An investigation of the Psychological Factor of Technophobia and Computer Literacy in Instructors of Persian to Non-native Learners

With the globalization of Technology and the rapid development of the information technology, using computers and other technological tools in teaching is of utmost significance. Following this line of approach, teachers and instructors in the field of teaching language should also use these tools to enhance effective teaching. The finding of research studies indicate that although most teachers and instructors are willing to utilize these tools in teaching language skills, they refuse to do it due to their fear/phobia towards the use of technology tools in their classrooms. Therefore, the thrust of the present paper had been to investigate the ‘how’ of the probable relationship between the technophobia and computer literacy variables in the instructors of Persian/Farsi to non-native learners. To this end, 40 instructors of the two centers of teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers were randomly selected using the convenience sampling technique. They were then asked to respond to three questionnaires of demographic information, assessment of the level of Computer Literacy developed by Son, Robb, Charismiadji (2011) and Computer Anxiety by Rosen and Weil (1995). The findings showed a significant (at 0.05 probability level) and negative relationship between the two variables i.e. the fear of technology or technophobia and computer literacy. In other words, teachers with more computer literacy, had less fear of technology (Technophobia). That is, those language instructors/teachers who had more fear of technology or were more technophobic, had lower levels of computer literacy. The results of the present study provided the educational planners/stakeholders with some strategies for educating teachers/instructors of Persian and posed some suggestions for a more efficient process of teaching Persian language based on the new needs of the use of technology in education.