Pre-service language teachers’ technobiographies: understanding digital practices

Abstract

Digital technology is present in many areas of 21st century society, including education. However, not enough attention has been paid to pre-service language teachers’ life history in relation to technology - their technobiographies. To identify these digital practices, a case study was carried out with pre-service language teachers, analyzing how they choose digital tools to learn a foreign language and their impressions about what is available online. The aim of this study is to add to the available literature in the field of Educational Technology, concentrating on pre-service language teachers’ experiences with digital technology. As a qualitative piece of research on Computer Assisted Language Learning, this study used technobiographies as data. The analysis shows that participants were concerned about the contents of the selected website or the app to learn the chosen language. Access features and available placement tests were also investigated. The findings suggest that understanding digital practices and online learning experiences could benefit the construction of a meaningful training curriculum aimed at professional development and future practice.