INVESTIGATING TEACHERS' ACTUAL LEVELS OF USE OF WHATSAPP APPLICATION WITH ENGLISH FOUNDATION AND CREDIT PROGRAM STUDENTS AT SULTAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY IN OMAN

As of recently, mobile technology has been widely used by many students across the educational world to access various types of resources where they can regularly practice the skills of English language acquisition, i.e., speaking, reading, listening, and writing. This has been achieved by using many communication tools, such as internet browsing, social networks interaction and smartphones applications. With such innovations, communication among students has become more convenient. WhatsApp smartphones application, as one of these innovative tools, has made interaction and communication among people within societies, in general, and among students and teachers, in particular, more easy, open, informal, and accessible. This paper aims to investigate the teachers' levels of actual use of the WhatsApp smartphone application with their own students who are studying in the English foundation and credit programs at Sultan Qaboos University. In this study, the survey research method was employed for data collection. The Level of Use Self-Assessment (LoUSA) questionnaire was used to obtain a holistic picture of the teachers' levels of actual use of the WhatsApp application. This study found that the majority of teachers were in the middle area and almost equally distributed at the Use Level representing the Mechanical use level (III), and the Routine Level (IVA). However, there were a big number of teachers who were at the Non-use Level (0), and none of the teachers were at the Integration Level (V), and the Renewal Level (VI) of the Use Level.