Information Communication Technologies in Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Analysing EFL Teachers’ TPACK in Czech Elementary Schools

ICT in Teaching EFL: Analyzing EFL Teachers TPACK in Czech Republic Elementary Schools is a qualitative study carried out in five different elementary schools
in the Czech Republic. It aimed to investigate how English as Foreign Language teachers developed teaching competence and practised information
communication technology integration in classroom teaching. To this
end, this study employed the idea of a Technology Pedagogy and Content
Knowledge –TPACK -in-Action Model. It advocates a ‘learning by doing’ approach on (social) construction to better understand how teachers
develop technological and/or computer-assisted language learning competency for teaching and practice in an English as a Foreign Language
environment. Under this model, this study conducted qualitative analysis
and found two different approaches in practice, which were categorised as
Formal Practice and Functional Practice. The former involved a conservative mechanical practice of technology use in language teaching whereas
the latter involved it in terms of (social) construction. According to analyses based on conservative practices, teachers expressed that mechanical
TPACK in association with technology in classes limited the transmission
of mechanical knowledge from English texts. In Functional Practice, however, teachers drawing upon alternative learning interactions expressed
positive transformation results from TPACK, associated with the use of
technologies integrated into class instructions as a collaborative tool for
learning models. In these latter integrated practices, teachers’ perceptions,
practices, and reflections in combining technologies in an English as a
Foreign Language environment, as new literacy skills, identified an increase in the learner’s creative potential.