Developing digital literacies for second/foreign language teachers

One of the few positive outcomes from this global pandemic is an opportunity to rethink how digital technologies can be used to support teaching and learning in schools. Equally, after Brexit, one aspect that the UK needs to focus on is second/foreign language education as there is a strong need for global engagement and an additional language and knowledge about different cultures will enable people to achieve that.

Against this background, it is important to examine how digital literacies can be developed in S/FL education. Digital literacies can be understood as the practices of communicating, relating, thinking and 'being' associated with digital media. They involve skills such as evaluating materials, collaborating using digital tools and communicating effectively and critically through different media.

Teachers play an important role in developing these skills for students but they are not equipped with these skills. Besides, teacher preparation for technology use in language education either has neglected digital literacies or focused on learning the existing technologies rather than using creative and cutting-edge technologies which can change teaching and learning.

As a result, facing abundant resources (e.g. websites and apps), teachers often find it hard to choose the appropriate tools/materials. To date, research in digital literacies in second language education mainly focuses on theories behind technology use in language learning, the impact of particular technologies (e.g., social networking) on language areas and skills (e.g., writing) and teachers' and students' opinions.

Besides, the majority of work has been carried out with students in higher education and existing research in preparing and developing technology-proficient second language teachers still focuses on IT issues.

This project aims to bring together researchers and research users who are interested in promoting digital literacies of second language teachers in secondary schools to explore and propose research ideas or ways forward. We will also expand the existing work, gather evidence of digital literacies in second/foreign language teacher education and develop and consolidate plans for extensive intervention and evaluation projects.

The project will also allow researchers to share the best practice and enhance knowledge exchange across cultures, and raise awareness of language teachers in developing both digital literacies. Wider issues such as equal access, ethics and wellbeing around digital literacies will be explored too. We believe literacy as a social practice, so this networking opportunity will explore how digital literacies can be contextualized and practised in different social-cultural contexts, and what common issues can be identified to enable language teachers to develop such literacies and integrate technology appropriately in their classrooms.

We will address these issues by building a research team with expertise in second language teacher education, technology-enhanced language learning and effective pedagogies. We will develop four inter-related areas of work to address those issues, namely, a preliminary profiling project with a literature review and a survey with stakeholders, a seminar series consisting of four international seminars, two research visits and two focused 3-day workshops.

Users will be fully involved in the networking project. An important feature of this networking project is to involve teachers and policy-makers from the very start of the project so that they will contribute to both the formulation of the research strategy and the research itself. They will also be involved in research seminars and workshops. A follow-up practical workshop will also be designed for them.