Language Teachers in the 21st Century: Professional Qualifications and Challenges to Implement the Latest Technologies

An enormous number of research projects and various practical uses of the latest technologies in language teaching and learning has been done and has become popular among CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) researchers and practitioners at all academic levels in the world. As a result, abundant research results show that there is a wide variety of technology to choose from, with either offline or online media. Both language teachers who are digital immigrants and students who are digital natives can benefit tremendously from integrating the latest technology in their language teaching and learning activities. If all the professional teachers and language learners understand the importance of and practiced TELL (Technology-Assisted Language Learning) and elearning or m-learning activities, they would be better motivated and more satisfied in teaching and learning while their language knowledge and skills would be enhanced. However, if you look at the majority of language teachers and the current teaching environments, they haven’t been well-trained with TELL while most of the classroom environments are far from ideal to promote effective language learning and teaching with the latest technologies. What kinds of knowledge and skills would be preferably acquired or what sort of classrooms equipped with computer technologies should be available to teachers and students? What kinds of professional training programs should be offered to make language teachers in the 21st century competent and then provide challenging, motivating and enhancing teaching and learning in the classroom? The emergence of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) plays a significant role in the change of how language teachers and learners of the 21st century learn today. The speaker will summarize research results with examples based on the social-cultural view of CALL teacher education, examine some basic methodological concerns, and propose some ideal or challenging training plans while discussing professional qualifications as “ideal computer-literate language teachers in the 21st century.”