Exploring Chinese Secondary School Students’ Acceptance of Live Video-Streamed Teaching Platforms in EFL Class: An Application of the Technology Acceptance Model

Abstract

Live video-streamed teaching platforms are widely used in language teaching. However, how students perceive these platforms has scarcely been investigated. By adopting the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study investigated Chinese secondary school students’ perceptions of the platforms (i.e., Tencent meeting, Tencent classroom and Dingtalk) being adopted in English as a foreign language (EFL) class. Gender and age differences were also investigated. Data were collected from 602 students; the results showed the following: (1) The acceptance level of all the participants was high for the five variables in TAM, i.e., perceived ease of use (PEU), perceived usefulness (PU), attitude (ATT), computer self-efficacy (CSE) and behavioral intention to use (BI), but with significant individual differences. There existed no gender differences, while age differences existed between junior high school students and those from senior high school. (2) The five variables were correlated with each other significantly. In addition, CSE, PEU, PU and ATT can predict BI in parallel. (3) The relationship between CSE and BI was mediated by PEU, PU and ATT. Also, PU had the strongest mediating effect, with PEU and ATT exerting slightly lower effects. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed at the end.