A Discourse‐Based Approach to CALL Training and Professional Development

Abstract: Phase 1 of this study explores findings from a nationwide survey on computer-assisted language learning (CALL) that was completed by 409 in-service teachers of French, German, and Spanish. These results, in turn, informed specific themes that were explored in greater detail during focus group sessions with 22 in-service K-12 foreign language teachers (Phase 2). The main theme that emerged from the survey and the focus groups was the perceived need (expressed by in-service teachers) for future teachers to learn how to think about, analyze, and integrate new technologies into a foreign language curriculum without having to depend on tool-specific training since prospective teachers will use a number of new technologies-many of which have not yet been developed-throughout their career. Consequently, Phase 3 of this study examines a new component of a foreign language pedagogy course in which 18 prospective teachers studied and applied a faceted classification scheme for analyzing and understanding computer-mediated discourse as a tool-independent approach to CALL training.Keywords \ for eigyx!second language teacher preparation, methods courses, pre-service teacher preparationBackgroundComputer-mediated communication (CMC) tools have been used for a variety of purposes across different types of courses and instructional contexts (see Hubbard, 2008; Kessler, 2013). For example, CMC tools such as discussion boards and forums have been shown to promote reflection, knowledge building, and critical thinking about foreign language teaching practices in graduate-level courses for teaching assistants (Arnold & Ducate, 2006; Arnold, Ducate, & Lomicka, 2007; Arnold, Ducate, Lomicka, & Lord, 2005; Lomicka & Lord, 2007; Lord & Lomicka, 2007). Another line of research has examined the influence of telecollaboration among prospective and in-service teachers. Fuchs, Hauck, and Muller-Hartmann (2012), for example, found that participants in a task-based telecollaborative project developed an awareness of the constraints and affordances of Web 2.0 tools, which in turn allowed them to design effective tasks for intercultural learning. Prospective teachers in Dooly and Sadler's (2013) longitudinal telecollaborative study used e-mail, chat, and interactions in virtual worlds to provide feedback on technology-mediated lesson plans. These future teachers reported that sustained collaboration with their peers over a twoyear period increased their confidence using unfamiliar technologies and that the project enabled them to critically reflect on the integration of tools for improving their lesson plans.Although the findings from these studies provide important guidance for training future teachers across the secondary and postsecondary levels to use and evaluate the use of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) tools, Arnold (2013) reported that only one third of the teaching methods instructors she surveyed indicated that a separate CALL course was available for their students and that, when such a course was available, it was generally not required (84%). Lord and Lomicka (2011) concluded that "technology is often approached as an afterthought in many methodology courses, and too often language teachers end up in the profession with little to no theoretical or practical training in what tools to use, how to find them or effectively incorporate them into their classes" (pp. 442-443). Moreover, the preparation of future teachers to integrate CALL tools in undergraduate teaching methods courses has not always led to the effective use of such tools in actual teaching situations. Kessler (2013) observed that novice teachers are often overwhelmed by the variety of technologies available and frequently feel unprepared to make informed decisions about the appropriate selection, creation, and use of tools and resources (p. 1). In fact, researchers have noted that novice teachers who received training with CALL were not confident in their abilities to integrate such tools to enhance students' language learning (DelliCarpini, 2012; Dooly, 2009; Ebsworth, Kim, & Klein, 2010; Kessler, 2006; Kessler & Plakans, 2008; Peters, 2006). …