Empowering EFL Student Teachers through Pedagogical Engagements within an Elective CALL Course

Abstract

In Turkey, most English as a Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers graduate from teacher education institutions largely without receiving training on educational technology. The latest developments in educational technology however have urged the need for teacher candidates to have certain theoretical and practical knowledge so that they will not suffer from some technology-related intimidation in their future teaching. Considering this lack in EFL teacher education curriculum, and our students' observed needs and challenges in using technology for education, we decided to design an elective Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) course for a group of EFL student teachers. This article reports on a small-scale action research study aiming to empower future EFL teachers in terms of technology-enhanced language teaching and learning. Thus, throughout the course, we provided them with theoretical knowledge and hands-on experiences on using Web 2.0 tools. To collect data, we used interviews and reflective journals. The findings showed EFL student teachers were well-aware of their indispensable need for technology use. Although they found themselves inadequate in terms of integrating technology into language teaching in the beginning, they felt more confident following the course. To conclude, both theoretical knowledge and the practices on Web 2.0 tools during such courses are of great help and deeply needed practices for EFL student teachers whose technological competence might then better professionally develop. (c) Association of Applied Linguistics. All rights reserved