CALL Teacher Training—Considerations for Low-Resource Environments

Abstract

The pandemic in 2020 has profoundly impacted millions of people all around the world. We have experienced intense disruption in our daily lives. We have lost loved ones, jobs, motivation, and precious time that could have been used more productively. The pandemic did not distinguish between borders, race, or gender. It affected everyone but not equally, unveiling socioeconomic differences within and across countries in access to robust health care, tolerable working environments, and other basic needs. Inevitably, the pandemic has also disrupted the normal course of the way we teach and learn, especially in English for Foreign Languages (EFL) contexts. Administrators and teachers needed to suddenly reconfigure their in-person classes for online teaching while students had to adjust to this new way of language learning. As Godwin-Jones (2020) envisaged, this widespread switch to distance learning seems likely to be the new normal rather than a one-time occurrence. Considering Hubbard and Levy’s (2006) concern that “both language teachers in training and practicing teachers will find themselves at a disadvantage if they are not adequately proficient in computer-assisted language learning,” it is now even more crucial for language teachers to develop skills, knowledge, and understanding of technology use in language teaching. As Oskoz and Smith (2020) pointed out, this new era in language teaching and learning provides a unique opportunity to investigate the affordances of technology and harmonize these affordances with learner, teacher, and curricular objectives. Thus, taking a fresh look at teacher training for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in order to see how these affordances can be better implemented, especially in low-resource contexts, seems like a perfect place to start. In this article, we first discuss some critical issues in CALL teacher education. Then we introduce an online CALL teacher education (CTE) course by explaining how these issues have been implemented in designing the course. We conclude by providing practical guidelines on how to design online professional development courses in the language teaching field.

Technology-enhanced higher education: Text mining and bibliometrics

“…Furthermore, OERs include a wide range of materials like lesson plans, textbooks, multimedia, and exams for instructors to improve their knowledge and abilities in instruction. OERs also provide a flexible learning environment that allows instructors to study at their speed and on their schedule, resulting in better teaching practices and learning outcomes through collaborative learning [ 62 , 63 ]. OERs can also be tailored to meet unique cultural or language demands, as well as different levels of competence.…”

The impact of the pandemic on student Spanish language proficiency

“…As mentioned, language proficiency has been defined by ACTFL as "what individuals can do with language in terms of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-rehearsed context" (ACTFL, 2012, p. 3). Karatay and Hegelheimer (2021) assert that the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed even low-resource environments to find ways to integrate technology into their language courses. Certainly, and as González-Lloret (2020); Gacs, Goertler and Spasova (2020); and others have asserted: Planned, intentional, and "collaborative" language learning will appear distinct from the "crisis-prompted" pedagogies taken up halfway through the spring 2020 semester.…”

Current Realities and Future Challenges for CALL Teacher Preparation

“…Teachers need to be prepared to use various tools and approaches for providing feedback for learners, in order to make it most salient and relevant (Elola & Oskoz, 2016). Karatay and Hegelheimer (2021) encourage instructors to design learning, so that learners experience different kinds of feedback at different points in a course. This allows instructors to optimize feedback to increase salience and improve uptake.…”