E3-Electronic Education for English: developing mobile learning and teaching in Saudi Arabia

Mobile information and communication technologies (ICTs), with advanced capabilities,have created new prospects and opportunities, for both students and faculty who arelearning and teaching English as a foreign language, in higher education in Saudi Arabia.Technology acceptance theories and models have been widely developed, used andextended to determine the factors related to the acceptance of such technologies inspecific national and subject contexts. However, there have been very few studies of theacceptance of new ICTs in teaching and learning in the higher education context of SaudiArabia, in general; and none that relate to the teaching of English as a foreign language.To examine the readiness for, and acceptance of, mobile learning and teaching amongstudents and faculty at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia, a theory of technologyacceptance, developed for a consumer context, was used as the framework for this study;considering the participants as consumers of mobile technologies within an organization.This study utilised the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology(UTAUT2) model to identify the factors responsible for use behaviour and the behaviouralintention to use mobile technologies in learning and teaching English as a foreignlanguage. The research model hypothesized that Performance Expectancy, EffortExpectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, Hedonic Motivation, Price of Devices,Price of Services, and Habit will predict Behavioural Intentions to use mobile technologiesin learning and teaching EFL and Use Behaviour. It was also hypothesized that Age,Gender, and Experience will moderate the impact of the eight factors included in theresearch model. This model was empirically tested using data collected from 878 studentsand 65 faculty members by two cross-sectional surveys at Taibah University in SaudiArabia.The results of regression analyses indicated that the research model was partiallyconfirmed, and highlighted key variables as the driving forces of use behaviour andbehavioural intention to use mobile technologies in learning and teaching English as aforeign language.The findings of this empirical research provide crucial information that can guide theimplementation of proactive interventions to widely improve the practices of learning iiiand teaching; and greatly increase our understanding of the reasons for, andeffectiveness of, the adoption of mobile technologies in higher education in Saudi Arabia.More importantly, as English continues to develop as the global language of business andcommerce, and the lingua franca of academic and social media networks, the increasedeffectiveness of the use of mobile ICTs in teaching and learning English that results fromthis research will enable Saudi students to operate as global citizens within the emergingworld knowledge economy, and increase significantly the human capital return on thesubstantial investments in such mobile technologies by the government of Saudi Arabiaand its universities.