Abstract
In developing countries such as Eswatini, the availability of information and communication technology (ICT) instruments has experienced significant growth in recent years. As ICT becomes relevant across various areas of life, there is an urgent need for teachers to understand its use for subject teaching. This study aimed to investigate how ICT integration can be used to enhance the teaching of reading in Eswatini for high school learners by exploring teachers' views and practices of teaching reading and understanding in English and SiSwati. Due to the challenges that language teachers face when teaching reading comprehension to their learners in high school, it is key to include ICT in the teaching and learning of language. Eighteen teachers purposively designated from the four regions of Eswatini were selected to participate in this study. The interviews were based on the use and practice of using ICT to teach reading comprehension. Eighteen participants engaged in semi-structured interviews, and later focus group interviews to discuss their experiences of including ICT in their language lessons. The opinions expressed throughout the interviews were classified into themes. The Grounded Theory was the methodology applied in this investigation. The four key findings of this study were: (1) The study revealed that the participants were knowledgeable about the importance of including ICTs in their reading and comprehension lessons but lacked the availability of these tools due to socio-economic reasons; (2) some teachers had a negative attitude towards using ICT tools in their reading lessons and preferred traditional teaching tools, such as textbooks; (3) during the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile devices, such as mobile phones, allowed teachers and learners to share information required during this era but network availability and data cost issues hindered the teaching and learning exercise; and (4) teachers possess little knowledge of ICT tools for teaching reading and reading comprehension in the SiSwati and English languages. While there is a plethora of studies in the field, there is an absence of empirical research that has been undertaken to investigate the integration of ICT into teaching reading comprehension in both official languages of Eswatini. The study proposes a novel framework for integrating ICT into high school reading instruction in English and Siswati, providing educators and policymakers with a more precise understanding.
Keywords: English, Information Communication Technologies, Languages, Reading Comprehension, Siswati