Abstract:
The current context for the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching Asian languages, such as Japanese, has been identified as recent national and state priority for Australian schooling (DEECD, 2008; MCEETYA, 2008; VCAA, 2007c). Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are one especially complex form of ICT that has gained increasing popularity as an instructional aide for teaching Japanese as a second language. Yet, as a relatively recent innovation in schools (Hall & Higgins, 2005), little is known about teachers’ attitudes on the value of IWBs and their uses, especially in relation to Asian language education. The data presented in this analysis focuses on the first of a two-phase small-scale study that aimed to examine (a) how Victorian teachers of Japanese from Prep to Year 10 perceive the value of IWBs in government schools, and (b) how IWB practices compare in primary and secondary school settings. The first phase findings emerged from a survey of Japanese teachers in Victorian schools to elicit their responses to points made in the literature on the usefulness of IWBs in education. After a brief background on the use of IWBs in languages education, the paper presents an overview of the research design, including a description of the survey respondents as a group (i.e., IWB users and non-IWB users). We then present an analysis of the survey responses, before concluding with a summary of the implications these findings raise for the use of IWBs in teaching Japanese in Australian classrooms.