Practices, challenges, and prospects of e-learning at a Saudi university: English teachers’ perspectives

Abstract

This research aims to examine the practices of university English Language (EL) teachers in e-learning and to explore perspectives on the challenges and prospects of e-learning. It is an exploratory study which adopts a pragmatic paradigm and a mixed method approach to inquiry. A survey design and a phenomenological design are used in this research to investigate the use of technology by the teachers of EL at Umm AlQura University (UQU) in Saudi Arabia (SA) and to explore their lived experiences as well as their views in relation to the challenges and prospects of e-learning implementation. It uses both quantitative data taken from a closed-ended survey (N=43) and qualitative data taken from a Focus Group (FG) with ten university EL teachers who teach English for Specific Purposes (ESP, i.e. medical purposes) in a country where English is used as a foreign language. The research seeks to examine the university EL teachers’ practices of e-learning in their teaching and to explore their perspectives on the challenges and prospects of the implementation of e-learning.