A Study On Secondary School Pre-service English Teachers’ Perceptions & Practices Of Integrating Technology Into ELT

In the context of information age,technological pedagogical and content knowledge(TPACK)has become one of the prerequisite knowledge of teachers and has attracted extensive attention in academic research;in addition,research indicates that teachers’ perceptions are closely related to their decision making and practical behaviors of teaching.In recent years,with the deepening of integrating information technology into curriculum,researches on integrating information technology into discipline teaching at home and abroad have been increased.However,it is found that there have been few studies on pre-service English teachers’ perceptions and practices of integrating technology into ELT.Therefore,this thesis is an attempt in so doing,which is expected to be helpful in promoting the research in this area and the development of pre-service English teachers’ perceptions and practices of integrating technology into ELT.The empirical study in this thesis is a cases study.The participants were a group of secondary school pre-service English teachers(N=69),who were MEd.(Master of Education)postgraduates majoring in ELT and graudated in June 2021 from C University in Chongqing,China.The methods of questionnaire,interview survey and classroom observation were used for data collection and softwares such as Excel2019 and SPSS19.0 were adopted for data processing and analysis.The research questions are described as follows:1.What’s the status quo of secondary school pre-service English teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology into ELT?2.What’s the status quo of secondary school pre-service English teachers’ practices of integrating technology into ELT?3.What’s the relationship between secondary school pre-service English teachers’ perceptions and practices of integrating technology into ELT?4.What factors influence secondary school pre-service English teachers’ perceptions and practices of integrating technology into ELT?The major findings are summarized below:1.Secondary school pre-service English teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology into ELTGenerally,the teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology into ELT are good.Specifically,they have positive attitudes towards integrating technology into ELT and their perceptions are good in understanding the role of,tendency to,awareness of,willingness to and attention to integrating technology into ELT.However,their perceptions in questionnaire survey(good)are inconsistent with those in interviews(not good)in their understanding of the terms,definitions,composition and characteristics of TPACK,and self-efficacy of technology integration.2.Secondary school pre-service English teachers’ practices of integrating technology into ELTOverall,the teachers’ practices of integrating technology into ELT are not good.For details,their practices are good in teaching reading,listening and speaking,but not good in teaching vocabulary and grammar.Besides,their practices in teaching pronunciation in questionnaire survey(not good)are inconsistent with those in interviews(good),and their practices in teaching writing in questionnaire survey(good)are inconsistent with those in interviews(not good).3.Secondary school pre-service English teachers’ perceptions and practices of integrating technology into ELT: the relationshipThere exists a significant positive correlation between secondary school pre-service English teachers’ perceptions and their practices of integrating technology into ELT.Their perceptions are better than their practices of integrating technology into ELT.4.Secondary school pre-service English teachers’ perceptions and practices of integrating technology into ELT: influential factorsThe teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology into ELT are influenced by their gender,undergraduate majors,English levels,practicum experiences,the frequency of self-learning educational technology,course learning related to integrating technology into ELT and literature reading related to integrating technology into ELT.Their practices of integrating technology into ELT are influenced by their undergraduate majors,computer levels,practicum experiences and the frequency of self-learning educational technology.Thus,their perceptions and practices of integrating technology into ELT are influenced by their undergraduate majors,practicum experiences and the frequency of self-learning educational technology.Considering all research findings above,the author offers several suggestions to pre-service English teachers and English teacher education institutions,hoping to provide certain references for them to improve secondary school pre-service English teachers’ perceptions and practices of integrating technology into ELT.