Research on Technology Competencies in EFL Language Instructors: Technology-Pedagogy-Content in Language Teaching

Authors

  • Rodrigo Tovar Viera Technical University of Cotopaxi
  • Diego Ismael Velasco Sánchez University of the Armed Forces, ESPE-L

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24903/sj.v5i1.414

Keywords:

TPCK competency, classroom practices, computer literate

Abstract

Background:
Living in the digital era where the information and communication technologies (ICTs) have extensively changed the way of teaching, language instructors, in particular, should be computer literate to put their technical knowledge into practice in such a way they effectively integrate technology into language learning classrooms.


Methodology:
The research contextualizes teachers’ beliefs and competencies of using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) in teaching English as a foreign language. The study is an extension of previous research carried out by Tovar et at., (2019), and Tovar (2019). It applied a survey-based questionnaire, an unstructured interview, and classroom observations for data collection. The assessment instruments were administrated to EFL language instructors, who work in the Language Center at the Technical University of Cotopaxi.


Findings:
Results revealed that a high percentage of the EFL language instructors are not familiar with the use of the TPCK model and its integration into their classroom practices. This support the claim that teachers probably have technological knowledge, but they are not well-prepared to combine teaching resources and appropriate pedagogical methods for language teaching and learning.


Conclusions:
The study hopes that research outcomes arise linguistic implications and pedagogical applications for developing teachers’ TPCK competencies when integrating technology in EFL classroom settings. Limitations, as well as considerations for further research, are discussed.

Author Biographies

Rodrigo Tovar Viera, Technical University of Cotopaxi

Rodrigo Tovar Viera is assistant professor at the Technical University of Cotopaxi, Latacunga-Ecuador and currently PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics at University of Szeged, Hungary. He held his master’s degrees in Applied Linguistics to bilingual teaching: English-Spanish and University Teaching and Educative administration from Catholic University and Indoamerica University of Ecuador, respectively. He has also gained an ESL diploma from Army Polytechnic School, School of Languages. His scholarly interest includes SLA and FLL, particularly vocabulary acquisition, academic writing, and language use. His PhD dissertation proposal focuses on the rhetorical organization and writing style of academic texts authored by native and non-native writers and published either in English or non-English-medium contexts. He has been speaker at paper conferences in Hungary, Croatia, Czech Republic and Ecuador. He taught language courses at the Faculty of humanities and language studies at Technical University of Cotopaxi, Ecuador.

Diego Ismael Velasco Sánchez, University of the Armed Forces, ESPE-L

Diego Velasco Sánchez is currently assistant professor at University of the Armed Forces, ESPE-L, Latacunga-Ecuador. He held his master's degree in Software and project management from University of the Armed Forces. He is Engineer, specialised in computer systems. He has also gained Microsoft international certificates.

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Published

2020-04-17

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2020): April

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Articles

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