E3-ELECTRONIC EDUCATION FOR ENGLISH: TOWARDS A KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY IN SAUDI ARABIA

Mobile information and communication technologies (ICTs), with advanced capabilities, have created new prospects and opportunities, for both students and faculty who are learning and teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), in higher education in Saudi Arabia. Technology acceptance theories and models have been widely developed, used and extended to determine the factors related to the acceptance of such technologies in specific national and subject contexts. To examine the readiness for, and acceptance of, mobile learning and teaching among students and faculty in Saudi Arabia, the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), developed for a consumer context, was used as the framework for this study; considering the participants as consumers of mobile technologies within an organization. The results indicated that the research model was partially confirmed, and highlighted key variables as the driving forces of use behaviour and behavioural intention to use mobile technologies in learning and teaching EFL. The findings of this empirical research provide crucial information that can guide the implementation of proactive interventions to widely improve the practices of learning and teaching; and greatly increase our understanding of the reasons for, and effectiveness of, the adoption of mobile technologies in higher education in Saudi Arabia. More importantly, as English continues to develop as the global language of business and commerce, and the lingua franca of academic and social media networks, the increased effectiveness of the use of mobile ICTs in teaching and learning English that results from this research will enable Saudi students to operate as global citizens within the emerging world knowledge economy, and increase significantly the human capital return on both the substantial investments in such mobile technologies, and in EFL teaching by the government of Saudi Arabia and its universities.