Review of Teacher Education in Call.(Book review)

Teacher Education in CALL

Philip Hubbard & Mike Levy (Eds.)

2006

ISBN 90-272-1968-0

US $54.00 (paperback)

XI, 354 pp

John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Philadelphia, PA, USA

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The use of technology has become increasingly important in language teaching and learning. The successful use of technology, however, requires that language teachers have the necessary technical competence and pedagogical knowledge. The volume Teacher Education in CALL, edited by Philip Hubbard and Mike Levy, appears at a critical time when the issue of how to prepare current and future language teachers for effective use of technology in their profession is a serious and growing concern. As the editors point out in the introduction to the volume, "both pre-service and in-service language teachers will find themselves at a disadvantage if they are not adequately proficient in computer-assisted language learning" (p. ix). Although the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has produced a set of guidelines to increase technological competence among teachers (ISTE, 2000), CALL teacher education presents a number of unique challenges and opportunities that have not yet been fully explored. For example, several chapters in the volume report that many teachers do not have access to solid professional development or lack institutional support, and that it is often unclear whether CALL training will lead to subsequent changes in teaching practice. It is also unclear what types of teacher education work best in which situations, and how teachers perceive and respond to different professional development opportunities that involve learning about and using technology.

Teacher Education in CALL opens a much-needed discussion of these concerns. The volume brings together twenty chapters that link the theory of CALL teacher education with available options in preservice, in-service, and informal professional development. Each chapter begins with a short preface written by the editors that summarizes how the chapter is connected to the rest of the volume. The volume captures the complexities involved in training teachers in CALL, such as the frequent lack of human and technological resources and the lack of support at some institutions. Classroom teachers, CALL professionals, teacher trainers, and program administrators will benefit from reading the examples and reflective stories of other teachers and teacher educators working in diverse contexts and communities. Chapters in the volume are divided into five sections: Foundations of CALL, CALL Degree Programs, CALL Pre-Service Courses, CALL In-Service Projects and Workshops, and Alternatives to Formal CALL Training. Three central themes emerge from these chapters: existing problems and complexities in CALL teacher education, current practice in diverse contexts, and the impact of technology training on teachers' roles and identities.

Theme 1: Existing Problems and Complexitites in CALL Teacher Education

The first theme addresses the realities and complexities of teacher education and technology, topics discussed in Chapters 2, 3, and 12. For example, in Chapter 2, Greg Kessler provides results for a survey of 240 graduates of North American TESOL master's degree programs after asking them how satisfied they were with the technology training they had received in their degree programs. As the author points out, "it seemed that formal language teacher education programs have largely neglected to equip their graduates with the related knowledge and skills they need to enter today's technologically advanced language classroom" (p.23), and many teachers have been engaged in consulting alternative resources, such as conference workshops, websites, colleagues, and personal readings to compensate for this deficit. Kessler thus makes a number of recommendations, such as involving both a CALL specialist in teacher education programs and stakeholders (i.e., "all teacher preparation faculty," p. 34), providing incentives to language teachers (such as "release time, financial compensation and recognition," p.35), and keeping technological use relevant to teaching. It should be noted that keeping technological use relevant or "real" (p. 101) is key to project and situated learning. Several other chapters, such as in chapter 6 written by Robert Debski), in this volume also address this point.

In Chapter 3, Kathryn Murphy-Judy and Bonnie Youngs describe the history and development of technology standards for CALL in the Unites States and their implementation in the United States, Colombia, and the European Union. In Columbia, national priority is given to promote multi-lingual competence and information technology. Similarly, the Council of Europe has articulated its Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, whose goal is "a plurilingual and interculturally adept European Union" (Murphy-Judy & Youngs, 2006, p. 56) with technology competence as an important component of the framework. The US seems to lack any similar objective on a national level, and so the authors conclude that, although the US may be a global forerunner in developing and applying new technology, it lags other countries in "articulating a national policy on the need and support of foreign language education" (p. 58).

Of equal importance are the conflicts teachers encounter in working with situational constraints. For example, chapter 12 by Angela Rickard, Francoise Blin, and Chrsiting Appel offers a report on a largescale initiative of in-service training for technology education in the Republic of Ireland. Their pilot program consisted of two phases. In the initial Training for Trainers phase (Phase 1), a group of teachers were selected from a range of educational contexts (e.g., rural and urban; primary, secondary and further education schools) across Ireland. They attended five one-day CALL training sessions, which cover, for example, how to "use word-processing and presentation software, source web-based materials, create web-based exercises and activities, use email or chat to set up collaborative projects, and utilize online dictionaries and corpora" (Rickard, Blin, & Appel, 2006, p. 207). In Phase 2, the teacher trainees of Phase 1 became trainers and run CALL courses for their colleagues in local contexts. The courses developed by the Phase 1 participants largely mirrored the themes covered in Phase 1 and were also evaluated by their own trainees.

However, as the authors indicate, there are a number of practical issues that need to be taken into consideration before implementing any training program, such as the extensive preparation time, adequate hardware and software support, and trainers' expertise. This two-phase training program should be of interest to government or professional entities attempting CALL education on a large scale because the pilot program "[brought] together actors from every sector of the Irish education system, from national agencies to representatives of schools, further education colleges and universities" (p. 215). As such, it formed the basis for a network of professionals working together toward the development of CALL teacher education.

Theme 2: Current Practices in Teacher Developmment with CALL

The second theme unifying the chapters in Teacher Education in CALL is the focus on current practice and the contexts characterizing teacher development in the use of CALL. These chapters explore a variety of approaches, including project learning, situated learning, online courses, collaborative development, computer-mediated communication, collaborative online learning, integration of CALL education throughout degree programs, communities of practice in CALL education, expert-novice mentoring, and learner autonomy. All these approaches can be adapted and used in diverse contexts, such as pre-service, in-service, and informal professional development, depending on the availability of human and technological resources and institutional support. These approaches represent recent developments in pedagogical theories, such as the theory of project-based teaching (Beckett & Millers, 2006).

Project-based learning

Project-based learning has made its way into the second and foreign language classroom over the past two decades (Beckett & Millers, 2006). This approach involves the use of project work or project-driven curricula and is often characterized by experiential learning, a focus on problem-solving, a tangible end product, and reflection upon both product and process by the learners. In Chapter 6, Robert Debski regards project learning as a pillar in constructivist approaches and introduces the rationale and implementation of a CALL course project at the University of Melbourne. The project aimed at developing a website that prepares students from Japan for their cultural experience in Australia. The author makes it clear that project-based learning is useful in evoking learners' awareness of audience, promoting the use of authentic materials, fostering learners' collaboration, and helping to practice a number of computer skills, such as graphic and web design.

Successful examples of employing projects in CALL teacher education can also be found in other chapters within the volume; for instance, Chin-Chi Chao (Chapter 13) describes the use of WebQuests as a collaborative project in CALL education in Taiwan.

Situated learning

In Chapter 10, Joy Egbert talks about situated contexts in CALL teacher education. Situated learning refers to learning through participation in instructional experiences in actual classrooms. However, when field experience in classrooms is not available, distance learning can be an effective alternative. The author introduces various real-world cases related to language teaching. For example, in one case, a teacher was trying to use technology to help migrant students with their pronunciation by encouraging them to use audio emails. Other teachers were asked to analyze the case to determine if the teacher had used an appropriate pedagogical approach to teaching pronunciation and then propose solutions to any problems they observed. Situated learning seems especially useful in preparing pre-service teachers to apply what they have learned to real-life cases.

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