My Glog

History Butler-Pascoe (1997) reported on a survey she conducted in the mid 1990s involvingresponses from 109 of 153 TESOL MA programs on their integration of technology. Amongother results she found that 42% did not utilize any computer technology and only 18% offereda course in CALL. More recent data suggest only modest changes in the past decade.In the introduction to their detailed review of research on technology integration in teacherpreparation programs across both general education and TESOL, Oxford and Jung (2007, p.23) put the situation bluntly, “According to existing research, technology integration is unsatisfactoryin teacher education.” In a recent online survey of 240 teachers who had graduatedfrom ESL/EFL master’s programs in the US and Canada, Kessler (2006) found that more thanhalf had not had any formal training with technology as part of their coursework and morethan three quarters felt that their program had not been effective in preparing them to teachwith technology. Given that the survey was limited to practicing teachers who were availablethrough professional listservs (through which the call for respondents was made) and thuswere technology users at some level, one can imagine that the overall situation in languageteacher education may be much worse. In the same article, Kessler reports on a review of 50 177CALICO Journal, 25 (2) Philip Hubbardwebsites for graduate TESOL programs in North America in early 2004, where he found that“only eight had had any mention of CALL as a component within their coursework. Only threeof these included a CALL course among their requirements” (p. 23). Corroborating evidencecan be found in Hubbard (2007), showing that of the 172 TESOL MA programs in the US andCanada covered in Christopher (2005), 63% had no mention of technology coursework. Only13% had a required technology course with an additional 24% offering one as an elective. Itis worth noting that in some cases the technology course was taught outside of the departmentoffering the degree and may therefore not have included any relevant pedagogical ele

The use of technology has become increasingly important in language teaching and learning. Thesuccessful use of technology, however, requires that language teachers have the necessary technicalcompetence and pedagogical knowledge.

Computer-Assisted Language Learning

eXAMPLES : oNLINE gAMES

I believe the future of CALL and teacher education is bright, but as noted earlier inthis paper, there are a number of obstacles. The greatest of these is the limited number ofqualified personnel able to integrate technology into language education effectively, a situationperhaps causally linked to the institutional reluctance to recognize and reward those whochoose to devote their professional lives to this field.

CALL as their area of specialization. The paths of CALL and language teacher education willincreasingly be determined by such students and those they will educate in the decades tocome.