E-learning: development of a model to assess the acceptance and readiness of technology among language learners

Abstract

In recent decades, the rapid advances in technology have led many researchers to investigate the factors influencing its successful implementation in different fields. The current study, hence, aimed to identify the factors affecting e-learning acceptance and readiness in the context of foreign language learning. By reviewing the related literature, a number of hypotheses were formed and a framework was developed. A number of university students majoring in English teaching were asked to fill out the study’s quantitative survey. The collected data were analyzed using smart partial least squares (smartPLS) software. The results indicated the complex relationships between the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, e-learning motivation, online communication self-efficacy and language learners' acceptance and readiness of e-learning. Furthermore, the findings revealed that perceived enjoyment did not have influence on e-learning acceptance and readiness among language learners through the mediating role of perceived usefulness.

Keywords:

• Technology acceptance model
• technology readiness
• smartPLS

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marzieh Rafiee

Marzieh Rafiee is a PhD graduate student at the University of Isfahan, Iran. She received her MA in TEFL at the University of Isfahan (2010) following the completion of her BA in English Literature from University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran (2008). She teaches in the English Language Department at the Islamic Azad University of Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran. She has taught courses of variegated characters, including academic and advanced writing, language learning skills and computer mediated language learning, for years. She is the author of a number of books in this respect as well. She has also published a good number of articles on academic writing, contrastive rhetoric and language learning skills in local and international journals. Her current research interests include critical contrastive rhetoric, EFL learners' willingness to write and e-learning education.

Salman Abbasian-Naghneh

Salman Abbasian-Naghneh received the Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Shahrekord University in 2005, the Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics (operation research) from Tarbiat Moallem University in 2008 and Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics (operation research) from Islamic Azad University in 2013. He is now university professor at Islamic Azad University in Iran. His research is mainly in the field of Multi Criteria Decision Making, Data Envelopment Analysis, Operation Research, Fuzzy Logic, Soft Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining.