ICT beyond the Language Classroom in Technologically Advanced and Advancing Countries: The Case of Japan and Iran

It is believed that there is a significant difference between the use of technology in technologically advanced and advancing countries, and the users in the former act far better with technology than the users in the latter. However, there is not enough report on how this usage differs in terms of the independent use of technology in a foreign language or for learning that language. Therefore, the present cross-cultural case study was conducted to compare and contrast the patterns of using technology in two Asian universities, one in Japan (a technologically advanced country) and another in Iran (a technologically advancing country). The participants were 248 Japanese and 235 Iranian students. The data were collected through an online questionnaire that gained information about students’ use of technology in everyday life in their L1 (Japanese & Persian) and in L2 (English), students’ use of discipline-specific technology in English, and their attitudes toward the use of technology for language learning. The findings revealed that there is not a very significant difference between the patterns of using technology in Japan and Iran in both L1 and L2. The major difference was that the Japanese tended to use more information technologies in L1, while the Iranians leaned toward communication technologies. It was also found that Iranian students used technology in L2 more than the Japanese, especially in terms of communication technologies.