Social Factors Affecting Technology Adoption by Second Language Learners

Abstract

Research on technology adoption tends to focus on factors such as technology access, technology proficiency, and attitudes towards technology. Social factors in a learner’s network, such as social access and social desire, although have been found to play a significant in people’s learning behaviors, are often times overlooked in research on technology adoption. By adopting the framework of social networks, this study investigated factors affecting the frequency of technology uses by L2 learners. The study found the average English proficiency of alters in their social network is a statistically significant predictor of the frequency of technology use by L2 learners. This result goes well with previous findings on the influence of social factors on teacher technology adoption.