A Critical Review of Barriers to Technology Integration Faced by Teachers in First Language Teaching at Secondary Schools in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The use of technology in first language (Sinhala and Tamil) instruction in Sri Lanka has unique problems which educational studies and policies have never addressed. In this critical assessment, the problems faced by the teachers are analyzed with the help of the first-order and second-order barriers approach created by Ertmer (1999). The research employed the multi-source method of secondary data. It is a methodology that involves academic journals, reports, and accounts of professional practitioners. The barriers to technology integration were found in this paper. In this vein, poor infrastructural development, incompetence of linguistically related high-end software, inflexibility of curriculum and the entrenched pedagogical ideals are greatly limiting the participation of the teachers in integrating technology in the first language teaching. Areas of discrepancy include Sinhala and Tamil Unicode rendering problems, the digital divide and subject-specific professional growth. The review has offered a categorical structure of distinguishing resource-induced restrictions against teacher-induced restrictions and gives advice to legislators, schools, and professionals. The possibility of technological change to amplify inequalities and marginalise the lingual history of Sri Lanka will exist unless these language-related issues are appropriately identified.