The Future of Education

Jordan is an Arab country where English is the first foreign language and French is second, but French language is taught in most private schools, in some public schools and in three private universities as well as three public ones.

Lately, we have noticed a rise in demand for French at the universities. The Ministry of Education also began to give more importance to this language since the number of schools that teach it has risen to 99 public schools and 88 private ones.

It has been subjectively observed that there are difficulties in teaching French in the Jordanian schools. The most important problem is in teaching methodologies. Our previous research has shown that methodologies and educational resources used in Jordan are mainly traditional.

Educational technology has spread tremendously, and the use of technology for foreign language instruction has also expanded rapidly all over the world. Many studies investigated the effect of technology-enhanced instruction on achievement and student attitudes. (Salaberry, 2001).

Stepp-Greany identified these benefits of using technology in classroom: “increased motivation, improvement in self-concept and mastery of basic skills, more student-centered learning and engagement in the learning process, and more active processing, resulting in higher-order thinking skills and better recall.” (Jonita Stepp-Greany, 2002)

This research aims to investigate to what extent students and professors use information technology in teaching and learning French at the University of Jordan. It intends to evaluate the effect that tools have on the teaching/learning of this language in the Department of French at this University.

To do so, we will limit our study sample to third year students majoring in French because this is when they start doing extended writing as in research papers and essays.

The research method we will use is a mix between questionnaires and interviews, the first provides evidence of trends, and the second gives us more information about attitudes, thoughts, and actions.

The findings of this research should be useful in improving the methods of French teaching/learning in our country. It can also be useful in preparing training programs for professors in the field of technology and syllabus design.