructors, for the purposes of validity and reliability. Cronbach's alpha value was calculated. The Cronbach coefficient for the questionnaire was 0.78. The questionnaire used in this research is made up of three sections: a. demographic sections for respondents' background information; b. Likert scale statements on respondents' perceptions on internet use; and c. an open-ended question section to elicit the respondents' comments on the use of the Internet for the teaching of English as a foreign language.
As for the trustworthiness of the qualitative (open-ended question section) method, the researcher used 'member checking' procedure, which involved taking data and interpretations back to the participants in order to confirm their responses and 'audit trail' procedure, which included an external auditor, who reviewed the qualitative inquiry (Creswell and Miller, 2000). A total of 82 completed questionnaires were returned within two-month period. The data collected from the questionnaire was analysed quantitatively and qualitatively.

Results
The methodology applied in this study was a mixed method, containing both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative data was statistically analyzed using the mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage and t-test while the qualitative part contains open-ended questions. Data of the qualitative part were collected from the interview conducted with EFL instructors and teachers through meeting. The interview aimed to assess the depth of instructors' and teachers' perceptions about IALT, internet in language teaching and barriers against internet usage. The findings obtained from the study are divided into four subsections: EFL instructors' and teachers' perceptions towards IALT; the internet activities/resources used in language teaching; barriers preventing internet-use in the classrooms; and the results of qualitative study.

Results of the Quantitative Study Perceptions towards internet-assisted language teaching
The first research question compared the EFL instructors' and state and private school EFL teachers' perceptions towards IALT in EFL instruction. In this study, 110 EFL instructors' and teachers' were asked about their perceptions towards IALT from which 82 took part in the study. Some of the participants filled the survey but not properly, therefore 28 of them were not included in the study. Table 2 and Table 3 demonstrate the Turkish EFL instructors' and Turkish state and private school EFL teachers' perceptions towards IALT in EFL classrooms with fifteen items, using a Likert scale with four options ranging from "strongly disagree (1) to "strongly agree" (4).
According to results obtained from the questionnaire, comparing the results of Table 2 and Table 3, the values demonstrated that participants expressed positive perceptions towards using internet-assisted language teaching in EFL instructions. One hundred percent of respondents (EFL instructors) in Table 2 agreed that the internet provides a rich learning environment, motivates students easily in the classrooms (82.7% for EFL teachers) and felt that using ESL/ EFL web-sites are useful for teaching English (92.3 % for EFL teachers). On the other hand, only 40% of respondents in Table 2 and 44.2% of participants in Table 2 gave positive responses to the question of replacing textbooks with internet resources, which demonstrates that a large number of participants (both instructors and teachers) do not think it would be appropriate to replace course books with internet resources. Moreover, 96.6% of the EFL instructors and 90.4% of EFL teachers correspondingly agreed that student can improve their English skills through the use of the internet, in addition to improving their communication skills by emailing, and chatting online (93.3% for instructors and 90.4% for teachers).
Nevertheless, Table 2 and Table 3 also show significant differences between Turkish EFL instructors and EFL teachers, in terms of their self-assessment towards internet-assisted language learning (questions 11, 12, 13, 14, 15   In order to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between EFL instructors at universities and EFL teachers at state and private schools, independent t-test was conducted. The results of t-test is given in Table 4.

Perceptions in terms of internet resources used in language teaching
The second question concerns the perceptions towards the internet activities/resources used in language teaching, allowing respondents to select more than one response. The internet activities used by EFL instructors and EFL teachers were presented in Figure 1:  Figure 1 demonstrated respondents' use of internet activities in their classrooms, revealing that the most popular activity for Turkish EFL instructors is online dictionaries, which is used by 72.7% of respondents, and the least commonly used activities are email and instant messaging, which are used by 3.3% of Turkish instructors. The findings further indicated that over half of Turkish EFL instructors (56.8%) stated that they make use of web-surfing in their language teaching classrooms. Other activities include puzzles (23.3%), video-conferencing (23.3%), voice-chatting (6.7%), encylopedia (26.7%) and crosswords (26.7%).
On the other hand, Figure 1 also shows the participants' use of internet activities in the clasrooms in state and private schools of Osmaniye. According to the findings obtained from the chart, the most commonly used activity are games, which are used by only the small percentage of respondents (29.7%). The least popular activity is, on the other hand, email, which is used by 1.2% of Turkish private and state school EFL teachers. It is clear from these data that while the percentage of using internet activities in universities is raising up to 72.7%, the percentage of using internet activities in state and private schools of Osmaniye is 29.7%, which is much lower than the usage of universities. It is clear that Turkish instructors were found to integrate internet usage into their language teaching environment much more frequently than state and private school EFL teachers.

