Social Sciences

Developing digital literacies for second/foreign language teachers

1 June 2021 - 31 October 2022

PI/s in Exeter: Professor Li Li

Research partners: Haojan Chen

Funding awarded: £ 30,597

Sponsor(s): ESRC

About the research

This project aims to bring together researchers and research users who are interested in promoting the digital literacies of second language teachers in secondary schools to explore and propose research ideas or ways forward. We will also expand the existing work, gather evidence of digital literacies in second/foreign language teacher education and develop and consolidate plans for extensive intervention and evaluation projects. The project will also allow researchers to share the best practice and enhance knowledge exchange across cultures, and raise awareness of language teachers in developing both digital literacies. Wider issues such as equal access, ethics and wellbeing around digital literacies will be explored too.

We believe literacy as a social practice, so this networking opportunity will explore how digital literacies can be contextualized and practised in different social-cultural contexts and what common issues can be identified to enable language teachers to develop such literacies and integrate technology appropriately in their classrooms. We will address these issues by building a research team with expertise in second language teacher education, technology-enhanced language learning and effective pedagogies. We will develop four inter-related areas of work to address those issues, namely, a preliminary profiling project with a literature review and a survey with stakeholders, a seminar series consisting of four international seminars, two research visits and two focused 3-day workshops. Users will be fully involved in the networking project.

An important feature of this networking project is to include teachers and policymakers from the very start of the project so that they will contribute to both the formulation of the research strategy and the research itself. They will also be involved in research seminars and workshops. A practical follow-up workshop will also be designed for them.