Jeong-Bae Son,Teacher development in technology-enhanced language teaching

Reviewed by: Arif Bakla, Cumhuriyet University, Turkey

Teacher Development in Technology-Enhanced Language Teaching is an excellent source, not only for learning about technology-enhanced language teaching (TELT) but also for teaching this popular subject to teacher trainees. Being an experienced teacher, teacher educator and researcher in computer-assisted language learning (CALL), the author uses his know-how to put forward worthwhile ideas to help the reader practice TELT in teacher education. The book is a unique blend that brings together main components of pedagogy and technology in language teaching to develop theory, research and practice in language teacher education. Justifiably, the author presents a long list of potential readership (pp. xix–xx), including but not limited to in-service and pre-service teachers, researchers and postgraduate students and anyone who might be interested in mastering or honing their skills in TELT.

This volume is composed of three parts which are devoted to the context, activities and resources, respectively. To set the scene, the book initially provides a general panorama of the use of technology in language teacher education by discussing the shifts in various paradigms represented by instructional technologies (see Figure 1.1, p. 4). The author also describes recent trends in CALL research and discusses the scope of CALL teacher training. The remainder of the chapter is quite significant as it mainly deals with the essential knowledge and skills to teach in CALL teacher education and how to teach them. Based on an earlier work of the author, Chapter 2 highlights several teacher roles for successful implementation (teachers as observers, designers, implementers and evaluators, managers and researchers in CALL). Table 2.1 (p. 33) presents an excellent summary of the actions that these roles imply. The best side of this role-based approach is that the author suggests some resources that illustrate or provide tools for the implementation of the roles in action (e.g. sample web activities, software and website evaluation forms, a list of points to consider for implementation). Chapter 3 clearly describes what a CALL researcher looks like and makes a distinction between novices and experts. The discussion of what competencies teachers should possess and the digital literacy questionnaires in the appendices are a necessary complement to the chapter. This chapter is quite useful in that it helps CALL-oriented people with diverse roles and levels of expertise to contemplate on their respective place in CALL teacher education and revisit their strengths and weaknesses. In line with this, Chapter 4 outlines a suggested model for teacher reflection, characterized by active exploration, interactive communication, professional collaboration and critical reflection. Such practices, according to the author, form the basis of reflective practice in CALL teacher education.

The second part presents ideas for practice and research through four interrelated approaches to CALL (role-based, language skill-based, tool-based and activity-based) in teacher education. The best side of this part is that the author vividly depicts each approach by providing sample activities. He uses an organization that makes it quite easy to follow the “why” and “how” of each activity. Chapter 5 provides sample activities for the roles discussed earlier (i.e. observing, designing, implementing, evaluating, managing and researching) (p. 73). The sample activity, alternative ideas and follow-up procedures for each role provide ample food for thought and illustrate the related role in action. In this part, the readers could improve their competencies related with observing a CALL lesson, designing and evaluating web-based language learning activities/apps, doing research and so on. In Chapter 6, the skill-based approach introduces activities for the four language skills and the four content areas, while the tool-based approach in Chapter 7 provides activities for sample tools for the 12 categories of online tools for language teaching. It strikes me that learning to use one or two tools from each category could help a teacher acquire a modest amount of literacy in TELT. By the same token, the activity-based approach in Chapter 8 presents sample activities based on again the author’s own categorization of online activities. The merit of the second part lies in the fact that it helps the reader to examine the issue from multiple perspectives and frameworks. I found this part highly enjoyable to read as I discovered new things, so I recommend everyone interested in CALL to take a look at the tools introduced.

Part III presents a range of resources, such as scenarios for teacher development, a bibliography, professional organizations, academic journals, online tools, activities and so forth. Chapter 9 is devoted to four example scenarios, which have been constructed to reflect the most probable cases in teaching and research contexts. Such scenarios have value in that they could mirror the cases of most of the readers interested in CALL. By reflecting on these scenarios, the readership of this volume could decide where to go next. The remainder of the book is reserved for useful resources, including a list of studies that appeared in major CALL journals and books in the last decade (Chapter 10) and a list of resources, such as journals, professional organizations, useful web sites, mobile apps and digital tools (Chapter 11). These two chapters are an excellent repository of resources that could give CALL-oriented people a jump start in teaching and research.

This volume comes with several components that add immense instructional and academic value to it, that is, the evaluation forms and digital literacy questionnaires (Appendices 2 to 5) can be highly useful, not only for regular classroom teachers but also for researchers who attempt to evaluate digital learning applications and websites and investigate teachers’ and learners’ digital literacy. However, I find these tools a little bit lengthy, so their potential users could consider adapting them. This is particularly important because lengthy questionnaires run the risk of causing participants to respond carelessly, so the shorter, the better (see Dörnyei and Taguchi, 2003). Such components as end-of-chapter questions for discussion and resources for further reading are also among the additional merits of this book.

Overall, I could describe this volume as a rich repository of practical ideas for CALL. It is far from overloading its readers’ mind with abstract theory; it provides what is essential as far as the theory is concerned, yet presents a wide variety of options in TELT. The activities presented exemplify different technologies and clear the reader’s mind about how each technology could be used in language teaching and teacher training. Therefore, the important point is to rely on pedagogical skills and knowledge that utilizes various tools rather than depend on tools alone. The readers are also recommended to check the availability of each tool before use.