Designing a course of instructional technology for teachers of English as a foreign language

Camino Bueno-Alastuey, Public University of Navarre, Spain

Abstract: Providing teachers of English with the appropriate knowledge about both the technological and the pedagogical affordances of the enormous array of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) available to make the learning process more authentic and student-centred should be an important aim for teacher training programs in every country.

Furthermore, considering that “as the options multiply, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the diversity [and that] the need to be able to select and to match tool to task with clarity and foresight is becoming even more demanding for all users” (Levy, 2009, p. 781), that there is international research indicating that teachers are not satisfied with the formal training in ICT that they have received (Rokenes, & Krumsvik, 2016; Taghizadeh, & Basirat, 2022) and that teacher’s knowledge and skills associated with technology seem to play a significant role in contributing to classroom technology integration (Tondeur et al., 2018), reporting on the design of formal training courses in ICT, and analysing students´ perspectives about that training seem quite important. However, there is a dearth of studies focusing on the design and evaluation of ICT courses for foreign language teachers that needs to be addressed by reflecting on the content and format of teacher training in CALL and CMC.

In this talk, we will first reflect upon the rationale and the considerations to be considered for an effective design and evaluation of a course of instructional technology for foreign language teachers. Secondly, the appropriateness of the different technologies available and the different possibilities of presenting them detailing the criteria behind our final syllabus design will be stated. Thirdly, a description of the course together with the evaluation system adopted will be provided. And, finally, the students´ perceptions about the program will be analysed based on information from their portfolios and the answers to the end of course evaluation survey.

Pedagogical and technological considerations will be drawn from the course evaluation and future improvements will be proposed to maximise pedagogical reflection.

Levy, M. (2009) Technologies in Use for Second Language Learning. The Modern Language Journal, 93: 769–782.

Rokenes, F. M., & Krumsvik, R. J. (2016). Prepared to teach ESL with ICT? A study of digital competence in Norwegian teacher education. Computers & Education, 97, 1–20.

Taghizadeh, M., & Basirat, M. (2022). Investigating pre-service EFL teachers’ attitudes and challenges of online teaching. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 1-38.

Tondeur, J., Aesaert, K., Prestridge, S., & Consuegra, E. (2018). A multilevel analysis of what matters in the training of pre-service teacher's ICT competencies. Computers & Education, 122, 32-42.