Investigating the Opinions of the Teachers Teaching Persian to Non-Persian Speakers Regarding the Use of Internet-based Technologies in Electronic Education

In recent years, due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the world, especially Iran, has encountered new conditions. In such a situation, the use of Internet-based technologies in Persian language teaching has been given more attention. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the use of different technologies in learning the four skills of the Persian language, and to know the teachers' point of view concerning the advantages and disadvantages of technology, challenges and limitations, and in general the weaknesses and strengths of electronic education compared to traditional education. To this end, an open-ended questionnaire was designed and distributed among 63 language teachers teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers in different Persian language education centers. The findings of the present research indicate that most of the teachers consider the use of technology in Persian language teaching to be effective and only a few of them consider it to be ineffective. Regarding the advantages of electronic language teaching and the use of technology in teaching and learning, mainly the teachers focus on flexibility in terms of time and place, saving time and money, lack of stress and anxiety of isolated language learners, easy access to unlimited resources, creativity in teaching and learning, learners' access to educational files and the possibility of reviewing lessons have been mentioned. Concerning the disadvantages and challenges of this type of education, most of the instructors have pointed out the lack of face-to-face interaction, the lack of cooperation between the language learner and the teacher, the lack of student concentration during teaching, the lack of quick feedback, the internet outage and its slow speed, and the greater possibility of cheating in exams.