a comparative study of japanese and iranianstudents’ use of ict for language learningbeyond the classrooms

A large body of research show that the use of technology in technologically advanced andadvancing countries differs significantly and the users in the former act far better with technologythan the users in the latter. however, there is not enough report on how this usage differs in terms ofthe independent use of technology in a foreign language or for learning that language. accordingly,the present cross-cultural case study was conducted to compare and contrast the patterns of usingtechnology in two asian universities; one in japan (a technologically advanced country) and anotherone in iran (a technologically advancing country). the participants were 248 japanese and 235iranian students. the data was collected through an online questionnaire that gained informationabout students’ use of technology in everyday life in their l1 (japanese & persian) and in l2(english), students’ use of discipline-specific technology in english, students’ challenges withtechnology, and their future needs. the findings revealed that there is not a very significant differencebetween the patterns of using technology in japan and iran in both l1 and l2. the major differencewas that the japanese tended to use more information technologies in l1, while the iranians leanedtoward using communication technologies. it was also found that iranian students used technology inl2 more than the japanese do, especially in terms of communication technologies. challenges andfuture needs are discussed in the paper.