Foreign language teachers' virtual mobility in informal lifelong learning and instruction: facilitators, impediments and acceptance

• Autores: Luciana Caffesse
• Directores de la Tesis: Teresa Guasch Pascual (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya ( España ) en 2013
• Idioma: español
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Begoña Gros Salvat (presid.), Christine Appel (secret.), Melinda Dooly (voc.)
• Materias:
  • Lingüística
    • Lingüística aplicada
      • Enseñanza de lenguas
  • Pedagogía
    • Organización y planificación de la educación
      • Educación de adultos
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• Resumen

  • Foreign language (FL) teachers¿ lifelong learning (LLL) requires regular opportunities for them to engage in FL communication, and access cultural content. Teacher mobility in search of a short period of immersion in the distant target culture (TC) has posed obstacles. With information and communication technologies' (ICTs) unprecedented take-up, teachers may access FL speakers and cultural content through a few clicks. However, for teachers to take advantage of this at-hand resource, they have to identify facilitators and tackle impediments. This study portrays the FL teacher scenario by investigating teachers' knowledge, beliefs, context, and behavior. It also identifies facilitators and impediments to online intercultural communication (OIC), and explores the impact of role-specific conditions on teacher use of ICTs. It was conducted within an overall framework of research on FL teacher cognition, and ICT integration to language teaching and lifelong learning. In a first phase, 406 FL teachers from the state sector in Catalonia completed an online questionnaire, and the data were analyzed statistically. In a second phase, a sub-sample of ten teachers were individually interviewed, and three students of one of the interviewees' participated in a mini-group interview. Findings showed that (a) cognition (Knowledge and Beliefs) about ICTs were the most important issues in differentiating levels of ICT use among teachers; (b) training was the most significant facilitator and time-demand the most prominent impediment to teacher use of ICTs; and (c) role-specific conditions are comparatively important in predicting the use of ICTs both for lifelong learning and in instruction. These results added to the understanding of FL teachers' acceptance of ICTs, highlighted the different role FL teachers have, and thus facilitate their integration of ICTs.