Beyond engagement: Interactive response systems, student attitudes, and technology acceptance in University EFL classrooms

Interactive Response Systems (IRS) are increasingly used in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms to support participation, feedback, and interaction. However, less is known about how IRS-supported instruction influences students’ broader classroom attitudes and how students’ acceptance of IRS can be explained from a technology-acceptance perspective. This study examined whether changes in university EFL students’ classroom attitudes differed between an IRS-supported intact class and a traditional-instruction intact class, and investigated whether perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and prior technological experience predicted students’ attitudes toward IRS. A quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test control-group design was adopted with 102 undergraduate students at a Chinese university. One intact class received IRS-supported instruction through the Unipus platform (n = 51), while another received traditional instruction without IRS integration (n = 51). Student attitudes were measured across eight dimensions: learning atmosphere, participation, attention, confidence, interactivity with teacher, interactivity with peers, learning support, and learning achievement/satisfaction. Mixed-design ANOVA showed significant Group × Time interaction effects across all dimensions, indicating greater attitudinal improvement in the IRS-supported group. Follow-up post-test comparisons also showed significantly more positive attitudes in the IRS-supported group, with medium to large effect sizes. Regression analysis showed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use significantly predicted attitudes toward IRS, whereas prior technological experience did not. The model explained 40.2% of the variance. These findings suggest that IRS-supported instruction may provide additional pedagogical support for improving EFL students’ classroom attitudes when meaningfully integrated into lesson design.