Study Of The Information Literacy Of EFL Teachers From Junior High School In Changsha And Its Influences On Teacher Development

With the vigorous development of science and technology,information communication technology has been extensively employed in English teaching.It enables EFL teachers to advance their professional development by providing access to teaching resources,facilitating communication and consolidating professional capabilities.Therefore,more attention should be attached to EFL teachers’ information literacy for their professional development.Strategies for promoting EFL teachers’ professional development with improved information literacy should be proposed accordingly.A questionnaire was used in the investigation to learn about the information literacy of junior high school EFL teachers in Changsha and involved 106 EFL teachers form junior high school in Changsha,among whom 6 were semi-structured interviewed to explore the influence and role of teachers’ information literacy in their own professional development.Three questions were answered in this research.1.What is the status quo of junior high school EFL teachers’ information literacy? 2.What are the factors affecting their information literacy for professional development? 3.What roles does information literacy play and what influences does it have on teachers’ professional development?Results are as follows: 1.Most of junior high school EFL teachers in Changsha have relatively high level of information literacy and are capable of integrating information communication technology into English teaching,which enhance teaching efficiency and promote their professional development.However,there are significant differences among different teachers in the dimension of information knowledge and ability.The information knowledge and ability are not affected by EFL teachers’ gender and educational background but by their teaching age and professional title.2.The factors affecting the information literacy of junior high school EFL teachers in Changsha for teachers’ professional development mainly include positive factors like the support of national education policies,the advancement of technology and motivation of teachers and negative factors like deficiency of quality training,limited time and energy of teachers and older teachers’ reluctance to embrace information communication technology.3.Teachers’ information literacy plays the role of resource provider and community builder in teachers’ professional development.Through participating in information literacy training,teachers’ information knowledge and skills and the application ability of information communication technology in English teaching have been enhanced,which is of great help to improve EFL teachers’ teaching efficiency and promote their professional development.Therefore,teachers’ information literacy has a positive influence on teachers’ professional development.According to the research results,relevant suggestions on EFL teachers’ use of information literacy for their professional development in the social,school and personal dimensions are put forward in this thesis.It can hopefully provide a useful reference for junior high school EFL teachers to better leverage their information literacy for professional development in the future.However,there is still room for further improvements given the relatively small number of interviewees and the narrow scope involving junior high school in Changsha’s urban area only.