Perspectives in terms of the reasons preventing internet use in EFL classes
Concerning the third question, respondents were asked to identify their perspectives on barriers for internet usage in language teaching environments. Figure 2 presents the percentages of participants identifying those reasons preventing internet use in language teaching classrooms. The findings revealed that lack of time is a significant barrier to internet assisted language teaching in both university (63.3%) as well as state and private school contexts (48.1%). Most participants had a limited time in order to integrate IALT into their teaching system. As for the second barrier, while 43.3% of EFL instructors consider access to computer facilities as a second barrier, the percentage is 46.2% for state and private schools. The data further indicates that EFL instructors did not regard their own English ability and computer skills as the barrier to internet use in their language teaching classrooms, whereas 15% of EFL teachers of state and private schools stated that their own English ability was the reason for not using the internet in their classrooms.

Results of the Qualitative Study
In order to better understand participants' opinions and perceptions regarding the integration of internet use in their language teaching classrooms, the questionnaire included one open-ended question. 56.6 % (n=17) of EFL instructors answered this question, whereas the researcher got responses from 32.6% (n=17) of the state and private school EFL teachers.
The descriptive qualitative analysis resulted in three main themes: EFL instructors' and teachers' view of IALT, using internet in language teaching and barriers against internet usage.
The data showed that both groups of participants had a positive perception towards internet use in language teaching. Among EFL instructors and EFL teachers, some stated that the internet enables a variety of free English teaching materials for enhancing student motivation and it could be used as a source of English for all levels of learners. Teachers may make use of authentic materials through the internet, which will help them to improve language skills very easily. One of the participants said, "[the] internet plays a major role in the lives of young people today. Children engage in online activities both inside and outside the classroom, so it is beneficial. It is not a must but makes it easier and fun during class." Another noted, the "internet enables efficiency in [the] four skills, especially listening and speaking, [which] should be supported with materials acquired on the internet." Another theme emerged from suggestions made by EFL instructors for using internet in language teaching effectively. One participant stated that "students could be asked to create their own blogs online and in writing classes, the blogs can be evaluated as their portfolio". Another participant suggested that "[the] internet shouldn't be the main basis of the lesson, but teachers should integrate it to cause curiosity in the class as well as providing authentic materials which would also improve students' autonomy in language classes." Another participant said, "it would be useful to train both teachers and students about internet literacy skills in order to make use of the internet effectively." EFL instructors did not explain many barriers against internet use in language teaching, however, noted that state and private school EFL teachers indicated several difficulties in using the internet in the classroom as follows: having difficulty in controlling the internet use in the classroom; having a slow internet connection or technical problems during the class; teachers' incompetence of computer and internet literacy skills, being in need of training are among barriers to using Internet in their language instruction. One of the participants said, "it is useful, but many teachers do not use it due to a lack of interest and ability." Another participant said, "Teachers are in need of training in order to improve their Internet literacy skills and to integrate into language teaching".

