The Development of Four EFL Teachers’ Reflective Thinking over a CALL Workshop

Abstract

The integration of computer technology into teaching practice has been advocated in EFL classrooms in Taiwan; however, many EFL teachers have not fully embraced the computer as a teaching aid. This problem suggests that they might have failed to perceive the relevance of the computer to their teaching. Thus, they should be provided with opportunities to develop their awareness of the possibilities of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in foreign language education. To seek a way to address this problem, reflective practice was employed in the present study to develop the participating teachers` reflective thinking about CALL. Four in-service English teachers were involved in a 12-week reflection-based CALL workshop, in which they were encouraged to reflect on CALL practices via a discussion forum. All of their responses were evaluated for the level of their reflectivity. It was found that the four teachers` reflectivity dynamically varied between the medium level and the high level. To an extent, they demonstrated a potential for critical reflection. The tendency towards higher-order learning might be attributed to the increased interaction among the teachers, the peers, and the professor-communal learning facilitated by the discussion forum. This study suggests that technology-mediated reflective practice perhaps can increase EFL teachers` awareness of ways to apply CALL to EFL classes, possibly changing their prior beliefs about CALL.