1. TITLE OF PROPOSED STUDY
Effects of Virtual Mediation on Tertiary Level EFL Student Conceptions, Regulations, Comprehension and Vocabulary Learning to Reading in Object Oriented Learning.
2. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In the era of knowledge economy, the key to international competition is the role of education for high quality human capital because of scientific and technological progress. Nowadays, the emergence of technology has greatly contributed to the shift in teaching reading in a second language. In the flourishing of educational technology and the proliferation of software programs and materials, teachers and students are expected to develop their computer literacy and use technology for teaching and learning reading, and need to understand how these technologies improve the learning process. The fast-growing advance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has made potential contributions to English language education for the past few decades. As a matter of fact, the use of technologies provides learners with unprecedented opportunities to practice English and involve themselves in authentic environments of language use (Kramsch & Thorne, 2002) since language teaching with digital technologies has not been transformed and many teachers have been reluctant to acknowledge this extended understanding of literacy.
Since the benefits that ICTs bring to English language learners are, for example, motivation enhancement (Schoepp & Erogul, 2001), learner independence (Frith, 2005), and acquisition of skills (Galavis, 1998), they have been adopted by a large number of educational institutions in many countries in the world (Buabeng-Andoh, 2012). Within the Ethiopian context, on account of seeing that ICTs are of utmost importance, the Ministry of Education has been delivered ICT subjects, computer laboratories, e-learning resources etc for different levels of educational institutions. In spite of the fact that much attention has been paid to the investment of technology in classrooms by universities in Ethiopia, adequate concern is not given to students’ and teachers ICT use as well as their conceptions of using ICT to study English. Maryam Alavi, Dorothy E. Leidner, (2001) argued that Universities and corporate training facilities have been investing in information technologies to improve education and training at an increasing rate during the past decade.
Students in Ethiopia want to believe that the education in their country is comparable to other nations. They become frustrated when their leaders do not make changes and improvements consistent with other nations (Fox, 2015). This reluctance to improve compels many of Ethiopia’s brightest students to seek educational opportunities elsewhere. They often do not return, thus, leaving their home nation as destitute as before (Shinn 2002). One key step toward improving the economy in developing nations is recognizing that educating and retaining native youth is crucial for future prosperity (Mains 2011? UNESCO 2011). Because of the 21st¬century digital world, connections with international educational opportunities are increasing at exponential rates. Furthermore, traditional education is an inadequate model to prepare students from developing nations to compete worldwide with various aspects.
Many new companies are emerging to provide tools and services to enable the effective design of IT-based learning solutions. Although research on technology-mediated learning has increased in recent years, it still lags behind developments in practice. Harmer (1991) also argues that students need to update themselves and use modern approaches to widen their perspectives. The past few years has witnessed a dramatic increase in the development of technology-based teaching and learning. For example, in the university landscape, a prominent change has been the increase in virtual course offerings and e-learning in Ethiopian secondary schools and tertiary institutions like Jimma University, Addis Abeba Science and Technology University and Bahir Dar University especially education and Psychology College & Law and land administration have launched Bahirdar University learning management system.
In higher education, the implications of changing reading practices for student learning may be quite serious, as engagement with knowledge and ideas through deeper interaction with texts is a core component of our education system (Wolf and Stoodley, 2007). Pew Research Centre study(2012) also found that 43% of adult respondents read e-books or other types of long-form textual content on their digital devices In this context, it is imperative to create digital mediated reading that provide the optimal conditions for human information interaction, supporting reader engagement, comprehension and learning. Pearson et al. note that reading is ‘strongly influenced
