Abstract:

Education opportunities are increasingly dependent on access to digital technology along with competence in the English language. Our British Council funded research aims to explore undergraduate students’ and teachers’ access to digital technology for learning and teaching languages, and their opportunities to learn the English language, in the four most populous countries in East and South Asia – Bangladesh, China, India, and Indonesia. With a focus on higher education and equality of opportunity, the two-phase longitudinal study will track and assess predictions and trends relating to teaching, assessment and learning of English (TALE) practices and the role of digital technology.

In this presentation, we will share our findings from the first phase of our study. In this phase, data was collected by local partners and their teams in each country through multiple sources, namely an online survey with 5695 undergraduate students and 328 teachers, focus group discussions with students (n=57), interviews with teachers (n=15), and Padlet discussions with students (n=49). Participants were first year students and their teachers from four broad discipline areas in a number of public and private universities in each country. Findings point to current trends of the use of technology for TALE, as well as students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the role of English and technology in promoting or reducing equality, diversity and inclusion in students’ access to quality learning in higher education. We have taken a particular interest in exploring any gender differences in attitudes and experiences, as well as perceptions of whether gender plays a role in educational opportunities in higher education. In addition, the presentation will elucidate the students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the role and value of English in the next ten years in their communities in general and higher education in particular, and it will suggest implications for policy and pedagogy.

Keywords:

Technology, education, gender.