COMPUTER RESOURCES VS. ORDINARY PROCEDURES OF VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION: A STUDY OF IRANIAN HIGH SCHOOL EFL LEARNERS INTEGRATING ICT RESOURCES

Human beings have always been interested in learning and/ or acquiring a second language. The role of learning vocabulary in English as a second or foreign language (ESL or EFL) context is crucial and cannot be ignored. Research studies done on first and/ or second /foreign language (L2) vocabulary acquisition have changed the researchersʹ focus toward several significant topics such as what it means to know a word, how many words natives know and how they acquire, which words learners need to know to use in another language, and how they should apply them in meaningful communication. The present study intended to explore the possible effects of teachersʹ attitudes and perception towards integrating information and communication technology(ICT) resources into language instruction. Two groups of teachers were invited to cooperate with the researcher, those who were interested in applying ICT resources and those who selected ordinary processes of language instruction. Their students were appointed into experimental and control groups, two in each considering their gender to see the possible differences between males and females performance in vocabulary learning. After the treatment, the students were required to take part in immediate and delayed post-tests. The obtained results showed that the students whose teachers had positive attitudes and perceptions towards integrating ICT resources had a better performance than those whose teachers neither had positive attitudes nor were eager to use ICT resources. The results also revealed that through integrating ICT resources, teachers can help their students strengthen their vocabulary acquisition and as a result, have a better view of reading comprehension and communicate with each other more efficiently. Furthermore, the results indicated that girls outperformed in their immediate and post-tests when their teachers have positive attitudes towards integrating ICT resources into vocabulary instruction.