Discussion
The results obtained from the current study are consistent with the previous research on the perceptions, attitudes, beliefs and self-efficacy of EFL instructors and teachers towards internet-assisted language instruction and computer technology (Alkahtani, 2011;Amirsheibani and Iraji, 2014;Arkın, 2003;Aydın, 2013;Başöz and Çubukçu, 2014;Chen, 2008;Çelik, 2013;Külekçi, 2009;Pinner, 2012;Rafiee and Purfallah, 2014;Shin and Son, 2007). For instance, the study conducted by Başöz and Çubukçu (2014) investigated the attitudes of preservice EFL teachers of English towards using computers in language teaching. The findings of this study similarly showed that teachers of English have positive attitudes towards the use of computers in their language teaching.
Furthermore, the results of this study are in line with the findings of previous studies on the reasons preventing the use of technology in the classrooms (Blake, 2007;Chen, 2008;Çelik, 2013;Egbert, Paulus, and Nakamichi, 2002;Park and Son, 2009;Shin and Son, 2007). The study conducted by Chen (2008) found that finding appropriate materials, creating materials, as well as keeping up with software upgrades and improvements, take a long amount of time. Shin and Son's study (2007), also emphasized four key factors affecting internet use: teachers' interest; teachers' abilities; computer facilities; and technical support in schools.
The present study provides some practical recommendations for scholars and to officials. First of all, there should be a special training programme for computer technology in the pre-and in-service teaching programmes in faculties regarding how to integrate the internet into their language instruction in order to make teachers and instructors self-confident in applying IALT. Second, it is recommended that classrooms be equipped with the necessary and appropriate technical support in order to remove connection and technical problems. Finally, it is also crucial to design materials integrating internet-assisted language teaching activities in language programmes in order to enhance foreign language learning.

Conclusion
Findings of the present study showed that participants expressed positive perceptions towards the use of the internet in EFL context, and that they are eager to integrate it into their language teaching classrooms. The authors (Kučírková, Kučera and Vostrá Vydrová, 2014: 85) showed that students expressed their views on the effectiveness of the e-learning course and their positive attitude to e-learning. This result shows similarity with our study and the other research conducted in Internet-assisted language teaching. In a study by Park and Son (2009), some of Korean EFL teachers' perceptions were explored in terms of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). The findings of this study showed that EFL teachers have positive attitudes towards computer use in ther classrooms. They believe that using computer in their classes can enhance and improve the way of teaching.
In another study by Kim (2008), 10 ESL/EFL teachers' perceptions about the use and role of computer were investigated. The results of this study indicated that these teachers have positive attitudes to computer use and supported it as an instructional tool.

Ballester (2012) explored an intermediate level learners'
perceptions of use of a web-based multimedia program with real videos and tried to deal with its effectiveness and applicability in language teaching environment. From the data, it is calimed that learners improved their listening skills.
Most of the mentioned studies indicate the importance of computer technology and internet use in teaching and learning environment and they may help in motivating and improving teachers' and learners' outcomes. The results also showed that both EFL instructors and EFL teachers are inclined to have positive attitudes towards using the internet in their classroom and taking the results into consideration, it can be claimed that there is no statistically significant difference between both groups.
However, it can be said that EFL instructors seem to have more confidence in applying internet activities in their classrooms. Furthermore, the two most frequently used internet activities, according to EFL instructors' perceptions, are online dictionaries (72.7%) and web-surfing (56.8%), the two least frequently used activities are e-mail (3.3%) and text-chatting (3.3%), whereas the activities EFL teachers perceive, which were applied most are games (29.7) and quizzes (29%), where the least frequently used ones are emails (1.2%) and video-conferencing (1.7%). Moreover, the most significant barriers against using the internet were found to be the restrictions of time and limited computer facilities for both groups of participants.
Printed ISSN: 2336-2375 In view of the findings about qualitative analysis, data demonstrated three main themes: participants' view towards IALT; using the internet in language teaching; and barriers against internet usage. EFL teachers perceived managing internet use, internet disconnection or technical problems, internet illiteracy and lack of training as barriers to using the internet in their language instruction.
This current study was limited in the following ways. The first one was the small sample size of the participants; 30 EFL instructors from higher education institutions in different cities of Turkey, and 52 EFL teachers from state and private schools in Osmaniye in Turkey. More participants might have been generalisable to the population. Another limitation was that this study was confined to the descriptive data obtained from the questionnaire, and one open-ended question designed by Shin and Son (2007). To conclude, further research is required to specify the problems of EFL instructors and teachers regarding curriculum development, classroom management, teaching procedure in terms of the use of IALT in Turkish EFL contexts.