The Role of Language Teacher Beliefs in an Increasingly Digitalized Communicative World

Author(s):  
Geoff Lawrence

This chapter discusses the role of the language teacher and their beliefs in realizing the potential that rapidly evolving technology-mediated tools offer second/additional language learning (L2) in an increasingly digitalized world. The promise and pressures of technology integration are first discussed highlighting the need for new approaches to pedagogy in technology-mediated L2 teaching. Factors contributing to teacher resistance are then reviewed including the unique qualities of educational resistance to technology. Research identifying the nature of teacher beliefs from a range of studies is examined along with a conceptual framework illustrating the interconnected factors shaping L2 teacher beliefs and behaviour towards educational technology. Recommendations for effective approaches to technology-directed language teacher education and areas of needed research conclude the chapter.

2020 ◽  
pp. 774-794
Author(s):  
Geoff Lawrence

This chapter discusses the role of the language teacher and their beliefs in realizing the potential that rapidly evolving technology-mediated tools offer second/additional language learning (L2) in an increasingly digitalized world. The promise and pressures of technology integration are first discussed highlighting the need for new approaches to pedagogy in technology-mediated L2 teaching. Factors contributing to teacher resistance are then reviewed including the unique qualities of educational resistance to technology. Research identifying the nature of teacher beliefs from a range of studies is examined along with a conceptual framework illustrating the interconnected factors shaping L2 teacher beliefs and behaviour towards educational technology. Recommendations for effective approaches to technology-directed language teacher education and areas of needed research conclude the chapter.


Author(s):  
Geoff Lawrence

This article will discuss the crucial role of the language teacher and their beliefs in realizing the potential that rapidly evolving technology-mediated tools offer second/additional language learning. Factors contributing to teacher resistance will be reviewed including the unique pedagogical demands of continually evolving technology-mediated communication tools and learning environments. Research identifying the nature of teacher beliefs will be discussed along with a proposed theoretical framework defining the interconnected factors contributing to teacher beliefs and behaviour towards educational technology. Recommendations for effective approaches to technology-directed language teacher development will be summarized along with recommendations on further research required.


Author(s):  
Geoff Lawrence

This article will discuss the crucial role of the language teacher and their beliefs in realizing the potential that rapidly evolving technology-mediated tools offer second/additional language learning. Factors contributing to teacher resistance will be reviewed including the unique pedagogical demands of continually evolving technology-mediated communication tools and learning environments. Research identifying the nature of teacher beliefs will be discussed along with a proposed theoretical framework defining the interconnected factors contributing to teacher beliefs and behaviour towards educational technology. Recommendations for effective approaches to technology-directed language teacher development will be summarized along with recommendations on further research required.


Author(s):  
Leena Kuure ◽  
Maritta Riekki ◽  
Riikka Tumelius

Nexus analysis is becoming increasingly employed in a variety of research fields. It is seen to be particularly suited to exploring complex and changing phenomena. It entails a mediated discourse perspective to social action and interaction. In discourse studies, this involves switching the perspective from language to social semiotic meaning making in its full spectrum not only here and now but at the same time reaching across more distant spatial and temporal orientations. As the tradition of nexus analysis is still young there are no established interpretations of how to conduct research with an interest in such complexities in flux. This paper presents a review of studies in which nexus analysis or mediated discourse analysis has been applied in research related to language pedagogy and language teacher education. The review shows how research in the field is in emergence and the interpretations concerning the theoretical-methodological underpinnings vary to some extent.


2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-601
Author(s):  
Manel Lacorte

This volume is a valuable contribution to the field of language teacher education (LTE) because of its innovative approach to language learning and teaching as well as its consistent organization. As noted in the introduction, the book is intended for language teachers “who will make, or have made, the step from teaching to training” (p. 1). To this end, the author relates the teachers' experience and understanding of the classroom context to a broadly social constructivist perspective, based on the relevance of the personal and social dimensions of learning to teach.


Author(s):  
Marianna Levrints

The unprecedented growth in the quantity, as well as quality of publications on language teacher education supported by the domain’s increasing experiential background opens up new avenues for enhancing the effectiveness of foreign language teacher education in Ukraine. Hence, the present paper aims at analyzing and singling out recurrent research themes, defining the mainstream approaches of the field of language teacher education, which constitute the emerging theoretical foundations of the field’s knowledge base. The review of the state-of-the-art publications has enabled the specification of the following research areas, pertinent to foreign language teacher education: language teacher cognition, the knowledge base of language teachers, language teacher identity, reflection, language teacher research and action research, language teacher professionalism, the role of teacher education, effectiveness of teaching, expertise, competence, teacher development and some others. The analysis of research suggests overall proliferation of the number of studies on the problem of language teacher education during the past 30˗40 years. Nevertheless, the comparison of the volume of studies highlighting general aspects of teacher education to those specifically related to foreign/second language teacher education reveals the quantitative advantage of the former. More efforts are needed at elaborating language teacher focused issues which stem from the nature of foreign language as a discipline, the socio-cultural role of language teachers and the role of foreign language in particular. Further limitations of the field-related research base, include: 1) a rather small proportion of empirical studies, necessary to provide informed answers for important questions of language teacher education; 2) the majority of available empirical studies are small-scale and contextually limited, which excludes the possibility of generalizations; 3) the field’s overall reliance on traditions, intuition and practical experience, with little regard for theoretical foundations; 4) paucity of research that present systematic complex generalizations of the field’s knowledge base;


ReCALL ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda Dooly ◽  
Randall Sadler

AbstractThis article presents a pedagogical design for teacher education that combines flipped materials, in-class instruction, and telecollaboration (also known as virtual exchange) for foreign language teacher education. The context of this study is a course on technology and language learning for future teachers in which the flipped classroom concept was applied to technology-infused collaborative teacher training between future ESL/EFL instructors located at two partner universities (one in the USA, one in Europe). The three main teaching approaches (flipped materials, in class, and telecollaborative, or “FIT”) were symbiotic in that each structure reinforced the other through reception, discussion, and reflection as a means to help the student teachers bridge the gap between theory and practice. We apply classroom ethnographic discourse analysis to data sources (face-to-face and online discussion groups, student e-portfolios) to look at uptake of ideas, conceptual understanding, and successful transfer of new knowledge, and thereby identify whether the design provides significant learning opportunities for the future teachers. Although most studies of telecollaboration in language teacher education look principally at output, this approach allows an in-depth look at the learning process as knowledge is developed collaboratively between the participants.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Kubanyiova

Language learning happens across many sites of social interactions; those scarred by injustices, conflicts and structural violence as well as those characterized by conviviality of human encounters and acts of welcoming the stranger. This article outlines new directions for language teacher education in this age of ambiguity. I propose that its core task should involve educating ‘responsive meaning makers in the world’, that is, teachers who are critically conscious of the politics of their social worlds while, at the same time, committed to growing their capacity to respond to the particular moment of an educational encounter. I suggest that creative arts may play a crucial part in preparing language teachers for such re-envisioned roles.


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