A Phenomenological Case Study of Professional Development Experiences of ELT Faculty at Tertiary Level in the United Arab Emirates

Aims and Objectives

The proposed study’s primary aim is to examine how ICT deployments in educational institutions can be made sustainable to aid ELT instructors in English language instruction in the UAE. To achieve this aim the proposed study has developed the following primary research question;
How can ICT efforts in tertiary level education be made sustainable for English language training?
The primary research question is accompanied by the following secondary research questions answered in the proposed study.

1. What is the extent of integration of educational technology in English language teaching at the Tertiary level in the UAE, and what factors contributed to the adoption of educational technologies to facilitate ELT practices?
2. Has the use of technology improved the overall English language learning experiences of the students?
3. What is the impact of using educational technology on teachers; what are their experiences and how has this changed their perceptions, attitudes and beliefs about the teaching and learning process?
4. What is the future of educational technology as a strategy for enhancing English learning processes in the UAE?

The research question and aim will be achieved through the following objectives;

1. Use primary and secondary research to collect data and information on the proposed topic of study.
2. Examine how ICT can be made sustainable in terms of cost, policy, resources, and re-purpose.
3. Analyse the instructor experience of using ICT in English language training.
4. Examine factors that facilitated the adoption of educational technologies to promote ELT practice in the tertiary level English language learning institutions in the UAE

Rationale

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is placed in a strategic location for trade, allowing multiple languages to thrive in its vicinity. English medium instruction is one of the core concepts upheld in federally funded tertiary education institutes (Rogier, 2012). To extend and provide improved English instruction, it is essential to incorporate ICT and other technologies for teaching and learning the English language. Sustainability is often described as an education ecosystem’s ability to maintain scholastic processes, functions, diversity, and productivity into the future. To look at it in a practical level, ELT faculty needs to introduce information and communication technologies in existing educational ecosystems so that they may absorb it and own the change (Howard et al., 2016). As per the current understanding, no literature examines sustainable technology integration in English language training in the UAE (Howard et al., 2016). By conducting the proposed study, the current status of technology/ICT can be examined at the tertiary level to recommend strategies that further its beneficial use. It is also important to examine how ELT faculty in the UAE can use ICT for training pupils in the English language.

Methodology

Research Design

The proposed research looks to adopt a qualitative phenomenological case study approach. The phenomenological approach is being used to understand the topic of interest from the everyday knowledge and perceptions of specific respondent groups (Vinke et al., 1998). By using this approach, researchers have an initial knowledge about the topic. They are interested in the development of an in-depth comprehension or clarification of potentially conflicting or equivocal information from previous data (Stake, 1995). Denscombe (2004) argues that it is not primarily concerned with explaining the causes of things; instead, it describes how things are experienced first-hand by the typical world by those that are involved. Yin (2003) argues that the case study is a particular style of educational research appropriate for investigating the concept of professional development instructors and teachers. Stake (1995) asserts the benefit of using a qualitative case study methodology which arises from its emphasis on the uniqueness of each case and the educator’s subjective experience of the case.