Let’s Get Digital: ICT Training Needs in Pre-Service Language Teaching
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
MDPI
Materia
ICT Pre-service teacher training Foreign languages
Date
2023-12-13Referencia bibliográfica
Hughes, S.P.; Corral-Robles, S.; Ortega-Martín, J.L. Let’s Get Digital: ICT Training Needs in Pre-Service Language Teaching. Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 1238. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121238
Abstract
During the last five years, language teaching in Europe has been heavily influenced by
two major occurrences. On the one hand, the outbreak of COVID-19 forced teachers to extensively
adapt many of their teaching practices to the digital world; this major paradigm shift is likely to have
continued repercussions post-pandemic in terms of methodology and use of resources. At the same
time, the publication of an updated version of the Common European Framework, commonly known
as the Companion Volume focuses our attention on the real-life communicative needs of language
users. The Companion Volume emphasizes digital and online communication processes throughout
the development of language skills, and this focus inevitably translates into changes in national
and regional curricula for language education. The present study investigates the degree to which
future teachers are prepared for this new reality and explores emerging digital training needs among
pre-service teachers. The investigation obtains quantitative and qualitative data from 30 pre-service
teachers who have completed postgraduate studies in language education, which included a stage
of school-based teaching practice. Results indicate that while pre-service language teachers have a
positive view of ICT and moderate levels of general digital competence, they feel additional specific
and in-depth preparation is required within their initial training.