Language Teacher Development in Technology Integration: Exploration, Communication, Collaboration, and Reflection

Abstract

It is essential for second/foreign/additional language teachers to develop their competence in the use of digital technologies for language teaching in digital environments. This article explores language teacher development in technology integration in terms of exploration, communication, collaboration, and reflection (ECCR). It presents the results of two case studies that investigated how language teachers explore, communicate, collaborate, and reflect for technology-enhanced language teaching (TELT), how they approach ECCR, how much they engage with ECCR activities, and what they need in order to improve their competence in TELT. Data were collected from online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with groups of in-service language teachers in Hong Kong in Study 1 and Taiwan in Study 2. Findings indicate that the teachers in both studies are engaged with various ECCR activities with different interests and competencies in their contexts. They enhance our understanding of language teacher development and provide practical implications for research and practice.

Keywords

• Language teacher development
• professional development
• computer-assisted language learning
• technology-enhanced language teaching
• online activities