A Comparative Study On ICT-based Teacher Professional Development Of College English Teachers

As is shown that the 21 st century has witnessed an information society centered on ICT(information & communication technology),therefore,the field of English teaching has undergone continuous innovation accordingly during which more and more English teachers can make full use of ICT to promote their professional development with the booming of information technology.In the past ten years,more and more foreign language teachers have opened their eyes in the upsurge of E-education,expanded communication channels and finally achieved self-professional improvement.However,after College English Curriculum Requirements was issued in 2007,the Ministry of Education has issued in 2016 another document,Guidelines on College English Teaching,which sets brand new and higher requirements on the ability of college English teachers to use ICT for professional development.As a result,whether college English teachers can more effectively use the platforms of ICT to obtain massive teaching resources as well as abundant teaching experience to support and achieve their own professional development has become a new challenge.In this study,50 English teachers from the university in central China have been invited to be research subjects.Two questionnaires accomplished in 2011 and 2017,and semi-structured interview with teachers are applied for this research to analyze and discuss the data based on an ICT-based CPD model for EFL teachers proposed by scholar Hu Zhiwen and McGrath.The research is designed to address three questions:(1)In 2011 and 2017 to what extent are English teachers in the university in central China familiar with using ICT? Are there any changes in the college English teachers’ competence in utilizing ICT in the said two years?(2)In 2011 and 2017 what is the situation of English teachers in the university in central China to apply ICT to promote professional development respectively? Are there any differences in their use of ICT for professional development in the aforesaid years?(3)Are there any changes in factors affecting English teachers’ use of ICT for teachers’ professional development in 2011 and 2017?Three research findings are presented as follows:(1)In both 2011 and 2017,the team of English teachers in the university in central China is familiar with the use of basic ICT literacy,but the application of higher-level ICT literacy for these teachers is seriously insufficient.Overall,there is no significant difference between two years from the perspective of mastering ICT literacy.(2)The situation of English teachers in the university in central China to promote their professional development by means of ICT is ideal and tends to be more positive during 7 years.What is more,compared with the majority of teachers in 2011 who are conservative about using ICT to stimulate their professional development,the samegroup has a significant improvement on both frequency and attitude of promoting self-development with the help of ICT.(3)The scholastic factors and the social factors have undergone tremendous changes from 2011 to 2017 except that English teachers have had easier access to the platforms of ICT to achieve their own development nowadays.At the same time,this research,on a basis of research results,also comes out with proposals for the existing English teachers to achieve their own development via ICT,which can also provide a useful reference for promoting college English teachers to better use ICT with the aim of achieving their professional development in the near future.However,several inadequacies can still be observed in this research such as fewer interviewees and only one institution in the survey environment,which needs improvement in the future.