A Survey Of Changsha Primary School English Teachers’ Professional Development In The Context Of Information Communication Technology

With the rapid developme nt of economy and techno logy, InformationCommunication Technolo gy (ICT) has been widely used in ma ny fie lds, espec ially ineducation. To use ICT is becoming one of the methods of prompting teachers‘profess iona l developme nt. More and more teachers are willing to broaden andenhance professio nal knowledge or skills by us ing ICT. This arouses manyresearchers‘interest in it. At the same time,―A New Curric ulum Standard‖putsforward more new and high requireme nts for English teaching, whic h bringschalle nges to English teachers accord ingly. A new conception is mentioned based ontrad itiona l teaching contents and models. Teaching is not limited in textbooks andclassrooms, the p latforms o f ICT have brought abundant teaching resources andexperience to English teachers, and ICT has become an effective tool to support andpromote teachers‘professional development.In this stud y, one hundred and fifteen English teachers fro m primary schools ofcounties and districts in Changsha were invited to take part in the survey.Questionnaire and online interview were used for an investigatio n of English teachers‘profess iona l develop ment with ICT in primary schoo ls in Changsha. This paper triesto answer three questions:1). What is Englis h teachers‘ICT profic iency leve l in primary schools at present?2). What is the current situatio n of Englis h teachers‘use of ICT for professio naldevelopment in primary schools?3). What factors affect Englis h teachers‘use of ICT for teachers‘professio naldevelopment?The study uses quantitative method (questio nna ires) and qua litative method(online interview) to collect data. The findings show that:1). Most Englis h teachers in primary schoo ls of Changsha are fa miliar with thebasic ICT and can use them in teaching practice freely.2). Englis h teachers do not use muc h ICT for teachers‘profess iona l deve lopme nt,but they tend to use more in their future development.3). The ma in factors affect ing English teachers‘use of ICT for professio naldevelopment are personal and scholastic ones, with social factors followed.The study not only ind icates that ICT helps English teachers developprofess iona lly, but also offers suggestions to designers to design ICT-related programs for teachers. The study needs to improve in further stud y due to the limitatio n of timeand shortcomings of online interviews.