Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their use of an intelligent tutoring system for English language proficiency

Abstract

Language proficiency of university students is a contentious issue in South Africa because many students are not studying in their home language and are required to be academically proficient in a language that is not their own. This takes on a new dimension for pre-service teachers studying to become English home language teachers. A further challenge is the increasing numbers of students entering higher education and the lack of resources available to support low performing or at-risk students. This study aimed to examine pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their use of an Intelligent Tutoring System as it was incorporated in an English language module in a Bachelor of Education degree. This ITS was used as an English language proficiency tool and the perceptions of its use by pre-service teachers, were viewed through the lens of Engeström’s second generation Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. Rooted in the pragmatism paradigm, a sequential mixed methods approach was therefore designed to analyse and interpret the relationships between the CHAT nodes, using cross-sectional surveys in the quantitative phase and semi-structured interviews in the qualitative phase of the study. The surveys were designed to uncover initial patterns in the quantitative data, with thematic coding used in the qualitative phase to uncover themes and concepts. This was done to explore the interrelationships between the nodes in depth, and to understand how the tensions and contradictions that existed in the Activity System were perceived by the pre-service teachers when using an ITS that was designed to improve their language proficiency. The findings of the study showed that the participants’ perceptions of the ITS when introduced into an Activity System were positive. This was despite the participants strongly favouring face-to-face learning, and experiencing tensions related to digital literacy. While perceiving that the ITS mimicked aspects of what a human tutor does, their overall perception was that it did not effectively mimic a human tutor. The participants however, perceived that the ITS was: a.) an excellent tool for learning, b.) interesting to use, c.) a tool that assisted with their language proficiency, and, d.) a tool that could assist them in reaching their goals and objectives. The overall perception was that the ITS as a tool was particularly good and effective for improving language proficiency.