CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
In the current era, information spreads rapidly and this makes it easy to access the information. Development of information technologies surely has a great contribution on this. Information technologies making a rapid progress especially at the end of twentieth century started to assert itself in educational field in addition to all fields (Sahin & Akeay, 2011). Integration of technology with lectures has become inevitable for effective training. It became important for educators to use information technologies whose effects started to be seen especially on educational training activities applied in educational environment and structure of educational system, effectively. In this respect, it is important for educators to adopt technology, to follow closely and to exhibit a positive attitude towards the use of technology in the classroom. Therefore, to reveal the attitudes of educators towards educational technologies in education is important and necessary in terms of ensuring required conditions for efficient use of new technologies in education (Pala, 2006).
English language is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, it ultimately derives its name from the Anglia (Angeln) peninsula in the Baltic Sea. It is closely related to the Frisian languages, but its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic Language), as well as by Latin and French (Finkenstaedt, Thomas, Dieter & Wolff, 1973). English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman Conquest of England and was a period in which the language was influenced by French (Crystal 2003). Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel Shift (“How English evolved into global language.” BBC. 20 December, 2010). Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries. Through all types of printed and electronic media and spurred by the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation and law. It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. There are more people who have learned it as a second language than there are native speakers. English is the most commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, and it is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia (Crystal 2003).